Manufacturing plywood boards: then and now
Plywood is a simple material made by glueing together thin sheets of wood, known as veneers or plies. These basic elements have remained broadly the same throughout its history. The most significant breakthrough in its production came in the early 1800s with the development of steam-powered machines that could cut veneers cheaply. The most influential of these was the rotary veneer cutter.
The cutter rotates a log against a wide, horizontal blade, causing it to ‘peel’ into a continuous sheet of wood. This enables the creation of longer, wider sheets of veneer than previously possible and with little waste. Using these machines meant that plywood could be manufactured quickly and inexpensively on a large scale.
This film shows the stages in manufacturing plywood boards in the mid-20th century and today. The process remains essentially unchanged, although today many of the machines are much faster and computer controlled.
Produced as part of the V&A exhibition Plywood: Material of the Modern World (15 July - 12 November 2017) www.vam.ac.uk/plywood
Sponsored by MADE.COM. Supported by the American Friends of the V&A
Find out more about plywood with our fascinating exhibition book, Plywood: A Material Story
www.vam.ac.uk/shop/plywood-a-...
The dude walking across the logs in the water made it look so easy.
Because it is
@@thejman8734 Ask the OSHA about that ...
@@pharmika f**k OSHA
On a massive log like that it would be easy.
In a pond like that it is easy, on a river it was a lot harder. My family worked in logging in the Pacific Northwest from the 1880's to the 1930's. The boots, logger caulk boots, or "cork boots" have spikes on the soles.
That place has got to smell amazing.
i worked at an UPM plywood factory for a couple months as an apprentice, and yes. yes it does. I miss the place
unless your coworkers had lunch at taco bell
no protective equipment whatsoever. sawdust, chemicals, noise, abrasions. Did you see that one guys hands all taped up a big cut on his hand. just put some sctoch tape on it and keep working.
You do know that THAT smell _is_ the smell of murdered trees screaming, right?! Look someone _had_ to be an arsehole around here, _so_ I nominated myself. Plus, I am after all _completely_ full of shyt. Until, it's proven to be 99.9% true we don't have to talk about it. Now go on & enjoy your salad 👍😁
What is she living in a mud hut?😅
I love how the log core waste from back then is thicker than the logs used now...
In the original video they are using Douglar Fir, a massive tree. Now they are using Birch, a much much smaller tree.
@@zrimm15 they still use DF today in canada but they are all small trees(pecker poles) because the old growth trees are gone.
The "pith" in the log center is worthless, not even good for a fence post. A big Doug Fir had a pretty big pith. A tiny "Baltic" Fir has a much smaller pith.
@@zrimm15 I've hauled fir to the plywood plant in town, the smaller logs where probably 24"
I was thinking the same thing. Amazing how large the trees used to be compared to today. Sometimes preserving the environment is a good thing regardless of what some whacko thinks, and we don't need to cut down all the redwood trees etc
I didn't realize the 1950's sawmills operated to the dankest of dope ass beats...
I was thinking the same thing…they were all stoned and listening to these beats all day long…wow!
@@douglaswynn9668 we walked uphill both ways! it was cool.
I think they must’ve been filming a porno there on the same day XD
Ur fucking hilarious dude
It IS dope
The 1950s factory was actually way more high tech than I was expecting
there was nuclear bombs before the 50s..?
@@timregan1005 But did they have advanced technology like running water in 50s ??????
They had cars in the 50s too. You don't know much about history do you? The industrial revolution happened 300 years ago. Only computers are new. Some consider the old complex mechanical devices a form of computer.
@@DoesThisWork888 The Romans had running water.
@@MaxG-jk8ty I can be very good at polite conversation, but sometimes I choose not to. Sometimes I find people's idea that people of the past didn't have complex things, and by implication that they weren't as intelligent, a bit offensive. As if they, the modern people are superior. So, I take a bit of an attitude in response.
I now know the reason my grandpa’s shed made of plywood from the 50’s is still standing and mine made 3 days ago is falling in. He remembered to use nails
lol
Possibly the funniest comment I’ve ever read lmao
He was definitely nailing your grandma in that shed
Plywood is much stronger than ordinary wood because of the criss-crossing of the wood grain in plywood, but it is more susceptible to water damage than ordinary wood. You have to give a generous amount of paint, especially at the ends.
That and back then they used REAL plywood everywhere...now its a novelty and instead your shed and prob your house is made outta particle board thats just mostly glue...expect your house to fall down and the neighborhoods built in the 70s to still be standing
5:46 imagine having to wear a shirt that says “committed to wood” lol
Bro you made my morning thanks 😂
Would u rather wear one that says "commited to morning wood"? 😬😬😬😬 lol
The modern world is creepy and disgustingly tacky.
1954: alternating directions 2016: at right angles Using different words for exactly the same thing makes it so much more hi-tech.
@The Monster Under Your Bed equations dont add up? Simply add a theoretical 'dark variable' to make them work! 2 + 2 is proven to not equal five? Add a dark variable that can be whatever you want! 2 + 2 + x͑̉҉͉̗̱͓̙ = 5! Now science™ works and the universe™ is understood.
@The Monster Under Your Bed India: *bruh*
@The Monster Under Your Bed We get it, you love racism, but this is a weird convo to be flexin that, duder
@@pennygadget7328 he isnt racist he is just making fun of the radical left that is made up of soft snowflakes who think everything is racist and sexist
@@tonygriffin8007 Right, the left are the soft snowflakes, and not the ones whining because their endless and one-sided shitting on women and minorities for daring to not be white men is getting some flak for a change, instead of obligatory high-fives and circlejerking like the poor babies think they should be entitled to.
I always wondered how they made the stuff. I didn’t know a tree trunk was “peeled” and rolled out. Interesting.
The Plywood mill I worked at didn't use soaking in a river to soften the wood. The logs were precut to 8 foot lengths and dumped in huge vats of hot water, with some chemicals mixed in to make the wood soft for the debarking machine and the lathe.
Next time you see a sheet of plywood, notice the pattern. More often than not you will see it repeat. Looks like two identical pieces of wood were stitched together. Because as the log spins and gets peeled, you end up with that sort of pattern. Then, once you know, you will start seeing it in many, many places. Such as kitchen cabinets, desks, even doors. Veneer is made the same way. You used to be able to buy just one "sheet" of the veneer and glue it to what ever you were using for your project. Plain door? Buy an oak veneer with repeating pattern and end up with "antique" looking masterpiece. Only people who know, know.
$$$$$$$$$$$$ but you can’t trick Mother Nature she will catch up sooner or later lol
kzhead.info/sun/oLqqlZiwlnN7pa8/bejne.html
Now you do.
1954: 150 people work hard to make some fine plywood. 2016: 15 people oversee robots doing hard work to make some fine plywood. 2062: 1 person oversee advanced 3D printer rearranging cellulose molecules into some fine plywood.
1954 :0 people know what a 3-d printer is 2016: 150 people program and repair robots 2062: the 3-d printer is an antique due to the invention of the replicator
FlumenSanctiViti why make plywood if replicating/arranging cellulose is possible?? Build furniture at will at home.😂😂 Just saying.
There will always be the consummate craftsman willing to sacrifice time to make something perfect using time-honored methods. You can see this everywhere in Japan and I'm sure in other places of the world where there are still a dedicated few to master their art to make the perfect product. Even in Star Trek, Jean Luc's brother lived in France and was still hand-making wine even though you could find the nearest replicator and boop in on the screen for a glass of pino noire.
1954 - толстые деревья распускают на фанеру. 2016 - тонкие березовые бревна распускают на фанеру. 2062 - из веток и листьев делают фанеру.
That's assuming there are any trees left at the rate we're going.
If you watch this is reverse, you'll learn how trees are made.
You got me
Lmao good one!
He's out of line but he's right
Ÿξ§
The way lumber prices are, you’d think people do everything with their teeth.
Dude exactly. Building shit right now is way too expensive.
@@gilbertlizama8448 Theres plenty of lumber but the sawmills were shut down because of the rona
@@marlo8850 Baaaaaaah...thats what a sheep does
Biden jacking everything up. Dementia fuck
@@NoNORADon911 uh, whats this got to do with anything? Im not a democrat
About 60 years ago, when I was about 4 years old, I remember riding in the back seat of my parents car in Ontario, Canada and looking down and seeing the river full of cut logs.... I was fascinated and asked my father why and how they got in the river...
Who fucking cares ???
I've been in cars and seen things. Who cares dude
@@ChicanoOne760 Thank you for taking the time out of your day to write that encouaging reply....you must live a fullfilling life in your mother's basement.....
@@wittydev4301 decent people
I remember... 15 minutes ago. I took a 💩
The dislikes are from OSHA inspectors that watched the first 5 minutes of the video.
OSHA would shit their pants at the second video lmao
@The Monster Under Your Bed Ya! Being safe is for losers!
exactly what i was thinking
@The Monster Under Your Bed said by the person who thinks the unions are the corrupt and problematic ones lol. Corporations are using the few instances of union corruption to sour the concept of unions to pay workers less and line their own pockets. Please educate yourself before spreading misinformation.
@@ambivvvvvvvvvalence No need to fight about it, corporations and unions are both as corrupt as each other.
Should have said that the size of the “scrap”log in the old times is the size of today’s starting log.
yeah, i was like WTF?!?! that was scrap?
Sadly because the trees used from the 50s are older than if they were to plant them then for use today.
Theyre two different types of trees
@@TONYTHETlGER today’s wood is mostly farmed dude
@@AsianNIGMA Yes, I know that. I was putting into perspective of the age of trees used back then.
I was actually impressed with the 50's mill. The process was actually pretty sophisticated and pretty well mechanized. There was even a guy wearing a hard hat. Was really sad to see the giant trees felled for this though. They should have also included OSB plywood. Since most modern homes constructed (in Canada at least) do not use laminated plywood. Maybe some of the cabinetry, but not much.
Lol people build castles and the great wall of China and people making plywood is what got you 🤣
@@bimm7930 lmao
@@bimm7930 ??? are you able to impressed by only one thing ? if so you are living a sad life
As a naval mine warfare historian, I find the inventor of plywood, Immanuel Nobel, to be fascinating. (1) He invented the first mines purchased on a large scale for military use. These mines were successfully used in the Crimean War to defend the approaches to St Petersburg. (2) One of his sons, Ludvig, invented the oil tanker ship, and together with his brother Robert basically founded the Russian oil industry. (2) A 3rd son, Alfred, invented dynamite. When a French newspaper mistakenly reported the death of Ludvig as being that of Alfred, and reported rather unflatteringly on Alfred’s life, Alfred bequeathed in his will his entire fortune to be used to reward advances in various pursuits, the highest of which is peace. That prize is known as the Nobel Peace Prize. Not a bad legacy for the inventor of plywood!
Awesome comment!
wow Jacob! good research!!
If anyone was curious like I was, the veneer patching machine was patented in 1953 by the E. V. Prentice company from Portland, Oregon
Now portland is a feces laden, liberal shithole
@@Al_Gore_Rhythmn I'll bite, just to say: you tend to see what you're looking for. If you don't live in Portland, you have little basis for comment. If you do live in Portland, I wonder how your experience differs so much from that of the Portlanders I know. Are you involved in your community? Know your neighbors? Care about either?
@@ivaranderson2556 I moved away from Portland
That is some highly advanced machinery they are using in Finland , I have a feeling the plywood from homedepot is made using a 1948 Buick attached to reciprocating saw.
Speaking of gloves, one fast rule is that you never wear them operating machinery.. such as feeding a rip saw. And to my surprise, pulling venear and core off the dryers, just how quick a man's hands calluse and toughen up. Besides, those typical thick canvas gloves only last maybe a week and a half, at tops, anyway. Loved the work, but that was there and then, not here and now w/ technology. My favorite postion was spreaderman, just before the Hot press. Thanks
100% disagree with you. I ran a 500,000m3 ply mill. The wood fibre is laden with bacteria, and quickest way to get an infection… splinter. Handling dry veneer is like handling broken glass, its dry, sharp, brittle. We used Kevlar tight fitting gloves, and hand to elbow sleeves. “Toughen up” is 1950 IMO and a great way to have your workers with time off work.
@@stefanzzz6778 Depends on the machine. Wearing gloves and long sleeves on most metal working machinery (such as lathes or mills) is an easy way to get maimed or killed. Hot metal shavings are worse in every way than wood splinters. The only option is to "toughen up" and be mindful of how you handle the materials.
Don't wear gloves and you might get a dozen splinters in your hands before the day was over. But you are correct. Those leather gloves didn't last more than a few days. Some would use heavy rubber gloves. Especially on the dry end of the dryers where the sheets of veneer were pulled out and graded from.
Wrong.
@@baconsnot doesn’t “toughen up” mean “live with the injuries and keep working until you physically can’t and are out of a job”?
I used to work in the "old" industry. I still remember the smells and the heavy machinery.
Funny I still remember the ever present smell of wood as well. Was good work but I sure don't miss working the hot press in the middle of summer. Had great fun skiing behind the forklift on a pair of fishtails.
Yep......I spent a few summers between college terms working for the Georgia Pacific Corp. Only there we used Pine trees instead of Fir.
The moment you realize that the waste in 1954 is the size of today's tree
yeah, probably made particle board out of it.
mashed up to make Donkey Dinner or chipboard.
Those posts would make for good farm fencing.
you know, i believe that's where those posts come from.
Andrew Perry the waste goes to a chipper, then the paper mill and the cores are shipped or belted to the lumber mill to be cut down to dimensional lumber. Nothing is wasted... By Weyerhaeuser anyway
I worked 4 summers for Weyerhaeuser on both the green end (where the wet boards are fed into the dryer machines) and the dry end where they are graded for the size of the imperfections before going to the ply-veneer machine. It was grueling, but working there put me through college and taught me the value of hard work.
Back in the 70s the same Koskisen sawmill was producing lots of waste wood core. My grandfather found out how cheap those cores were and started building saunas for himself from those cores. Sadly it didn't take long for the mill to catch on to what he was doing and they promptly raised the prices. Now 50 years later his saunas are still like brand new.
Did I just watch a 6 minute video on plywood? Yes, yes i did.
it was actually almost interesting
agnostickamel . I know right, thoroughly enjoyed it too. Remind me the days of Mr. Rogers and picture picture. 🤣
agnostickamel watch how marbles are made! Equally fascinating!
agnostickamel, 6 minutes is nothing compared to what these workers have to see all day.
Yes. I don't understand why I watched this either o,o
Should be called "Documentary Film-Making: Then and Now." You really have to notice the rapid superfluous cuts and moving shots and the lack of attention to demonstrating the actual process, in the second part. It's like MTV vs. Citizen Kane.
Could also be called "Safety Panels - How to protect your workers"
Andrew Cady my bff w. Wwww b8 . X l
it would be redundant to go over how it's done since it was shown in the first part and the idea is already explained.
Totally. The old way was A to B to C. Blunt and straight forward like the men doing the work. The new way is A, some more A, a cut to a computer screen with no explanation, a cut to a joystick with cool depth of field, maybe this is B, but why worry about. A stack of veneer but where's the glue? No presses, but wait! Is this B still? Oh, there's your plywood. It's kind of C, now.
Watching again I think the editors of the original were interested in conveying the experience of watching the logging / plywood procedure. The second half is edited by someone who is seduced by editing. NLE (Non Linear editing) 'computer' editing is the big difference. It takes discipline to edit without falling prey to MTV cuts because each edit is a click and a drag away. It's too easy. You think you are doing something because you're clicking and dragging more. It's an example of the tool directing the artisan instead of the artisan mastering the tool. In short, it sucks.
The veneer mill I work at has been there since the forties and is still doing it the same way. From cutting the logs, to the guillotine operater, to sorting the boards, to feeding the dryer, to chipping the waste and scraping the furnace. We have Zero robots and fancy controls, and I couldn't be happier with it.
Where is the mill located?
1:30 the "waste log" is the size of what they cut these days
I'm thinking that those become 'peelers' that we use for fencing.
Yes not every tree is the same size or used for the same thing
You can't use the inner core for producing plywood. big tree = big core
I can see they started to wear gloves
And job losses due to automation
@@nishantdsouza So? Everything is cheaper now.
@@nishantdsouza that's debunked soo many times. Almost all automation is to remove shitty monotonous jobs. Unemployment is very low in whole Europe and we are extremely automated
@@Marcuslobenstein I am happy to hear this
@@Marcuslobenstein Just because unemployment is low doesn't mean job losses due to automation is also low. It's just that Europe's workforce mobility is much higher, that those displaced by automation can easily shift to another position.
"Okay so basically we skin a log and press it together"
Right, with the grain direction alternated in layers, makes it very strong
Yes wondering the same thing why they do it
3:35 You have a core feeder who feeds the strips through the glue machine, a core layer who lays the glued strips, and then you have the head and tail sheet turners who lift 2 full sheets together up over the body of the core layer. I was a sheet turner for 2 summers right out of high school. Long, hot work. We wore skin tight heavy rubber gloves. The core layer got pretty pissed of if you hit him with sheets going over his head. Sometimes it couldn't be helped because the sheets would break apart in your hand from being so brittle or cracked. 30 sheets of plywood to a load (into press) at 100 to 150 loads per shift if you were fast and the wood was good.
heckuva shoulder workout eh?
It’s amazing to see that in the old days, the difference in the diameter is one that the “waste” of the Douglas fir core is about the same as what the modern Finnish company was using (in relative terms of course). Loved watching both operations! Thanks for showing us this video....Phil
Almost every job shown in the old timey one was a high possibility of instant death or brutal injury.
Don't worry, they had no cell phones, texting or super hot chicks with smoking asses working back then. People actually concentrated on the job and lived to tell about it.
Lucky Goose Don't be so ridiculous.
Back when men were men, women were men, even children back then, men.
It's always funny when simpletons start overcompensating calling people snowflakes when anyone with a clue would understand the causes and consequences of modern society and how it happened.
Lucky Goose This is very true. I have seen several workplace injuries occur directly because of those distractions. I've seen people walk straight into dangerous machinery while it's operating, drive into closed garage doors, and generally be useless shits all while using their smart phones stupidly. As for women in the workplace, as a former manager I can tell you that the vast majority of workplace interpersonal complaints, disputes, gossip, and fighting were directly caused by women. Over generalizing here, but they tend to take everything personally and drastically overreact to any perceived insult. I could also tell if they were going to ask me for time off or something because they would squeeze their boobs together and play with their hair and start talking with this horribly annoying whiney voice.
That old footage was very impressing, the future of the past.
I was a sawyer and grader in a plywood mill in the early 70s. This is a fascinating film, especially how different it is from then.
Tom Sawyer 🪚
they also apparently add a layer of gold nowadays, at least the price reflects that.
If you put gold in the glue it makes the glue work better.
In the middle 1960's I worked in the Weyerhauser plywood plant in Longview, WA and that 1950's technology was still in use.
I work in a plant as a student in the 90 and the method was more like the old movie...
Do you still have your fingers?
Do you still have eyes?
Those lady's t-shirts said commitment to wood, I need one of those for my girlfriend!
i wouldn't. then she'll expect something. something wood like.
North Georgia commitment to woodie
Would be sued if that shirt was in America today
Wow. I thought of the exact same joke when I saw those shirts! 🤣
Lucky for her toothpicks are still made of wood
You mill workers are beasts, thanks for all you do.
Amazing! The way the wood just rolls off the log in flexible sheets is soo cool!
This is really cool, but how is the garbage I buy at Home Depot made? Because it has thousands of voids and cracks instantly.
Jstricks87 .... this you are watching is mature fir being processed into plywood ... you are buying southern yellow pine plywood ... made from smaller dimension trees grown in commercial forests ... plus your plywood is made with water based adhesive ... I used to be an area mgr for GP
Most likely your wood was put together by a foreign (Japanese) company off shore in big ships and then brought back to mainland. Because cheaper is always better.
This comment struck a chord with me as ignorant. I assume you are over the age of 60 and were burned with crappy post WWII Japanese sheet metal toys as a child. I am not sure if you are aware but since about 1994, Japan's manufacturing quality has been very high. Also, Japan has almost no wood. Most lumber and timber in the US come from Canada and Plywood imports come from Brazil and Chile.
All the products sold in Home Depot are made from powder. So you have powdered plywood. Thats why it cracks.
you get what you pay for. buy the expensive stuff instead of bottom shelf bargain wood and you wont have that problem
That place must smell amazing
A tree took 300 hundred years to grow, or even more, and a man in minutes turn it into plywood. No wonder we have nothing left. Nature paying a high price for industrialization.
Old timey engineering on full display. Nothing new under the sun. Great video.
No gloves back in the day, splinters must have been hell.
guessing their hands are so worked over it's like they have gloves...
or they have splinters embedded in their skin so it's practically made of wood at this point and behaves like a protective glove, shielding from further splinters.
I noticed that but also safety goggles and ear protection in the today video.
I'd say gloves were forbidden for they are pretty dangerous, if they get caught in something you can lose your fingers/hands
They've had gloves since... forever. Some people couldn't afford them
This song is so addictive it makes me want to watch the video over and over and over and over again just so I can listen to the music.
Wow and no gloves while handling those raw sheets! The comparison between then and now is an awesome look at how manufacturing has evolved. That truly is a high tech factory of the future!
Boy, that takes me back 50 years to when I operated these machines in the Georgia Pacific plywood mill in Sweethome Oregon. The things you forget...
Making cylinders into planes
Love your work. Your jokes are ok too.
haha apprecio
A plane has no thickness though...
frank howarth rectangular prisms, very thin ones.
Youre bald
This is the first video I have seen with this kind of music that was about actual wood.
Wood is a hugely underappreciated miracle material! We all take it for granted!
Watching this is so habit forming. One of best videos on KZhead. Way better than the garbage on TV. Any new TV sold should have KZhead standard.
What's the best way to carve wood? Whittle by whittle.
No it is a CNC
If you're looking for a laugh I think you're barking up the wrong tree.
That joke doesn't make the cut.
Not plywood
Quit stealing jokes you fuck, especially from your grandpa.
My great grandfather in North Western Ontario worked on the saw mills doing this very same thing!
Worked in a plywood mill for 8.5 years. We made Multiply underlay with the green X's on it and we also made wood hockey stick shafts.
Back breaking work all day long. Who can be nostalgic about it, but those who where not there?
Gotta love how they did it with the camera shots in today's version vs old days! Back then cameramen just stood there going WHOOOOAAA everytime in one spot while today's cameramen would be whipping their drones in the air full swing at the angles and good hd close-ups!
2:55 Good grief those dudes must have hands like leather
wearing suits non the last
@@rkhrd3211 they are wearing labour attire no suits
I could watch this all day.
That is some amazing technology. I love that with plywood there is no sawdust waste from milling boards, the cross lamination gives it exceptional properties, not splitting and higher strength and well it is just all around interesting to see! Thanks for sharing
Man I have been seeing that biscuit cut out on plywood 3:18 for so many years and always wondered about it finally my life is complete
Me too
I’ll bet that whole operation smells amazing. I’ll bet a lot of that equipment is still working. I’ll bet a lot of that plywood from the fifties is still in service. I’ll bet the trees grew back by now.
I doubt the last thing
That tree was at least 200 years old.
You must be drunk Those are secular trees and not even your grandchildren’s grandchildren will see them back at that size
@@dotta4763 "Secular trees"? As opposed to religious trees......?
Deco Dolly exactly !
I was just wondering yesterday how plywood is made. Thank you for posting!
Dude this music is on point. Plywood used to be so cool.
"...The Finnish'ed plywood ..." Hey wait a minute!
And yet every damn sheet of modern birch plywood we receive is either delaminating , has voids, or is badly out of square. I e been building furniture and cabinets for 35years prices keep going up and quality keeps going down.
Finns drink a lot.
The increasing pricing is called "inflation".
Buy albasia from us in Indonesia.
And get off my lawn!!
Worked with plywood for 40 years. Seen delamination, seen voids. Never, ever seen a mill-end out of square. Ever. Never mind 'badly out of square'. Doesn't happen, dude.
Wow!!! the real MVP is the one who created the machine to make the plywood!!!
Look how many people were employed back then! Men and women. Talk about team work💪
Everything in this process is so fucking dangerous and I love it.
People being mutilated and killed horribly because they're too cool and macho for safety measures is so awesome.
Good stuff. It's interesting to see how occupational safety has changed over the years.
Bengali movie old
thank you for showing it!
I hope the people of Finland appreciate the engineering and workmanship that went into building this machinery they use. That engineering from the Congo is a sight to behold
Finnish Birch ply is good stuff. Should show how the craptastic plywood from the local big box store is made. :P
pretty sure they use 1/4 a gallon of glue, and a chainsaw blade for their rotary cutter
The "cabinet grade" stuff in the local big box stores is very bad. Not just full of voids, but also the sheets overlap. It's clearly a different process with a whole lot more "don't care" involved. And yes, I've heard of plywood grading before. :)
museack thanks for making a big assumption. It's not about being cheap, it's about availability and access. The baltic/finnish birch is extremely difficult to get here without having a company ship a pallet, and when you can find it, the place only has a couple sheets that look like bowls because they've been there for a decade. The local lumber yards are borderline hostile to small quantity buyers (they require you pick only from the top of the stack, which has been sitting out in the weather and is in worse shape than the crap from home depot/lowes), and I have no place to store massive amounts of plywood without it being exposed to the nasty mid-atlantic humidity in any case. I've found one retailer who *may* be able to supply it, but after a week, they still haven't gotten back to me. I'll likely have to drive the two hours up to them to see what they have. Their local store a half hour away had, like others, just massively bowed stuff that had been out in the humidity. I'm not being a cheap-ass, but thanks for being a smart-ass. I have no problems paying more for good stuff when it makes sense.
Brad B that 1/16 veneer is horrible. Not only is it super thin, but it flakes off like they have massive areas with no glue. Stuff is a disaster. I stopped buying it, but as a result, but a lot of projects on hold for a long time while I try to find better stuff that hasn't been sitting out in the weather. If we had a less humid climate, it might be easier to find plywood in good condition, but even the good stuff is in bad condition here.
Pete Brown a lot is made in China.
How many workers does it take to make a sheet of plywood? Depends on how thin you slice them.
If you sliced the workers how would you be able to make Plywood.
This a great video educational. I'm a die hard fan of plywood and many other lumber products. This is not only my first watching of this channel but how plywood & veneer is made. At this writing i'm looking for veneers for my older loudspeaker sets.They're drying & over waxed they need replacement. I learned so much watching this nostalgia & current technologies cut & create lumbers! Awesome video! 🎥👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
Humans are incredible . To come up with this idea, then build the machines to accomplish it....is..well, incredible !
With all these modern, efficient, cost saving techniques, why is plywood so freaking expensive?
Expensive???..10 bahts for metre square...we prefer burning the tree rather than produce plywood.
For what it is, it's not expensive at all
oof, breaks my heart every time i see someone chop a redwood
Douglas fir trees
Fascinating absolutely amazing! I work with the stuff all the time but never really considered how it’s made
thank u for putting it here.. (appreciate it)
The 1700 people that disliked this video don’t respect wood.
No, they don’t respect unsustainably clear cutting ancient forests that are essential to biodiversity and slowing climate change
Neither did my ex-wife.
@@KonradLasocki Oregonian here. We banned most lumber harvesting here. Now our forests are overgrown, over crowded and dying. One lightening strike now causes catastrophic fires. Half of our local forest is now charred cinders. Clearcutting and replanting is the smart way to manage forests. (BTW, I own and live in a 200+ acre forest.)
I never realized that one layer in plywood is called Veneer in English. I think this must have something in relation with Finnish word for Plywood - it's called Vaneri
I learned this word in this video as well, Oxford dictionary traces its root back to Old French apparently.
I think it has a common root. The danish word for plywood is Finer.
Just realized the name too, thanks to another video. We always called it triplay and each layer "chapa" or "sheet".
Dutch word is fineer
It's fanér in swedish :P
Thank you for posting this.
this video is buttery smooth
What is the name of the track??? I love it!!!
Your mom
I work at a lumber company, and we watched this during some classroom instruction. The whole time I was comparing to how laxed the safety was back in the 1950s, compared to now. This is well before OSHA, and they certainly did things WAY different 70 years ago. It's honestly stunning for me.
My recommendation bar is very interesting at the moment with these type of videos
Just amazing. I always wondered how it was done, after working off and on over the years with plywood.
0:56 I thought someone was messing around with my piano
lol I thought I had a notification on one of my millions of open tabs!
1:28 the centers of logs now a days is where the money is , Heart wood. Pretty incredible that we can peel a log like its a paper towel roll.
why is the money in heart wood?
@@majermike Because that's where the best grain/color patterns will be. It's also the densest part of the log. It is far less susceptible to fungus and contains much less moisture than sapwood, which means it will shrink less when it dries
@@corners3755 wow why the f were they throwing them away
@@majermike they didn't know any better. Multiple uses for it came out later i assume.
Billy, heart wood is the least stable part of a tree. Only a few tree species produce usable heart wood. 99% of the oak, maple etc heart wood produced on our mill goes into pallets. It’s pretty junky.
This is a gold mine.
Awesome! Thanks. I searched for and found this video thanks to a convo with my uncle... it'll be so fun to discuss!
3:21 was my first job in a plywood mill
I don’t get how it works, do they just punch out the knot and place in a nice new bit
@@BorrisBackyardigan It's a dye shaped like a football and the knot gets punched out and a new piece is punched in its place from the bottom
What is this track? It's dope I watched the video once (and a half) and then hit replay like 4 times just to jam!
2 First Names darude sandstorm
I reckon I can build that hahaha no.
You are easily entertained by shitty techno -- must be nice
It doesn't have words, and it's simple. It's quite nice :) Why everybody gotta be overcomplicating shit?
by
Really interesting! I love watching these how things are made videos!
that single sheet veneer is so cool
Who else found this satisfying
The 1954 footage is astounding. Massive old growth trees being used for plywood!?!? They could have gotten some awesome dimensional lumber out of that! Such waste of our resources, things were taken for granted then.
Crazy to think how horribly unregulated and inefficient it was then
Thank you for your hard work
Absolutely brilliant little video. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻