Forum - Paoson Woodworking

Hej from Sweden. I am having great problems here in Sweden finding suitable hard ply for the bench top. Have tried everywhere believe you me. If I wish for B/BB quality birch then I have to order x number of sheets minimum 5. The best I can do is BB/BB which is a soft ply I understand plus the probability it contains defects. Any alternative ideas for me? I could use 20- 21mm MDF which I do not fancy. Greetings to all.

hi Roger,
I find it strange that you can not find birch plywood in Sweden!
Ideally, you should look for a nearby industrial estate and ask about carpenters or wooden suplies stores, then you should ask two questions, first if they sell birch plywood or something similar, and if not, if they know where to get it! Surely you find some place where they sell it...

Suso hej. I also find it strange, however I have found a Swedish supplier of the made in Portugal " Valchromat" so I am going to glue a 8mm sheet onto 15 or 20mm BB/BB birch ply.and see how that looks. "Valchromat" sounds an interesting development from the normal MDF. Do you have any experience using it ? Greetings. Roger.

I have used it, I have some piece in my workshop. It is colored Mdf, I think you're going to spend a lot of time doing that!
And why not use only the 20mm BB/BB birch plywood? you will not have any problems in this way...

also you can take a phone list and call to a several carpentry stores, you may find the 18mm thickness plywood.

I have been using MDF, to build almost all the Workshop, if you try taking care not to hit the edges, I am sure it will work ok at very low costs, but be warned that the MDF is much more heavy than the plywood.

hi Raúl,
can you share some pictures of your work?
you could open a thread here: