What is "AC fir plywood"?

think it means one grade A side and one grade C side (one nice face) and the
fir is probably a regional reference to the species used for the plywood..any
A/C plywood should work fine....find a lumber grader at a sawmill and ask them
for the specifics, maybe you wpould get a better and more accurate answer

Plywood is all 4X8 sheets standard with larger sizes uncommon but they exist

Grades of the faces. A is clean, C may or may not be plugged. Fir is the
wood peeled. Size 4x8.
http://www.awi-wa.com/_hidden/T_APA%20SOFTWOOD%20GRADING.htm

"PC Gameplayer" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Happy holidays to all...
>
> I was looking through American Woodworker #105 (Jan. issue) last night
> and I've pretty much decided to build their "Dream Bench". One stupid
> question has me stumped, though...
>
> The plans specify 4 sheets of "AC fir plywood" and 1 sheet of birch
> plywood. The thing is, I don't know what AC fir plywood is. They
> unfortunately don't give the dimensions of the uncut sheets, but they
> do show a cut diagram. The fir plywood looks smaller than the birch
> ply sheet, but I don't know the dimensions...I just kind of assumed
> all plywood came in 48X96 sheets.

On 25 Dec 2003 14:49:29 -0800, [email protected] (PC Gameplayer) wrote:


>The plans specify 4 sheets of "AC fir plywood" and 1 sheet of birch
>plywood. The thing is, I don't know what AC fir plywood is.

AC fir plywood is standard BORG variety ply, with on "A" graded face
and one "C" graded face.

The only other piece of information you'll need is the thickness.

Barry

"Upscale"writes:

> That leads me to ask. Do most/many wood dealers in the US stock actual
3/4"
> plywood or have you been inundated with metric sizes like we have been up
> here in Canada?
<snip>

It depends.

If you are buying commercial products from yards that serve the construction
industry, will be metric.

If you go to a plywood distributor who specializes in serving the cabinet
and furniture market, they will typically have BOTH metric and US based on
surface material.

HTH

--
Lew

S/A: Challenge, The Bullet Proof Boat, (Under Construction in the Southland)
Visit: <http://home.earthlink.net/~lewhodgett> for Pictures

some other posters have answered the question of what fir plywood
gradings and sizes are all about.

the birch ply may be birch veneer over a fir core- that stuff is also
4' x 8'. however, it may be the baltic birch ply, which has birch for
it's internal plies and comes in 5' x 5' sheets.

Bridger








On 25 Dec 2003 14:49:29 -0800, [email protected] (PC Gameplayer) wrote:

>Happy holidays to all...
>
>I was looking through American Woodworker #105 (Jan. issue) last night
>and I've pretty much decided to build their "Dream Bench". One stupid
>question has me stumped, though...
>
>The plans specify 4 sheets of "AC fir plywood" and 1 sheet of birch
>plywood. The thing is, I don't know what AC fir plywood is. They
>unfortunately don't give the dimensions of the uncut sheets, but they
>do show a cut diagram. The fir plywood looks smaller than the birch
>ply sheet, but I don't know the dimensions...I just kind of assumed
>all plywood came in 48X96 sheets.
>
>If they don't know what AC fir plywood is at Menards/HD/somewhere
>else, what should I be looking (or asking) for? Any ideas on the
>dimensions of said sheet of mystery ply? (C:
>
>Thanks...
>
>Jim

In article <[email protected]>,
> I don't know what AC fir plywood is.

Softwood plywood comes graded A through D on each side, based on the
number and severity of knots, splits, and other defects. Grade A is the
best, and means no knots. Grade D is the worst. Each side is graded by
itself, so AC mean grade A on one side, grade C on the other.

AC is a pretty common grade. Another common grade is "CDX", which is
really ugly looking stuff used for sheathing in house construction (the
X at the end means its made with waterproof glue for eXternal use).

You can find more details at

http://www.apawood.org/pdfs/managed/X505-R.pdf

> They unfortunately don't give the dimensions of the uncut sheets, but
> they do show a cut diagram. The fir plywood looks smaller than the
> birch ply sheet, but I don't know the dimensions...I just kind of
> assumed all plywood came in 48X96 sheets.

Hmmmm. Don't know what to make of that. Plywood does come in other
sizes, but 48 x 96 (commonly called "4 x 8", as in feet) is by far the
most common size for both fir and birch plywood.

> If they don't know what AC fir plywood is at Menards/HD/somewhere
> else, what should I be looking (or asking) for?

It's hard to imagine one of these places that didn't stock AC fir
plywood in several thicknesses (3/4" being the most common). Just tell
the guy, "I want 3/4 AC fir plywood". That's about as straight-forward
as it gets.

In article
<zlKGb.179363$%[email protected]>,
"Upscale" <[email protected]> wrote:

> That leads me to ask. Do most/many wood dealers in the US stock actual 3/4"
> plywood or have you been inundated with metric sizes like we have been up
> here in Canada?

You're right, it's not really 3/4". It's generally marked with some
sort of whacko size like 23/32nds, which is a couple of smooches plus an
RCH shy of 3/4". Does it work out to something exact in metric like
18mm? Maybe. Beats me.

That leads me to ask. Do most/many wood dealers in the US stock actual 3/4"
plywood or have you been inundated with metric sizes like we have been up
here in Canada? 17 mm, 18 mm, 19 mm, 19.5 mm are all sizes I've come across.
It's a pain in the butt and meant having to purchase a whole new group of
router bits, rulers and having to be extra careful with calculations and
measuring.

"Roy Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:roy-
> It's hard to imagine one of these places that didn't stock AC fir
> plywood in several thicknesses (3/4" being the most common). Just tell
> the guy, "I want 3/4 AC fir plywood". That's about as straight-forward
> as it gets.