Question about plywood

[Phendyr_Loon]

I plan to built a medium size ported 1x12 cabinet for practice and small gigs, this will be built out of 1/2" ply for weight reasons.

Is there a particular type is plywood that is absolutely nessassary for bass enclosures? I have access to 3 ply 1/2" veneered on both sides, (used for kitchen cabinets) is that stuff ok, or should I be looking for another type of 1/2" to use?

[rpsands]

Void free or as close to void free as possible. Skip that 3 ply veneer stuff. aim for 5-7 ply at least. equal thickness plies.

Lowes sells a very decent Arauco in 12mm (close enough) that should be around 7 ply, and around 25 bucks a sheet. My favorite for budget cabinet builds. Light weight and decent quality.

[Wes Whitmore]

Around columbus, the best plywood I have found is at menards. It's labeled as baltic birch, but is in 4x8 sheets. Lots of plies. $50 a sheet for 1/2". If I want the real baltic birch (5x5 panels), I have to go to Wood Werks, which is a specialty wood shop. They have more types of ply in there than I knew existed, but it is very very expensive. I think it's $65 for a 5x5 or so.

The Arauco is exactly what rpsands said. Good stuff.

Wes

[will33]

Yes, Arauco for sturdy, affordable stuff. Well done Poplar ply is quality stuff, baltic or russian birch is top notch. If you do a good bracing scheme, you don't have to have top shelf ply. As stated, no voids is important. You can get some idea of this by looking at the edges. If you see stuff that has woodfiller along the edges, it's there to fill in voids, you'll be sorry when you cut through the middle and see what's really going on. Another thing to stay away from is really thin veneers. That's your glue mating surface. While your glue will hold, that ultra thin veneer can separate from the rest of the sheet.

[Phendyr_Loon]

Thanks for the replies.

I've been working with this 3 ply stuff for years and it is very tight, but I will look into that 7 ply stuff. No sense in doing in half-@ss.

[Windreaper]

If you don't care about the weight, 1/2" 9-ply Baltic birch is what you want to use.

Poplar is about 3/4 the weight of birch but is also a little softer.

No need to splurge for marine grade or other premium plywoods, though. Regular void-free is fine.

EDIT: Oh and be careful of cheap Chinese ply with only the outer veneers made of birch. Make sure it's 100% birch if you're paying for birch.

[dog1]

Yup. 5-7 ply, void free is the best. Baltic birch would be a +. But, as a builder myself, I have never used 1/2" for the baffle board (front) and back. Hurricane and T nuts kind of get lost in that thin wood. Do yourself a favor and use 3/4" for the front and back. And, glue and screw the sides to the front and back, and front mount your speaker (s). This will reduce, or eliminate bracing, depending on the size of the build.

[rpsands]

Meh, A pox on 3/4 for the front. Unnecessary with modern neos especially.

If you must, you can put some backer sections of ply and glue them in behind the screw holes.

[Windreaper]

I'd say t-nuts are also overkill for most neo woofers with 8 mounting holes.