I have recently embarked on building bookcases and I have run into an issue. I decided to use a cabinet grade birch plywood that I picked up from the hardwood dealer here in Dallas. Everything was fine until I started the cross-cuts and experienced tearout on the top layer of the plywood face. I stopped this by doing all my cuts with a skill saw and plywood blade. But when cutting the dados, I still got quite a bit of tearout. I like using this plywood because its inexpensive. So my question is: how do I stop tear out on plywood?

There are few key things that you can do to prevent tearout in plywood. First, use a zero clearance insert on your tablesaw. A zero clearance insert fully supports the wood fibers right at the cut line, which will dramatically improve your cut quality. You can buy insert blanks specifically made for your saw, or you can just make your own from plywood or MDF.

The second thing you can do is use a high quality, high tooth count blade. I generally use a 40 tooth Forrest Woodworker II or a Tenryu 40-tooth Gold Medal blade, and that works just fine. But if you are still getting tearout, you might try a blade with 60-80 teeth, such as this one from Freud. More teeth equates to a smoother cut and less tearout. You’ll also notice a key element of that particular blade is the Hi ATB (alternating bevel). This means that the teeth on the blade are milled at a high angle for more effective scoring of the plywood, thereby creating less tearout.

Now for the dado blade, it just comes down to sharpness and the properties of your particular dado stack. Some of the more budget-friendly dado sets will give you tearout no matter what you do. But the higher quality dado sets will produce tear out free cuts until they start to become dull, at which point you’ll send them out for sharpening. I use the Forrest Dado King, which I picked up used about 6 years ago. But before that, I used this Freud dado set with great results. In fact, I still think this Freud set is the best balance of price and performance.

Another thing you can do to prevent tearout involves our old friend blue tape. Just run a strip of blue masking tape along the cut line on the side that you anticipate tear out. The tape helps to hold the fibers in place during the cut, and usually the result is a clean crisp line. But with a zero clearance insert and a high quality blade, this step is usually unnecessary.

And the final thing you might try is making a scoring cut (image borrowed from American Woodworker). If you raise the blade about 1/32″ and make a very light initial pass, that will usually cleanly sever the fibers on the face of the plywood. That way, you can make a second pass with the blade extended and you’ll end up with a tearout free cut. A number of larger saws out there are actually outfitted with a second blade that lives in front of the main blade, and its sole purpose is to make this type of scoring cut.

This mind boggling project comes to us from Neil. Its an incredible lesson in “outside the box” thinking! Let’s hear from Neil:

I’m a South African living in Britain watching your American show – interesting how the world works huh? I’d like to enter a Viewer Project: my “ORIGINS” table. I really want to share this project with woodworkers because it has proven that I have to, like you say, think out of the box. Our schooling and everyday life causes the thought process to become rather closed and problem-oriented, rather than free-flowing and conceptual. It is like nothing I have tried before. Even after three months of making I still wonder how it all came to be.

It began about a year ago with an idea I had for a cabinet. My wife was pregnant and the whole process of birth become a fascination. The idea of male/female, yin-yang, parent and child etc, which I hope is evident in the design grew into the idea of using not only opposing woods, but opposing shapes, textures, types of board/timber. And then the cabinet wanted to become a table that supported a “child” if you will – the bowl in the middle.

Now what I have to keep reminding myself here is that I was trying my UTMOST best to NOT think about how I was going to make it. I’m sure us woodies are all cursed with this, but it has become so important (like with David Marks’ and furnitology’s) to concentrate on design and the “mindset” of the piece first, then problem-solve the issue of “how?” I made 2 HUGE mistakes and almost gave up but decided to go on. I was already on a tight budget for it (the veneers for the top alone cost something like $150!!) but I decided that once you pop, you can’t stop.

I found myself using tools I never had before: a round-bottomed spokeshave to finesse the curves, soil and dirt to tarnish the copper, sawdust and cyanoacrylate glue as wood-filler, a round-bottomed surform to finish the base. I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like, but it was make-it-up-as-you-go-along all the time and that was such a refreshing (though often frustrating) change. I strongly believe now that it’s not what you know, but rather what you want to learn that counts, and as long as woodworking is respective of the beauty that lies in wood, it will always be good :) It’s the ultimate material and unlike other things, it grows on trees!

Here are some construction details: “Female” consists of 27 layers of 19mm birch plywood – each piece individually routed round and then glued and pressed together. The final shape was eventually achieved after much use of a surform, belt sander, chisels and LOADS of 80 grit sandpaper wrapped around a 1.5 inch dowel.

Male consists of two halves. Each is two layers of 5mm bendyply veneered with walnut using contact adhesive (I was worried this would throw the shape out but the 2 layers of bendyply seemed to work well :) Making this was the most difficult part as the two halves had to be joined in a straight line, down a shape that curves in two directions and not only in the middle but where it joins the female too !! It took days of trial and error with a block plane to get that edge down the middle ! It’s still not perfect but hey we all have our limits :) I first made the structure then veneered one side at a time. The compound mitre on the base of the male proved to be challenging too since it does not lie flat on one surface but on an edge.

The cherry piece joining the two was made from a single length for continuity and just cut into smaller angled pieces to achieve the curve. The “foot” that joins the base of the male was done by hand with some chisels and a belt sander. The bowl also came to be using bendyply. Veneers are Maple, Walnut and I think Burr elm.

Once I got the male and female to join nicely with the cherry, and the bowl all fitted, I started on the top. I routed a 3foot diameter piece of 19mm ply and edged it with a 4mm cherry strip. I achieved this using strap-clamps and very straight-grained quarter sawn cherry to avoid it splitting/snapping (Yikes!). Initially it was to be more of a yin-yang shape on top but the waterdrop shape of the bowl called for a more refined curve. I first laid the burr walnut veneer, then the burr cluster maple (quite pink isn’t it?) then I routed the groove for the cherry inlay.

The cherry inlay isn’t conventionally liad. Rather than a thin slice of veneer it consists of about 10 layers of cherry veneer laid on edge within the groove! That proved to be a rather testing time :) After some hand-planing with a SHARP edge, it was flush to the veneer surfaces. I recessed the glass supports into the top and made the template for the glass by tracing on a piece of paper with a pencil (similar to the copper method). I sent it off to the glass-makers and they did a swell job. The glass lid is lifted out using the inch hole.

Now the copper came by accident due to the fact that I had to cover ugly screws sticking out of the female where I had screwed the ply pieces together. I tried to remove them neatly but it turned ugly after a while :) So I decided – as a friend once told me – rather make a display of your mistakes than try to hide them. I think I have realized now how helpful that can be. So I drilled the three 65mm holes 3mm deep around the screws, got hold of some 3mm copper plate and after making a rough paper template I ground them out and shaped them using a belt-sander on edge with 40 grit paper. I then tarnished them by leaving them outside on the lawn for a few nights and beat and scraped them in any way possible to create the aged look. I glued them in with PU glue and sanded them with 600 grit.

The finish: After much debate and much research (including the help of The Wood Whisperer) I finally came to a conclusion. Danish Oil is one of the easiest finishes you could ever apply (I hope Marc agrees here) I have done lots of spraying and used varnishes and oils of all shapes and sizes, but since I had been laid off at work, I had no access to the spray-shop and thus needed a really easy no fuss finish. And I must say – it does take a good 4 coats over 4 days to do the job but it is ever so easy to wipe on. A rub down with steel wool between coats and then some good-old-fashioned beeswax (2 coats) and some elbow-grease to bring out a bit of a shine and I am really very pleased with the finish. I did want to use a polyurethane spray but I think it actually worked out better this way since I can rest assured it is easily re-finished or restored.

Lastly I must say that it really has been an amazing learning experience and I would not have been able to do it without the advice and general positivity of online shows like TWW – so thanks Marc and friends!

For those who are interested, here are some exact dimensions for you:
Long Stretchers: 62″
Short Stretchers: 38″
Overall Dimensions: 65″ L x 39 1/2″ D x 33 3/4″H

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