birch vs mdf weight

[enzowho 10+ year member]

My sheet of Baltic Birch was noticeably lighter then the MDF sheet I bought a while ago. How much is hard to tell, I would say probably 20-30%. I got it from a local hardware store that charged me quite a lot. It was a full 13 layers though and absolutely beautiful.

If you end up getting birch, make sure you show it off. Please don't carpet the whole thing, that's just a waste.

 

[fawd06 10+ year member]

yeh im gonna look tommorrow at home depot and lowes see what they have.

n

 

[enzowho 10+ year member]

I only found the crappy stuff at Home Depot and Lowes. They have "birch plywood" but I found its quality to be sub-par. Make sure you are getting 13 layer, don't buy the "7 is just as good" line that I got.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

I've heard iffy things about the 13-ply Chinese imported stuff @ Home Depot...namely the glue being sub-par.

One of these days I need to go to a lumberyard here and price out a project, I'm expecting to pay $60-70 a sheet for stuff that actually will take a roundover without chipping and finishes nicely...

 

[Flipx99 5,000+ posts]

I've heard iffy things about the 13-ply Chinese imported stuff @ Home Depot...namely the glue being sub-par.
One of these days I need to go to a lumberyard here and price out a project, I'm expecting to pay $60-70 a sheet for stuff that actually will take a roundover without chipping and finishes nicely...

Question:

How well do the bond to each other?

I am thinking of using birch for the outside and mdf for the ports because it is much easier to round over.

 

[bibby 5,000+ posts]

My sheet i just used was noticebly lighter. i could handle it bymyself alot better than MDF.

 

[splbeast 10+ year member]

yeh im gonna look tommorrow at home depot and lowes see what they have.n

3/4 MDF FTW //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

I just built 2 boxes out of 11 layer BB that my local HD had. Each box was about 15#'s lighter than the same size boxes in MDF. Also had NO trouble doing a roundover and it took stain nicely. Just wasn't prepared for splinters since I've been using MDF all along.

I didn't look at the 7 layer stuff they had and couldn't find 13 layer...

 

[WantedIsHere]

I just built 2 boxes out of 11 layer BB that my local HD had. Each box was about 15#'s lighter than the same size boxes in MDF. Also had NO trouble doing a roundover and it took stain nicely. Just wasn't prepared for splinters since I've been using MDF all along.
I didn't look at the 7 layer stuff they had and couldn't find 13 layer...

that is the 7 layer.....

 

[kicker06 10+ year member]

I got 9 ply from Lowes and it is perfect.

I think its less than half the weight of MDF.

 

[JohnnyChuttz 10+ year member]

I have been making enclosures out of MDF for ~11 yrs with good results. I feel no need to change.

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

K guys, A little info on Birch.....

Be careful there IS a difference between Birch plywood and baltic birch. More than likely, the 7 and 9 ply stuff some of you are talking about, is regular birch plywood. It is a veneer core ply, and is NOT what you want to use for building a sub box. This ply is much lighter than MDF, probably less than 50% of the weight per sheet.

Baltic Birch, which is mor than likely the 11 and 13 ply stuff that you are talking about, is what you should be using. Its slightly heavier than the veneer core birch, but still noticably lighter than MDF.

I dont have the exact numbers in front of me, but I called our distributor to get some prices and info on Baltic Birch compared to Trupan. Trupan is 80% the weight of MDF, but BB is only .09 lbs lighter per sq ft than Trupan. So over a full sheet you will notice almost a 3 lb difference between Trupan and BB.

Id guess, a legit sheet of 13 ply BB is right around the 70 lb mark. The veneer core stuff, probably around 50.