MSM in Action

The simple checkerboard pattern of the top is highlighted by turning the veneer squares at 90° angles to each other.

This effect is made possible by using veneers on an MSM substrate.

You can make your own MSM panels by using a clamping jig like the one above to press veneer faces onto an MSM core.

One way of dealing with the difference between nominal and dimensional thicknesses of plywood: When making a dado, form shoulders a bit less than 1/8". The result is a crisper inside corner than trying to match the dado to the entering board.

Chances are fairly good that some piece of furniture in your home or office is made at least in part of manufactured sheet material (MSM). During the 1950s and 1960s, MSM gave birth to a new industry, and we are surrounded by the result — from the elegant veneered cubicles and furniture in our offices to the bathroom and kitchen cabinets we find in big-box home centers to the inexpensive furniture that comes flat in a box with “some assembly required.”

From a furniture-building perspective, MSM differs from solid wood in several important ways: It is available in large sheets, which allows for widths impossible or impractical with solid wood; it has no effective grain direction, except for the structurally unimportant face veneers on plywood, and it is dimensionally stable.

Some examples of MSM include plywood, medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard. Plywood is essentially a wood sandwich: Thin layers, or veneers, of solid wood are stacked, their grain direction alternating with each layer, and glued together with a face veneer of the desired wood on each side. MDF is a composite material of wood fibers and resins formed into sheets under heat and pressure. It can be used as construction material for painted projects, and some plywood is manufactured with veneer faces over an MDF core.

Particleboard also is a composite material, but the wood particles used in its manufacture are coarser. It, too, often is veneered with wood or some manufactured material.

It’s important to note that the dimensional thickness of most veneer-core plywood is less than its nominal thickness — that is, for example, 1/2" plywood is typically 15/32" thick and 3/4" plywood typically is actually 23/32" thick. This is important, say, if you are making a bookcase with plywood and need to cut dadoes to hold the shelves. Cutting a true 3/4" dado would make for a loose joint. With MDF and particleboard, the nominal and dimensional thicknesses are equal.

Both MDF and particleboard are denser and heavier than veneer-core plywood, and both will swell if exposed to water. In addition, regular wood screws  don’t hold well in the edges of MDF and particleboard; the holding power of plywood is better, but not as strong as that of solid wood. The tradeoff is cost: Particleboard is typically less expensive than MDF, which is typically less expensive than plywood.

Given the above, does this material have a place alongside the well-ordered and well-understood techniques and working methods of solid wood? Yes.

First, the material responds well to cutting and shaping by machine tools. Second, as mentioned above, the material is dimensionally stable, liberating designers to create shapes and structures impossible using solid wood. Finally, used as a substrate, the material allows us to use veneers cut from species that are unavailable as
solid wood.