Hi guys,
does anyone know how thick the Masonite sheets for the laser cutter are?
Also, where’s the best place to get thin plywood in Wichita?
Cheers,
Melanie
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Best or cheapest, just to be clear lol
I usually choose whoever is most convenient. I value my time more than I have in the past.lol
I really don’t care to use lol’s but I was told I might want to use them. lol
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Both LOL
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I’m in different areas in Wichita on the daily, do you know of a good local lumber shop with decent quality for an affordable price?
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Our Wiki has a list of places to get hardwood.
https://wiki.makeict.org/wiki/Woodshop_Area#Commercial_Sources_for_Wood
If you dont feel like screwing with any of those, all of the big retails sell plywood.
Someone else.might have a more specific answer for - local, affordable quality though.
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Star Lumber has Baltic Birch plywood in 5x5 ft sheets. I’ve been pretty happy with it. It seems that Menards has some decent plywood too, though I’m not as familiar their options. If you want a small but really nice piece of plywood, you can find some at Hobbytown USA.
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Masonite tends to vary in thickness. The different places in town have various thinknesses as well. I tend to measure the exact piece that I have. I think there should be a set of calipers in the laser room to do measure that. (Not sure exactly where… last time I used them was at Douglas location.)
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Most of the dark brown stuff is nominally 1/8", but measures slightly thinner than that. As LaDeana says, it does vary some. If you are designing something that has to fit together right, tempered hardboard or MDF is far more consistent in thickness, but even that will vary some from store to store, so best to get the material and measure it. If you can design in some tolerance for variations in thickness, you’ll be happier in the long run.
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I usually get my plywood at Menards. The thinnest they offer is 1/4" though and they don’t offer free cuts. Home Depot has some plywood that’s 3mm and they offer 2 free cuts per sheet. I’ve had good luck with the HD 3mm, however their 1/4" stuff I bought didn’t cut well. It was cheap underlayment - so I don’t know if it was the product or me that was the issue.
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Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated! Also, I forgot that I had a small keychain sample still in my pocket and my caliper told me it’s 0.11".
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Star has 1/8" plywood that is “door veneer”. I have some samples, it’s cheap, cuts very well on the laser and finishes beautifully. Prices vary, but they regularly have 4 varieties.
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I like to use fishers lumber goddard
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Where do you get larger sheets of 1/8" mdf? I mostly only see the tempered hardboard at the hardware stores
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My grandfather was once in the habit of buying whole hollow-core doors in bulk, hundreds in total, from Star, just to use the veneer for cabinetry and other projects.
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define larger? 1/4 (actual closer to 15/64)? 3/4? 1/2?
Sorry, I meant full sheets - 48" x 96" at 1/8" thick. I’ve only ever seen quarter/hobby sheets
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I think you can find them at most of the lumber yards.
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