grant.margaret•26d agoProlific Poster

Tried pre-finished maple plywood for a built-in and it warped worse than unfinished stock

I normally buy whatever's on sale for my cabinet work, but last month I splurged on higher-end pre-finished maple plywood from a local lumberyard for a client's living room built-in. The stuff looked beautiful at the store - smooth, no voids, nice consistent color. But after I cut it and let it sit in the garage for three days while I finished other parts of the job, two of the panels bowed so bad I couldn't use them. Meanwhile the unfinished birch I've always used from the big box store stays flat as a board even in humid weather. Now I'm wondering if the pre-finishing seals the face unevenly and causes that reaction, or maybe I just got a bad batch. Has anyone else had one species warp more than another with pre-finished stock?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jade26d ago

I've had the same issue with pre-finished maple. What fixed it for me was letting the panels acclimate in the shop for a full week before cutting, not just a few days.

-1

finley_lee26d ago

Yeah, that tracks. A week feels excessive until you've had a panel cup on you. Slow and steady is the only way with that stuff.