Quality Birch Plywood from Kitronik

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I shy away from Birch plywood, it's more dense than the poplar I love so it's useful for more structural things but it cuts slower so I tend to build strength into my designs. Kevin from Kitronik was telling me about their new supplier and how nice the new material was. So I bought some 0.8mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 3mm and 6mm and I'm extremely impressed with all of it.

The last batch of birch I bought was fairly rough on the surface but it also had a fair number of voids and knots in it. Every time the laser hits one of these it doesn't cut cleanly and you have one of two choices, you can spend just as long freeing the thing up by hand afterwards or you can turn the power up and re cut it. Kitronik has really grasped the idea that quality is essential for laser cutting, I would happily pay a little bit more for quality wood that cuts first time because it's going to cost far more if I have to do it a second time. The best part of it all is that the high quality wood from Kitronik costs the same as the other stuff so there is no contest.

The second thing I've noted is how much nicer the 1.5mm ply is. On previous models I've had a really burnt and black edge and I've had to cut it slower than the 6mm stuff to make sure it cuts cleanly. I'm convinced this is because it was actually non laserable external ply, the Kitronik stuff really is laserable and uses internal glue between the layers so it cuts cleanly.

It's another rave review for Kitronik but with good reason. Get some birch (and Poplar (and Perspex (and Polypropylene))) for yourself, you'll be glad you did.


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