Thread: Plywood types/uses & where to buy in Melbourne

Have a look at the site for Maxiply in Lilydale, a little out of the way from Beaconsfield, but they have a good range of sheet products and can arrange veneered sheets if you want something that they do not normally carry.

Americans tend to use Baltic Birch ply for a lot of things as it is generally more dimensionally stable as it uses typically about twice as many plies as other systems, i.e what would be 5 ply normally would be a 9 ply in Baltic birch. The Americans have a different way of noting surface finish for their domestic ply as well, they use letters to denote the show face and numbers for the back face e.g B3, whereas we use letters for both faces e.g. BB or CD.

A particular standard applies to true marine ply, which requires it to have zero voids in the ply structure and use a glue suitable for immersion. True marine ply should be stamped BS2008 to signify that it complies with that standard, but a lot of material stamped that way does not meet the standard because it has visible voids in the cut edges, big no no for marine ply as water may penetrate the voids and be trapped than start rot in the panel.

Baltic is not cheap, nor is any ply with A or B faces, C grade faces starts to become affordable but will have some visible surface imperfections. Formply has a smooth phenolic based film finish as its primary role is is making forms for concrete etc, but it is also used for workbenches etc because of the smooth finish and moderately low cost. However the film finish is virtually impossible to glue to other material without sanding right through the film to bare ply.

Hope this helps.

A bit of a distance from you but Uptons in Epping have a huge range of plywood including Birch ply (it really is the ducks guts). They're very knowledgeable and helpful.

Plyco Fairfield have a range as well.

+1 for Plyco. Mornington might be a little closer for you. They can do delivery too, for $.

Originally Posted by malb

Americans tend to use Baltic Birch ply for a lot of things as it is generally more dimensionally stable as it uses typically about twice as many plies as other systems, i.e what would be 5 ply normally would be a 9 ply in Baltic birch. The Americans have a different way of noting surface finish for their domestic ply as well, they use letters to denote the show face and numbers for the back face e.g B3, whereas we use letters for both faces e.g. BB or CD.

Thank you for this reply, its exactly why i have been confused.

Originally Posted by lyricnz

+1 for Plyco. Mornington might be a little closer for you. They can do delivery too, for $.

Thank you very much for this. I have been on the Plyco website and they look to have everything and more. I read the reviews of the Mornington branch and its seems top notch service with good product knowledge, so i will give them a visit. Only downside is they are not open on Saturday mornings and as a weekend warrior it more difficult.

Thanks again.