Can You Plane Plywood?

[@TheDistur]

The oak is just to protect it during shipping.

[@dch.projects]

It's not a dumb question, it's been bugging my brain all week. I have a 3/4" plywood (poplar) to be used for a shop door. I want to add 1/2" to each side for the stiles and rails BUT where I live, there is no 1/2" poplar plywood option. I could use pine, but it would also be great to use the cut off pieces from the same 4x8 sheet, and for matching. So yeah, this is totally useful for my project and I'm stoked to see an actual example of what's been playing in my head for the last few hours. Thank you!!

[@jeremyortiz2927]

Great video. Answering uncommon questions is a great resource for those without experience. I could see this being used to fix minor issues or even as the basis for an inexpensive project; maybe replaceable inserts for hobby tables and the like.

[@markalvarado6716]

Try using OSB next time :p

[@DIYBuilds]

Sounde like a challenge :)

[@stepheneldredge6263]

Id watch that video

[@firefly2472]

"Russian sounds" WE watch that video

[@carterscustomrods]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@rawr2u190]

This was helpful to me, thank you. I edge jointed two plywood scraps to make a bigger board but they shifted during glue up and it ended up with high spots. I was thinking of hand planing down the plywood surface to flatten it. In the end I found I had 3 high spots but 1 low spot, so I just filled the low spot with a layer of filler instead. Gonna paint over it after.

[@Rambler131]

I am setting kitchen base cabinets and I have on corner of the floor that is a bit high.. I put 1/2" plywood on top of the existing plywood subfloor. So, I thought .. hmm.. I will just plane it down.. hmm but will it splinter into pieces?? I do not believe this was a dumb question. Thanks for answering my question with this video.

[@groobus]

Wanted to thickness plane some plywood to match the thickness of an existing wall material. Just wanted to say thank you for experimenting and risking your planer for us random internet gawkers. Appreciate ya!

[@roadshowautosports]

Point to you for trying something that I’ve had asked myself but never answered myself, lol. Thank you for sharing and it’s not far from what I’ve thought results would be. In reality I believe if you use a very fine, multi blade planner I’m pretty sure you can get fine results! Peace

[@Karpe_Deem]

I need to clean up my workbench top. this definitely answered my question

[@deefdragon]

I will not lie, this is 100% a question that I had for literally no reason, and you provided exactly what I wanted. A video that says "can you? yes. but why tho?"

[@wackdoodler]

i searched this a few days ago. there was no video of this thank you

[@VictorOrlandoNieto]

The point of the video was to answer a question that comes up at some point one learns woodworking. Thanks for the video!

[@BrandonVMoore1]

Actually this was useful. I want to use my thickness planer as a jointer on some pieces of wood by shimming them up on top of a piece of plywood. I've seen videos on it, but it occures to me that the while the plywood shouldn't need to be perfectly level itself (because the planer will press it down), it should probably have an even thickness throughout for best results. I was concerned about whether tearout would be a significant problem. A normal person would just try it and see what happens, but with my tendencay to over-research eveything before I try your video had saved me a bit of time, lol. Thanks!

[@ifiwooddesigns]

Great video! Was always wondering myself about thickness planing some plywood. If the second layer always looked like yours, I’d definitely do it as a cheap substitute for ambrosia. Next video: cleaning off sanding dust on pads with the sole of a sneaker. (It actually works!)

[@andrewhochberger8748]

Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Can you plane plywood? These are the top 3 questions man has yearned for the answers of since the dawn of plywood. Love your videos 😀

[@bluewanderer9903]

True true, so far we have answered first and third questions, need to figure out the second one, hopefully it will have something to do with materials like the other two.

[@MrMalzers]

Useful for subfloor install with uneven floors

[@carterscustomrods]

I run plywood through my planer all the time. However, its just to take off around 1/32 on each face in order to achieve certain fits. However, I never do it with plywood that has oak or other costly hardwood veneers. I also do it on prefinished ply to easily remove the clear coat.

[@sonianunez-gibbs9729]

Thanks Im considering planing my subfloor in a higher area. Now I know I can

[@SVisionary]

This was helpful, thank you.

[@SpaghettiCodeZero]

That was very informative, thank you.

[@Sportsvee]

This is not the video we asked for, but its the video we deserve.

[@davidskolly9291]

The tool wall looks great., never ever once considered running plywood thru a planer though.......

[@alanmcwilliams4264]

Wow you gave me the best laugh of the week only because I used a hand plane Monday to try and smooth out some rough plywood Got the same results and I'm still laughing

[@mariushegli]

I have nothing to say really, but I appreciate your content, and wish to help with the yt-algorithms.

[@thomasmarliere2505]

Most of the time, everybody wonders but no one dares asking. Always ask the dumb question ! Thanks for giving it a shot :)

[@sanghuloom6943]

Hi! Thank you very much for this video. Here i am sanding my commercial grade plywood to 80grit using my drill attachment. Its like a 2 inch wide mod sander that i did but it took me a lot of time. I was initially planning to buy a birch plywood for my diy shoe rack project but there is none available here in my area. They only sell commercial grade construction plywood which is very rough. Im not sure if this is worth it considering the hassle and i might damage my dewalt drill running for 3 hours straight. 😅 I dont own a random orbit sander so im making use of what i have right now. 😅

[@jeffforbes3772]

Very informative.

[@mm9773]

Can you plane plywood? Yes. Would you want to? Sometimes: I recently made a huge block by laminating strips of birch plywood together face to face, and before gluing a piece of oak to the front, I had to square it up a little. Planing the top layer is perfectly possible, even cross-grain - if you have a half decent hand plane with a sharp iron. I’m not bragging, I only have restored vintage Stanleys, nothing fancy.

[@kellcomnet]

Well it is good to know that if you have a minor defect that you can plane it down smoothly as long as you don’t blow through the veneer.

[@scottb.2022]

Oh, I think you know the point of the video is to see if anyone watches it.

[@DullPoints]

I'm sure you're aware, but Paul Sellers, hand tool woodworker extraordinare, made a video series making a traditional workbench out of laminated plywood using mostly hand tools. Great series, I recommend it.

[@DIYBuilds]

Indeed but as far as im aware he didn't run plywood through a thickness planer.

[@MCsCreations]

Pretty interesting experiment, dude! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@5084204]

I am considering building a zero clearance plate for my evo table saw. Without measuring, wanted to check whether I would be able to correct the thickness of the ply scrap.

[@jd64064]

what about planing the sides? Will it work on the ends or edges?

[@tomr3422]

Why would anyone plane veneer plywood. Not so much a question as WTF Next Video - What happens when you plane a sandal

[@MucaroBoricua]

I've planned strips of plywood to fill gaps between sheets of plywood and the metal beams in my utility trailer. The plywood sheets rested directly on the longitudinal beams but the latitudinal beams were a little lower since they fit inside the longitudinal beams. Instead of "dadoing" the edges of the plywood sheets and making them weaker I decided to glue the strips and make them stronger. Why not use solid wood, you might ask. Because I already had the plywood, because the trims matched the plywood edge nicely and because I didn't want to spend money on hardwood. There you go, one reason to do it.

[@HiFiTown]

How about to remove paint or finish?

[@MucaroBoricua]

@@HiFiTown, I wouldn’t recommend planing away paint or any other finish. There’s a big chance the planer will ruin the plywood (eat away through the veneer). I usually remove finishes with a chemical and mechanical combination. Apply a solvent or paint remover, let it sit for some time to soften the finish and then scrape it off with a metal spatula or scraper. Follow that with sand paper.

[@tomr3422]

@@HiFiTown chemical stripers, sanding etc, veneer on even expensive plywood is so thin even sanding will bust thru it.

[@HiFiTown]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I think in this case it may be something you don't see unless you are salvaging old 1950s lumber .... I don't typically work with veneered plywood. Plywood with oak or walnut veneer is dare I say more of a 70s and 80s thing. My question is more related to plain old reclaimed pine ply, where lams are pretty thick maybe like 3/16 to even an 1/8....for 3/4... Typically interior glue....that have been painted, shellacked or stained. In the case of pine, lumber grade, like (BC for instance) -- the ply is much thicker. I also get in, sometimes what we used to call " lumber core" That is a big thick piece of poplar with very thick veneer on the top and bottom. In any case -- The other day I picked up some pine lumber, from a church dumpster that had been painted many times - - about three layers. After checking to make sure it wasn't lead paint of course, I would say that just the paint itself was close to a 32nd of an inch! more trouble than it's worth to sand or strip it with chemical stripper. Would a thickness planer work in this case guys? wouldn't the thickness planer be an excellent reclaimed wood device in this case? I would be interested to know what the planer does to paint and finish as it goes over it. This was my main interest in getting one as I work with not so much hardwoods, but man-made stuff from the 40s 50s and 60s typically.

[@Benni1214]

What about the thin sides? I'm a newbie teacher for this kind of stuff and a student needs to make even sides for a plywood tray (I quickly sawed it outside the measured lines for them)

[@LostWhits]

Some questions don't need answering, some answers never had a question.

[@randyrandolph9709]

You are crazy lol 😆 gotta love you 👍👍👍👍👍

[@user-sb3wh3dd4v]

THANK YOU for this! I LOVE experiments, and you are not alone. I too have have run plywood through power planers just for curiosity's sake; but only through my boss's planers after he pissed me off. Another FUN experiment is power-planing a finished guitar... body. DO NOT power plane an entire guitar, especially with the metal hardware still in place! Sure that's FUN, but the results are less than pretty. I get the best results with Telecaster style bodies. Once you remove the hardware, they're just a slab of glu-lam anyway. It's surprising though! Some expensive guitar bodies are made of Shite wood. ( Not sure of the actual genus/species name. Ask an Irish Xylophile.) Some very inexpensive bodies (Squire) are made of very nice Ash, Paulownia, and Luan; the Asian rim-job version of mahogany! Luan is the same SHITE wood we find marketed as "mahogany" at Menard's here in the United States of Corruption. Of course, the Nitrocellulose Lacquer and abrasive primer they robotically slather on cheap guitars dulls costly planer blades instantly. One can easily gum-up a $30K planer in a few seconds! ...Joy! But when your boss pisses you off TWICE in one day, ...'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. ;- )

[@DIYBuilds]

This was an adventure of a comment and i thank you for it lol.

[@unremind]

Does the glue dull your tools more than wood?

[@DIYBuilds]

Not sure.

[@HBSuccess]

Uh... yup about 10x as fast if you’re talking about the resins in plywood. PVA Wood glue- nowhere near as bad but it is still tougher than most woods.

[@WouldWorkforWoodWork]

What happens when you try to plane a piece of oak veneered plywood? You make thinner, non oak plywood - for the price of oak veneered plywood. You're right, this question was never asked, but now it will never have to be. Ever. :)

[@mitziseyfferdt3866]

The point was to make me smile, I needed to be cheered up

[@nathancd]

Great, now what am I supposed to do tomorrow now that you solved this mystery for me?

[@christopherdeangelis6096]

Does your planer have a helical head?

[@DIYBuilds]

no

[@dr.skipkazarian5556]

This reminds me of those who incorporate plywood (plies of very thin sheets of wood) into segmented bowls to turn on their lathe. Makes about as much sense as drinking bleach to cure COVID.......eh!

[@terristroh3965]

And this is where my Patreon money goes? Just kidding. It guess it isn’t “can you plane plywood?”so much as “what happens when you plane plywood?” And I, for one, have always secretly wondered .

[@DIYBuilds]

lol. Ya I wanted to get a video out for American thanksgiving weekend and had this on the back burner for a while. And since my last video did so shitty with dozens of hours worth of work put into it I was feeling lazy on this one.

[@teaguewhite26]

@@DIYBuilds I can tell you the 3 main reasons for the bad turnout on last video 1) Where's the sandals? You think Jesus gave up on sandals when it got cold, heck no! We have to see the sandals in the videos, its your staple on KZbin. 2) Tittle & Tile pic. I actually skipped the video till you commented here about it lack luster eventfulness. The video itself wasn't bad, it just lacked click bait worthiness. 3) Who's Glenn Fricker? I'll be honest, I had to Google him. Now I know, but prior to search I (a woodworker from USA) had no clue.

[@DIYBuilds]

Thats valid. Im just at a loss on how to make it more click batey

[@trafficmaster13]

😁👍

[@bradmaas6875]

It's plane to see you got rid of that pesky oak veneer.

[@Rxmedic43]

You say it's a dumb question, but im new to woodworking and have no idea why you wouldn't be able to do this. Not very beginner friendly

[@CanadianParamedic]

Lock down getting to ya bud?

[@DIYBuilds]

Absolutely

[@sc2h5creations5]

I've planed the edge of plywood before with a hand plane...that's doable lol

[@krisley5178]

Interesting...

[@DIYBuilds]

Ya I expected more of an ohh crap my thickness planer just exploded kind of result.

[@cynthiaquilici6793]

This guy describes a couple of reasons you might want to plane plywood: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioi4fIuQp7SDjpo I was interesting in planing plywood in order to straighten out edges that I had hand-sawn, in order to make better corner joints.

[@Pauken11]

Why would you plane plywood when the veneer is so thin to begin with? What’s the point? Makes absolutely no sense to me.

[@DIYBuilds]

Please see the last line i speak in the video

[@jeffcarr392]

Next week comes in 2 parts can you CNC a jelly, then, part 2 ice cream dowels !!! 🙄🙄🙄🙄

[@DIYBuilds]

Mmmmmmm ice creammmm

[@kortt]

why o why lol

[@carterscustomrods]

Do MDF 😂😅😂😅

[@sapelesteve]

I somehow think that I missed the point of this video?

[@boazandruth909]

Ummm it flies

[@DIYBuilds]

With wings?

[@TheWebstaff]

If a useless machine became sentient and setup a youtube channel, I wonder what would it be like..........................

[@EliasMakes]

how about planning laminate 😂😂😂

[@DIYBuilds]

I was leaning more towards alluminum ;)

[@AKS79LEX]

Неадекват.