Hi, I’m making a plinth for my Garrard, and I’m wondering if anyone had some spare ply. Looking for the best quality 18mm. I need at least x7 pieces of 650mmx 450mm size.
Many thanks in advance

Hi 301oil - The 'best quality' ply is usually 'marine' plywood - because (i)it has guaranteed no internal voids (ii)it is glue laminated with waterproof glue, usually 'resorcinol' glue in this country, which gives ditsinctive red coloured glue lines - which may or may not be visually desirable.

However, you could just go for a high grade (face veneer and/or low-void hardwood internal ply layers, thin veneers, etc) plywood.

The 'Russian Birch Ply' thing, I think came historically from the BBC monitor loudspeaker days (Spendor etc., but not sure) & ever since then has become an audiophile 'thing'.
(The BBC monitor speakers of that day had distinctive midrange resonance (warmth), at least partly due to their thin-wall plywood construction philosophy.)

IMHO any plywood will sound not dissimilar & I'd consider more the structural form, size/mass (different timbers vary in mass), colour/finish that you desire & of course the support feet/method. Just my thoughts.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

You can get Baltic birch ply in NZ.

____________
Pureaudio
www.pureaudio.co.nz/
www.facebook.com/pureaudio.co.nz/

This place has been recommended in the past

www.plywoodcity.co.nz/

Have you considered bamboo ??
A Bunnings benchtop provides a perfect source.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I’m after the Baltic primarily for the edge finish, as I’m thinking of leaving it natural. I currently have a motorboard made of marine grade Keruing which is very dense and heavy. (Plywood City) This is topped with Forbo furniture Linoleum, and suspended in a frame, very much in the style of the Vinylista plinths.
I know there’s a place in Henderson selling Baltic by the sheet, but they don’t cut to size, which makes it more tricky. Hence the request

I've had good service from these guys.

pprpenrose.co.nz/

They have a good range and will cut to size, not sure about Baltic Birch though.

Can also recommend Cutshop, fairly sure they could source Baltic Birch. Clean cuts and very accurate as you'd expect but a bit pricier than the rest.

www.cutshop.com/

Thanks for the cutshop tip Harvey, I’ll check them out. Penrose panel and paint have every plywood under the sun except birch 😀

I've used Plywood city before. Their service was fantastic.

I built my desk out of their Eucalyptus core/Okume veneer. It was easy to work with and finished up lovely with Danish Oil.

Cutshop are not cheap but I have heard great things about their work. It worked out cheaper for me to buy a Ryobi slide compond mitre saw and cut up 2 sheets of ply myself than pay for them to do all the cuts for me on their CNC machine.

Their work probably would have been better than mine however for a desk it wasn't a big deal.

Fine cabinetry like speakers might justify the expense for precision CNC cuts.

I'd be looking at Plytech, they're not too far away from you and their European Birch is a very good product, edge detail in particular is superb. I don't know if they do a cutting service but I'm sure they could put you on to someone who did.

In regards to your sizes, a standard sheet of ply is 2440 x 1220, 7 pieces at your dimensions will be a tight fit when taking cutting tolerances into account. You could get 8 if you went down to 600, you're looking at a plinth 144mm thick though which is pretty chunky.

For those that dont know Reduced tolerance made a beautiful job of the bamboo plinth on his own 301. Does it count as DIY when you are a professional cabinetmaker ?

Sure... we love to see all handiwork for inspiration

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com