Plywood - talk to us about how you use plywood

[Foster]

Back in the 70's everything I owned would fit in the back of a VW Micro bus. A Combination of being a hippy (I had Wildstang shirts before there was a Wildstang) and building things that were minimal in design. For example, the stereo rack of turntable, receiver, 8 track (you get a smack for laughing) and dual cassette player was tensioned 2*2" between the floor and ceiling supported by 1" birch rods. Gave the hovering in mid air look. Psychedelic

Other items was made out of birch plywood. Yes think IKEA, but nice plywood not particle board. All my stuff came apart, stacked flat, fit in the VW microbus.

Fast forward to today. Lots of books / sites about plywood construction. I need to build some things, but want to learn the state of the art, I'm not into using my Japanese micro cutting saw.

The teams that build with plywood help me with:

-- Plys seem to be thinner and they are doing more and more cross ply work. Is there a common way to ask for this?

-- Final surfaces are now coming into play, used to be birch only, now more wood types. Plus double sided finished sides are available for a reasonable cost. Where do you go for these items? whats the right way to ask for nice surfaces.

-- Laser cut is the art - +/- a 64th. So tight fit is possible. Who cuts this for you? Is it very expensive? What CAD do I need to supply?

-- Other cuts -- I have a carbon tipped 1/64" blade to make clean and smooth cuts. Is the laser cuts as good ?

-- Assembly -- Fine miters and dados with some screws worked. Now there is lots of camber bolts/lock devices. What do you use to keep things from coming apart. I'd like to take this apart, so "glue" isn't a primary option. I'm good with 'biscuits" for support, but don't want to glue them, unless I'm building a larger surface. I've been surfing the Blum catalog, lots of choices there

-- Finish -- I'm a master at raw edge finish with glue and veneer. I see the T plastic and some T wood edging available. Do you finish the raw edges or go "its a robot that kicked you in points, deal with the edges"

Thanks for your help!

Just as an aside, if you can't answer the question, but you build robots that are 51% wood, post that you use wood.