Routing large speakers and Birch Baltic plywood source

[docbob52]

i am building some speakers that the largest panels are 13.75" x 48.85" x 1" thick out of birch baltic plywood. I want to round off the edges in a about a 1/2" radius with my router. Is this best done on my router table or free hand with a router?

My router table measures 32" wide by 28" deep. This does not include the Jessem fence.

Second question: Where can I buy 1" Birch Baltic plywood that can be shipped to LA (Lower Alabama)? Here in Alabama I have to special order a minimum of 16 4x8 sheets!!!! 560$ plus shipping.

Help appreciated.

Bob

[Kornbread]

Do you have a Menards down there? It's either 3/4" or 1" they keep in stock around here.

[jhollander]

No reason you can't glue two 1/2 inch sheets together to make 1 inch thick. A big panel like that I'd use a hand held router. Just make a shallow final cut/ pass.

[djg]

$560.00 for 16 4x8 1" BB ply? Good price. See if you can't find a cabinet shop that can sell you some of their stock. I have a good source in the twin cities area, it wasn't hard to find. They have all sorts of nice stuff, including a big rack of hardwood scraps that would be great for small speakers.

And I would use a router after the boxes are built.

[Ron_E]

Be careful doing round overs on Baltic birch. I've had problems with tear out before. This was a pretty big round over and I didn't have problems with every corner.

Ron

[emilime75]

That's a really odd way that piece of ply tore. Either it was defective or there was a serious problem with the tool used.

Curious, what size was the round over bit was used, .25 or .5 inch shank, brand/quality of bit and router?

I bought a cheap, but large, round over on ebay a while back, it was out of balance and a bit intimidating to use in a hand held router. Still, it yields decent enough results where a little fine sand paper cleans up some of the roughness left by it. Never had anything close to the damage as shown in that photo.

[djg]

Practice on scrap. The bit orientation matters on BB. I made some Tritrix TLs and found that it matters whether you rout it with the base on the factory surface or perpendicular to it. Unfortunately, I don't remember which way was the way to prevent tearout. I got significant tearout until I figured out which way to attack.

[Ron_E]

That's a really odd way that piece of ply tore. Either it was defective or there was a serious problem with the tool used.

Curious, what size was the round over bit was used, .25 or .5 inch shank, brand/quality of bit and router?

I bought a cheap, but large, round over on ebay a while back, it was out of balance and a bit intimidating to use in a hand held router. Still, it yields decent enough results where a little fine sand paper cleans up some of the roughness left by it. Never had anything close to the damage as shown in that photo.

It was 1 1/4" with a 1/2 shank and I used my router table with a Triton router. The bit is out of balance but I suspect it was the plywood. Like I said some didn't tear out and some did. I veneered over it so wood filler saved the day.

Ron

[JavadS]

Be careful doing round overs on Baltic birch. I've had problems with tear out before. This was a pretty big round over and I didn't have problems with every corner. Ron

I have only had this problem of I'm routing flat on the end grain, as a general rule always keep your router base flat on the veneer side and you'll minimize tearing out. Javad

[the-jessman]

You want the bearing to be running along the same face as the end grain to avoid tear out. If the radius of the roundover is greater than the thickness of the material you will have to be extra careful. A climb cut while being VERY careful and taking shallow cuts may be best.

[docbob52]

Unfortunately we have no Menards down here. Good idea about checking with cabinet shops,

[JavadS]

Be careful doing round overs on Baltic birch. I've had problems with tear out before. This was a pretty big round over and I didn't have problems with every corner. Ron

Ron, IME that only happens when you don't router from or perpendicular to the veneer surface. In other words, if your router base is always on the veneer you won't have readout issues like that. If your router base is on the end grain then yes, will tear out like that badly. HTH, Javad

[billfitzmaurice]

Be careful doing round overs on Baltic birch. I've had problems with tear out before. This was a pretty big round over and I didn't have problems with every corner.

You went across the grain of the top sheet. Avoid that it by using a bit radius smaller than the thickness of the plywood. I build my cabs from 1/2" plywood, and I never get tear out because I use a 3/8" radius bit, which also happens to be the standard radius for corner protectors.

[gdmoore28]

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Second question: Where can I buy 1" Birch Baltic plywood that can be shipped to LA (Lower Alabama)? Here in Alabama I have to special order a minimum of 16 4x8 sheets!!!! 560$ plus shipping.

Help appreciated.

Bob

That comes to $35 per sheet. That's a great price!

GeeDeeEmm

[pecker]

i am building some speakers that the largest panels are 13.75" x 48.85" x 1" thick out of birch baltic plywood. I want to round off the edges in a about a 1/2" radius with my router. Is this best done on my router table or free hand with a router?

My router table measures 32" wide by 28" deep. This does not include the Jessem fence.

Second question: Where can I buy 1" Birch Baltic plywood that can be shipped to LA (Lower Alabama)? Here in Alabama I have to special order a minimum of 16 4x8 sheets!!!! 560$ plus shipping.

Help appreciated.

Bob

Wurth Wood group has several locations in AL. They cater to cabinet making businesses, but may sell to you.
http://www.wurthwoodgroup.com/Locations.aspx