(Replying to PARENT post)
Yes, engineered wood is a mainstay of construction. But all of those processes were and are set up to be able to process a large volume in a relatively short time and leave very little to no waste, and what waste there is is sold off as fuel.
Plywood - especially the higher grades - is amazing stuff. I visited a plywood factory in Ontario and it really opened my eyes to how clever and precise the manufacturing of various kinds of engineered wood is.
👤jacquesm🕑7y🔼0🗨️0
(Replying to PARENT post)
Plywood is the best combination of strength, weathering resistance, and workability of any material I've yet used. MDF is way cheaper, but it is so much weaker pound-for-pound[1].
1: One carpenter I talked to complained that MDF won't hold screws, and apparently this is a common complaint, but if you drill properly sized pilot holes and use sheetmetal screws it's pull-out strength is fine, particularly since you need thicker MDF than ply, so you can use a longer screw.
👤aidenn0🕑7y🔼0🗨️0
(Replying to PARENT post)
Yep, plywood gets a bad rap: it's incredibly strong stuff. Aircraft plywood can be used to build entire aircraft, marine plywood can withstand harsh weather conditions for years, and birch or hardwood plywood can look very pretty.
👤owenversteeg🕑7y🔼0🗨️0
(Replying to PARENT post)
Fire treated wood is called 'shou-sugi-ban' in Japanese and is occasionally used in commercial and residential applications. Fire treated wood has the benefit of being naturally fire-resistant, insect resistant, and water/rot resistant while also being a natural treatment (as opposed to a man-made chemical treatment.)
https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/materi...
👤gkanai🕑7y🔼0🗨️0
(Replying to PARENT post)
There’s also stabilized wood. You basically fill all the space inside the wood with a hard resin. Small pieces are used for things like jewelry, knife scales, etc.
👤monochromatic🕑7y🔼0🗨️0
(Replying to PARENT post)
Non-exotic methods of strengthening wood, made it to high levels of production in spades: plywood, oriented strand board, microlam and glulam beams, and medium density fiber board (MDF) are direct examples. Wood I-joists and plate connected wood trusses are less direct. From a functional standpoint, standardization of lumber grades is a social technology that allows designing wood members with known engineering properties.
On the chemical front, pressure treated lumber increases wood's strength across a timeline. Fire treatment increases wood strength in a narrow set of circumstances.
Of these, plywood is clearly the most successful in terms of industrial adoption being used for aircraft, boats, and furniture among other things.