I currently use it for cabinet backs and, in some cases, cabinet panels, e.g., on a tool cabinet. In the past, I’ve used it for the cabinet itself, but then the joinery was with pocket screws. Ply comes in many grades depending upon the quality of the surface veneer, whether there is high quality veneer on both sides, and the presence of voids. One thing to be aware of with ply is with regard to finishing. Especially if the surface veneer is particularly thin, there is a barrier of glue very close to the surface and this can affect how the surface takes color and finish. Since the surface veneer is thin, there is very limited opportunity for sanding and even less for planing to level up surfaces or to remove defects. Around here, a 4×8 sheet of 3/4″ oak ply is $55 in the home center. Let’s call it 60 to $65 if you found higher quality. Even so, 32 sq. ft at $65 works out to around $2 per board foot, which is cheap for an oak surface, especially if you can find quality ply that hasn’t been mishandled.

Those are the pros and cons that come to mind. Of course, the mixed orientation of the plys means that, no matter how you run your tool, you are going to worry about, and likely experience, break out at the edges with hand tools other than saws.

If I had a number of cabinets to make, say for a kitchen or bath, I’d definitely consider making the carcases from ply and then adding solid wood face frames and doors. The bulk carcase work wouldn’t be hand tools, though. I’d reduce the ply with a circular hand saw and track / fence.

It is nice for box bottom and drawer bottom, in a groove (see workbench drawer in the workbench-customisation series )

If you can find it, marine quality plywood exist. It doesn’t mean it must not be varnished.

There is also a kind of plywood used to pour concrete in it. The faces are treated with a dark brown resin and are slick (when new) but on the long run humidity will penetrate by the edge if not treated.
P.S. has used it as vise jaw liner on the 2012 workbench, if I remember well.

Mark, Regarding resisting water- Sorry, but I don’t have any experience in that regard. (Edit: Larry and I must have been typing at the same time…don’t see a way to delete my post at this point.)

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Ed.

Many thanks Ed and Larry for expanding and deepening my understanding of plywood!

Meranti plywood can perhaps, at times, be an alternative to the more expensive Baltic Birch variant. It has been very well suited for renovating the walls at our croft. The original walls are shown on one of the attached photos. (Back in the -50s the municipality paid for fibre boards as cover – funding wasn’t sufficient for truing more than one wall). I was given the tip to moisten the surfaces with a damp cloth and then sand the risen fibres, before painting the meranti. Crofts usually don’t have mahogny-like panelled walls.

As Ed points out: making multiples of a cabinet is time consuming, and if one is to live at the place while they’re being put together, then getting to the finished state quickly becomes quite important, I believe. I used morticed-tenoned frames and plywood panels for the wall hung kitchen cupboards: a bit rustic perhaps, but time was quite premium; and it is after all a croft.

Plywood has also been of value for prototyping. The one shown on the attached photo clearly tells that for that particular spot, other dimensions are needed for a floor standing cupboard (done in a couple of hours, though).