Buying Plywood - Cuts, Cores, Matches and More

Buying lumber from a lumber yard can be intimidating, but surely plywood is simpler... right?  Plywood is a manufactured product that has a more controlled process and standardization then harvesting lumber, but there are still a lot of variations in plywood that makes buying plywood more complicated then if you were to buy a PlayStation off the shelf.  

I don't buy plywood frequently, each time I do I have to refresh myself on all the different terminology and options that I get back from the lumber dealer so I decided to write a post to myself to save my time re-searching the internet on what each thing means.

Core Materials

Plywood is made of layers of wood materials sandwiched between the wood veneers that gives it's look.  Walnut plywood is made from two walnut veneers with enough the material ("core") between them until it is the thickness desired.  The layers gives plywood its stability and not have the wood movement that lumber typically have.

Face and Back Grades

The face and back of plywood have grades that describes its quality:

Face grades:

• AA - Premium, architectural quality for interiors, case goods and high end furniture.
• A - Not as high as AA but still excellent appearance. 
• B - Less perfect and consistent than A panels but more economical.
• C - More defects and variations.  Not as attractive so good for less visible applications.
• "Shop" grade - Panels that have some imperfection that causes the sheet to not meet the grade (e.g. A1 or C2).

Back grades

These goes from 1 (best) to 4 (worst).  Grade 3 & 4 allows for open defects.

Baltic Birch Grades

Baltic Birch uses a different grading system:

• B/BB - one face free of "footballs".
• BB/BB - An average of 4 to 6 footballs per face
• BB/CP - An average of 4 to 6 football on one face and unlimited footballs on the back

(BB/CP example)

Veneer Core

Veneer core means the odd-number of layers between the face veneers are made of sheets of wood layered in alternating grain direction for stability.  Lighter and have strong screw holding power, but might not be as flat if there are imperfections in the core layers which can show through (aka "telegraph").

There are processes to address this such as Columbia Forest Product's MPX core to make veneer core smooth and reduce telegraphing.  MPX is Columbia's registered trademark for basically using smooth hardwood crossbands in the core to smooth out the veneer.

MDF Core

MDF core consists of using medium density fiberboard between the face veneers which is very stable and uniform.  MDF can be heavy and can swell up and dissolve when wet.

Combination Core

This core uses a combination of MDF and wood veneers between the faces.  

Veneer Cuts

The way the veneer is cut effects the appearance, properties and cost of the veneer.  For example, plain sliced cuts produces veneers with the "cathedral" patterns while a quarter cut produces a more thin line pattern.

(image source)

(image source)

A rotary cut can produce Whole Piece Face (WPF) veneer where the entire face of the plywood is a single piece of veneer and can be more economical to produce.  In order to make a full sheet of plywood from the other cuts, the strips of veneer of placed side-by-side so there can be a fine seam between the strips.  How the strips are placed is called matching which is discussed more below. 

Veneer Match

Unless it is a whole piece face, the veneer panels needs to be placed side-by-side in order to crate a full piece of plywood.  How these panels are ordered is what is called veneer matching.  There are multiple ways to do this and I provide some links in the references below that describe them but the common ones are:

Slip Matching

Slip matching places each panel next to each other without turning or flipping them over.  This creates a repeated look.

Sequence Match 

Sequence match requires that the panels come from the same log and be more consistent panel-to-panel.

(start here)

Book Matching

Book matching turns the panels over so that two adjacent panels mirrors each other much like how you open a book.

References

1. https://www.decorativehardwoods.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/HWPW%20Handbook.pdf
2. https://chesapeakeplywood.com/architectural-plywood/
3. https://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/library/reference-guides/grading-guide/veneer-cuts-and-matching/
4. https://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/2015/08/29/matching-confusion-uncomplicating-an-overused-term/
5. https://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/library/reference-guides/core-types/
6. https://www.archtoolbox.com/wood-veneer-matching/
7. https://awiqcp.org/news-and-blog/wood-veneers-matching/ -- sequence matching have a higher standard for matching more then slip (which is also layers it in sequence.
8. https://www.decorativehardwoods.org/pdfs-available-download

Thoughts Fedora 21

Even though my primary home desktop the past few years has been a Macbook Pro, my favorite Operating System is Linux.  It would be my primary OS if it wasn't for a few tasks that aren't as convenient on Linux such as photo management (which any father will know has to be good or Mother will bring down the hurt), so at home it's been Homebrew to fill the void.  Because of this I haven't kept up with all the changes with my favorite distribution, Fedora.

I have tried various distributions here and there, but Fedora has always felt the most comfortable to me.  A lot of it obviously due to familiarity as I've been using Fedora when it was first conceived as Fedora Core and Redhat Linux before it (and Slackware before that).  When the time came to put together a new machine for the family for things like Minecraft and playing videos I naturally was going to go with Linux and Fedora which is now at version 21.

In version 21, Fedora now offers 3 separate versions targeted at 3 different needs:  workstation (what most home and office users will use), server and cloud.  I suppose the idea is to make the installation process easier as each version is preconfigured with the software and settings that they feel meets the most likely needs of the target audience.  I'm not sure if I really agree with this approach.  I imagine that most people who are capable and willing to get and install their own OS will be configuring their environment and this just defers that to after the installation.   At the same time, the install process is very simple.  Just a few clicks and off it goes so if you don't mind claiming every bit of disk space maybe this is perfectly fine.

It's nice that the Live CD is used to start the install because it does make the disc more useful and provides a sanity check that everything works before installing to the hard drive.  What I do miss is at install time it doesn't give you the option of adding other repos (how many Fedora users don't add RPMFusion?).  Instead, you finish installing Fedora and then install RPMFusion and then add the packages from it such as VLC.

I admit that I was a bit caught off guard by the default desktop environment: Gnome Shell.  It is simplified and familiar especially if you come from OSX with the way the settings dialog is laid out and the application dock, but might be an oversimplification for developers.  I suppose if the workstation version is targeted at the enterprise office space that it makes sense from that perspective.  Whether or not that is the right direction, I'll leave that for the market to decide.  It is telling that if you search online that one of the first things people recommend after getting Fedora installed is to add the gnome-tweak-tool to customize Fedora.

Fortunately, Fedora makes it very simple to change to another of the other popular desktop environments such as Mate, Cinnamon, Xcfe, etc.

Fedora comes with Firefox and Yahoo as the default search engine.  I have no objections to Firefox or its choice of Yahoo, but the browser is so fundamental now to anyone using a computer that offering more choices here would be best for the user.  Given that Fedora is very much about open source software, I can understand if Chrome is not a choice but Chrominum can be.

These are all very minor complaints and Fedora is still awesome.   

Using ctrl-c/v/x on OSX for copy/paste/cut

Three very common keyboard function that I use is to copy/paste/cut. For my hands, I found it more comfortable to use the CTRL key instead of the COMMAND (apple) key along with c/v/x. To change the key binding:

create/modify the file: ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict

with the following:

/* ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict */
{
"^z" = "undo:";
"^x" = "cut:";
"^v" = "paste:";
"^c" = "copy:";
"^a" = "selectAll:";
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /* Home */
"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; /* End */
"\UF72C" = "pageUp:"; /* PageUp */
"\UF72D" = "pageDown:"; /* PageDown */

}

Applications that uses the Cocoa AppKit text edit objects (i.e. TextEdit). However, not every application will necessarily support this. I noticed that Firefox does not which is very annoying.

For more details, http://xahlee.org/emacs/osx_keybinding.html is very useful.

To swap ctrl and command in Firefox/Thunderbird edit 'ui.key.accelKey' to 17 (about:config in Firefox, advance config in Thunderbird). Specifically, you can use one of the following:

17 Control (windows style)
18 Alt (unix style)
224 Meta (Mac OS command).

Firefox 3.5 icon with version number

4965

Download the image here.

Firefox 3.5 is out and since those of us working on the web usually have multiple versions of the browser installed, having an icon with the version number on it makes it easier to identify the instance we're loading.

This is inspired by http://browserversionicons.com/firefox/

With the icon from Mozilla.

Instructions for running multiple instances of Firefox are here.

Syncing Lightning with Google Calendar

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358#sunbird

Thunderbird Lightning 64bit

Looking in the contrib directory on mozilla will often show pre-built binaries for different OSs that isn't listed on the web site.

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/calendar/lightning/releases/0.9/contrib/linux-x86_64/

Syncing Lightning with Yahoo calendar

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/calendar/yahoocalendar/sync/sync-05.html

Disable Font Smoothing in Firefox on OSX

On OSX, I disabled font-smoothing and switched to using the Tahoma font using TinkerTool because they look clearer to my eyes. In order for Firefox to follow the system setting, you have to set gfx.color_management.enabled to 'true' in about:config.

I think this setting is for Firefox's advance color management feature which means it will effect Firefox's performance a little bit when enabled.

Running Firefox 2 and 3 together on OSX.

Create a new Firefox profile using the Profile Manager (i.e. ff2):

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -ProfileManager

Then launch Firefox 2 with the new profile:

/Applications/Firefox2.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -P ff2 -no-remote

Create an apple script using the Script Editor to have a launch icon:

do shell script "/Applications/Firefox2.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -P ff2 -no-remote &> /dev/null &"

Save as "Application Bundle" and check "Run only".

Some icons with version numbers can be found here: http://browserversionicons.com/

Make Firefox 3 bookmarks available to Quicksilver/Launchy.

Firefox 3 no longer saves its bookmark to an html file by default so things like Quicksilver can't index it. To re-enable it, go to about:config, set browser.bookmark.autoExportHtml to true and restart Firefox

What I've installed on OSX.

IT upgraded my MBP to Leopard so I had to go through the process of reinstalling my apps. It's a lot simpler to do this on OSX/Unix then on Windows since apps pretty much have to install its settings and user configurations in the /Users/ directories because otherwise they will need write permissions.

However, I did have to reinstall my apps which meant looking for them again. I figure I'll just list them here so that in the future it'll save me time.

GeekTools - to display information such as my calendar and notes on the desktop
Firefox 2
Firefox 3
Versioned icons for Firefox
Thunderbird
MacPorts - the joys of UNIX!
Sidenote - unobtrusive notepad
Quicksilver
OpenProj - to be able to read/write to Microsoft Project files.
Adium - multi-protocal IM client
Colloquy - IRC client
VLC - media player
Tinker Tool - exposes hidden settings. I use it to turn off Apple's anti-aliasing and changing the system fonts
Tahoma (font)
Synergy - Allows using one keyboard to control multiple computers.
Eclipse IDE
Xcode
Flip4Mac


Commercial

Parallels/VMWare Fusion
Microsoft Office
Adobe Photoshop
OmniGraffle

Using OSX... a few days later.

I've now had a few more days to use the MacBook and OSX 10.4. The first day was mostly getting familiar with the environment and it wasn't until the second day that I started to migrate data from my Windows XP notebook.

The migration turned out to be simpler then I expected. Part of the reason is that I tend to use open source applications which are often developed for multi-platforms so the data transfers easily.

For example, you can copy Thunderbird mail, settings and extensions directly from the Windows location (C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\) to it's OSX equivalent (~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/. The same can be said for Firefox.

Users of GAIM/Pidgin will most likely use Adium on OSX and since they share the same foundation, their IM archive share the same structure so just copy the "logs" directory over.

I then copied over "My Documents" to "~/Documents" where by default it is recognized by Parallel's XP instance.

All-in-all, getting everything over to the Mac has been pretty easy. I've found most of the apps I needed to have an OSX versions although I've still not found a good note taking program like Evernote (I'll give Yojimbo a try). I'm also still trying to understand how to configure the system to give me some of what I'm used to in Windows (such as displaying image thumbnails for graphic files).

Some annoyances with OSX include the sensitivity of the track pad. I tend to use my right hand fingers to move the pointer around, but my left hand stays near the keyboard. The track pad often senses my left hand and gets confused.

The keyboard on the Macbook Pro is pretty good, but I'm more used to where the CTRL (in the case of Macs, the Apple key) so there is some finger gymnastic action. The lack of a second mouse button is also annoying to a Windows/Linux user spoiled by the convenience of it. I've always wondered if Apple is just too proud to admit someone else could come up with good interface ideas and that's why they've stuck with the one button mouse.

The biggest annoyance is the screen and font! OSX's font rendering especially its anti-alias/font smoothing is plain fuzzy to my eyes and the Macbook screen makes it worst when you're not looking at it from a specific angle. This is a controversial topic as can be seen here and here, so I won't talk about it much here. A lot of it is personal preference, of course, but I've always had a hard time with the softness around some of the anti-alias text. I wish they just soften curves instead of everything. I don't understand why a solid dash line isn't just a solid black, for example.

I figured what I can do is just turn off anti-aliasing (Apple calls it font smoothing) or select a different system font. Then I found out that Apple seems to be to headed down the road of less user customization by restricting what fonts the system uses, etc. I read it was to make sure that users don't confuse the brand by customizing the UI to not look like OSX... I'm not sure if that is true, but I was surprised by the lack of customization available to the user.

My eventual solution was to download a small app called TinkerTool which exposes many of the hidden settings available but not exposed by Apple in the preferences tool. I was able to tell OSX to not use font smoothing for text greater then 12pt, to change the default fonts (not all parts of OSX respects this setting nor do all OSX apps, but so far it's been ok), and to use the Tahoma font instead of the default OSX font:

TinkerTool > Font Smoothing: "Turn off font smoothing for font sizes 16 pt and smaller"
TinkerTool > Fonts:
System: Tahoma, 13pt
Application: Tahoma, 12pt
Messages: Tahoma, 13pt
Labels: Tahoma, 10pt
Help Tags: Tahoma, 11pt

So now that I got my data over, my most essential apps installed, and the UI is not giving a headache to look at , it's on to the fun part of customizing the environment to suit my working habits!

Thunderbird 1.5

Thunderbird 1.5 have been released. The release notes can be found here. This apps has definitely come a long way even while always being in the shadows of Firefox.

Firefox 1.0.4

Firefox 1.0.4 was released today to address some security bug that surfaced earlier this week.

aardvark

This looks like very cool extension:

http://www.karmatics.com/aardvark/

Firefox in safemode

Useful to use when an extension screws up Firefox:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox)