The hunt for a 2x4 sheet of 5/8th plywood

[leapinlew]

ok! So, at the last minute I decided I would add plexiplass to my 3/4" CP. I hee'd and haw'd about it for a while and decided I should remake my CP out of 5/8ths so the plexi could line up with the T-molding.

I went to 2 home depots and 2 lowes. A full sheet cost $15. I didn't want to buy more wood than I needed. But hell, with the price of gas, I'm actually losing money now.

It appears they don't cut the 5/8ths into a 2x4 sheet. It's full sheets or nothing. Anyone else have fun looking for 5/8ths?

I had an amusing conversation with a home depot guy:

me "Hey, do you work in lumber"
HDG "Yeah"
me "I'm looking at these 2x4 sheets of plywood" and I point to the wood
me "Do you have this in 5/8ths?"
HDG "No, 3/4" is as big as we go"
me "Well 5/8 is smaller than 3/4"
HDG "Yeah"

silence

me "Ok, thanks!"

[arcadepcnut]

just went today to redo my control panel.
lowes sells 5/8 particle board underlayment in pieces. I just bought 2 pieces of 2x6 5/8 for $2.50 each for my cp. but if you are dead set on plywood I dont know...sorry. I had already started to reply before I saw you were looking for plywood so this post may not help you at all.

[Hoopz]

I would practice routing plywood before committing your CP to it.  It can chip which would cause problems with your t-molding.  If you can do it without chipping, then good for you.

I would suggest any 5/8" wood will work.  Lowes and Home Depot will have 2x4 pieces of pine or oak etc.  On my first one, I went with pine.  My 3rd one is 1/2" mdf. 

If you want to know how I knew that plywood would chip when routed, guess what I used on my 2nd cp..... 

Good luck.

[leapinlew]

Will particle board be strong enough?

[DrewKaree]

Why not have them cut a full sheet of ⁵/₈" into 2' sections?  You'll have 3 spares if you screw up (2 if they do a crappy cutting job).

You could also just cut the t-molding groove so that it lines up with the plexi, and then take a router or utility knife and shave the bottom, since that'll be the place that the t-molding won't be stared at so intensely.

[BlinKY1337]

Yes I know exactly what you mean stupid hardware store emplyees I had it even worse being 20 I get no respect in those kinda places.

[leapinlew]

Why not have them cut a full sheet of ⁵/₈" into 2' sections?  You'll have 3 spares if you screw up (2 if they do a crappy cutting job).

You could also just cut the t-molding groove so that it lines up with the plexi, and then take a router or utility knife and shave the bottom, since that'll be the place that the t-molding won't be stared at so intensely.

well.... in hindsight that makes the most sense. Especially since it cost me probably $20 in gas driving to different stores. I'll probably just grab a full sheet of 5/8ths. I can use the left over for the next project for the internal shelves and what not.

[nostrebor]

You car rout a 1/8" rabbet off the bottom side of your 3/4" cp and use 3/4" t-molding. Drew sorta said this above...

Knevil does this on his cabinets regularly. I have used this trick as well.

Also, it is a requirement of the woodworkers code to purchase full sheet stock. You will even find yourself looking for plans to build a rolling cart to store all your drops. I eventually rented a storage for my scraps.

Of course, I may just have an OCD problem

[NightGod]

Just curious...how much scrap can you have that you need a storage space? Wouldn't you just use up scrap from a previous project at the start of the next? Seems like you should only ever have about one or two decent sized scrap pieces of any particular wood type...

[DrewKaree]

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

Go ahead, get started with some woodworking projects.  You'll learn soon enough

That one was almost as good as the "Why would you need more than one router?" question

[nostrebor]

Just curious...how much scrap can you have that you need a storage space? Wouldn't you just use up scrap from a previous project at the start of the next? Seems like you should only ever have about one or two decent sized scrap pieces of any particular wood type...

It's kinda like the arcade cabinet deal. You can't just have one. Pretty soon the word gets out and folks are like "hey I got this pile of rough sawn cherry sittin here. Your into woodworking... want it?" And the guys at work know I build stuff so they load MDO scraps into my truck without asking me. Next thing you know, you got a crapload of misc material sittin in the space where your wife parks her car. It's not pretty when that happens... trust me.

[NightGod]

Ahh, gotcha-that actually makes alot of sense.

Now, about this multiple router deal....

[nostrebor]

Ahh, gotcha-that actually makes alot of sense.

Now, about this multiple router deal....

Any man with less than 3 routers is not really a man at all. I have 4 just to be safe

Actually it works like this:

1. buy a cheapy router with 1/4" collet. After getting to step 4 at least you know that this one can have a 1/8"
    RO bit left in it, so not all is lost.
2. Hate the router so research some and buy a Bosch plunge.
3. get a Ryobi set for Christmas. OK cause now I can mount the router permanently in my router table.
4. Some loser posts a smokin Amazon deal on a PC router on a WW forum. Impulse hits...

BLAM! 4 routers.