Resaw plywood, plane and reglue (to reduce thickness)?

[PittTrack]

I am finalizing some plans for a bookcase that has a floating panel on the two sides and then in the center.  My design is based on the Free FWW Plan ,only I am going to make some subtle changes along with make two of them side by side, similar to the one linked here.  Anyway I ran into a problem when sourcing the materials, specifically the plywood for the floating panels.  My normal source along with others in the area didn't have double sided red oak plywood in 1/4" so I was forced to get 1/2"  The big problem that I have is wanting "a little more meat" in the vertical legs between the plywood and edge so that the shelf pins have more area on the sides.  

Anyway I know it won't gain me much but I am thinking that I can take the sides as they will be ~9" x 33" panels and cut saw kerfs on the table saw along all of the edges near the center.  This will leave a section of plywood that is about 3" wide holding it together.  I could then take my hand saw and cut that out then take the two pieces to the planer, put them with the oak side down and plane them to a nice even thickness.  I would then take the two sides and some titebond and glue them back together.  

I realize that planing plywood can beat up the blades, I have a bird head on there which seems to be a bit better at taking a beating than HSS knives, even if not it's not a big deal for me if they dull up a little from it.  I would cut the panels a little bigger to start and then once the glue up is done I would cut them down to the desired size.  I have clamping cauls that I can use to ensure the pieces get pressure in the center.  

My main question is that the point of using plywood is for stability (no warp / twist etc)  will there be a big issue with doing what I am proposing?  I did a bunch of searching last night and all I could find was a Wood article and others saying how planing plywood can dull blades.  The ply has a 3 layer core with the veneer on the outside.  So if I remove some meat from this I would probably be taking out the middle layer resulting in the two  interior layers that would be glued back together being in the same direction.  

I was hoping to be able to get the legs thicker but when I milled them up to get them straight and such I had to take them down to 1.72" square.  This with the 1/2 ply will leave me with 0.6255" on the one side that I want to put a shelf pin into.  I plan on using metal sleeve inserts for the shelf pins.  The shelf pins are 1/4" and the sleeves are approximately 5/16" wide.  I list that last dimension as with the clearance listed above that would leave me with 0.6255" - 0.3125" / 2 = 0.1565" on each side of the pin sleeve.  That is assuming that I center the pins, I could scoot them over a little but there isn't a ton of room.     If I put the plywood on a diet there could be up to 0.2065" (taking out 0.20") on each side (with centering).  

Any thoughts are welcome, experience with putting plywood on a diet and then regluing would be even more awesome.  I'm not sure if this would cause any issue to the panels or not and would rather ask some others than do all the work and have a piece of furniture become scrap due to trying to get some more space for pins.

From what I can tell the advantages of alternating the grain orientation is as follows:

• Reducing the potential of the wood splitting when nailed (not nailing it, prob not a big deal)
  
  
• Reducing expansion and shrinkage (I would leave a little buffer on the sides for expansion regardless of a diet)
  
  
• Improved stability
  
  
• Makes the strength consistent throughout the panel
  

[fredhargis]

I think I would get the 1/4" oak you have available, and then veneer the bad side with some sheet veneer. You can get this in PSA so you wouldn't need a press of any kind, but for a piece that wide you could also just regular veneer with clamps  and short cauls.

[PittTrack]

I think I would get the 1/4" oak you have available, and then veneer the bad side with some sheet veneer. You can get this in PSA so you wouldn't need a press of any kind, but for a piece that wide you could also just regular veneer with clamps  and short cauls.

I never got into sheet veneering though it looks interesting (and is a good idea).  I bought the 1/2 already and it's sitting in the garage, not wanting to waste $75 I'm going to stick with that.  I don't use much plywood for projects anymore so it would likely sit there for quite a while.

[Gary G™]

Why not just resaw hardwood and make panels?

[AHill]

Planing ply is a disaster waiting to happen. You would need to get to the long grain instead of cross grain layer, and even then, the ply is so thin it'll tear out. If you really want to continue, take a piece of ply scrap and experiment.

[EightFingers]

You have to be pretty precise planing plywood. If your planer hits the grain that’s perpendicular to the cutters, you’re going to get an explosion.

[oakey]

what some others have said
and most planers will damage the thin veneers opposite the cutter head
as the pieces are ran through unlike solid wood were some minor scuffing is easily sanded out

[bob-t]

I am finalizing some plans for a bookcase that has a floating panel on the two sides and then in the center.  My design is based on the Free FWW Plan ,only I am going to make some subtle changes along with make two of them side by side, similar to the one linked here.  Anyway I ran into a problem when sourcing the materials, specifically the plywood for the floating panels.  My normal source along with others in the area didn't have double sided red oak plywood in 1/4" so I was forced to get 1/2"  The big problem that I have is wanting "a little more meat" in the vertical legs between the plywood and edge so that the shelf pins have more area on the sides.  

Anyway I know it won't gain me much but I am thinking that I can take the sides as they will be ~9" x 33" panels and cut saw kerfs on the table saw along all of the edges near the center.  This will leave a section of plywood that is about 3" wide holding it together.  I could then take my hand saw and cut that out then take the two pieces to the planer, put them with the oak side down and plane them to a nice even thickness.  I would then take the two sides and some titebond and glue them back together.  

I realize that planing plywood can beat up the blades, I have a bird head on there which seems to be a bit better at taking a beating than HSS knives, even if not it's not a big deal for me if they dull up a little from it.  I would cut the panels a little bigger to start and then once the glue up is done I would cut them down to the desired size.  I have clamping cauls that I can use to ensure the pieces get pressure in the center.  

My main question is that the point of using plywood is for stability (no warp / twist etc)  will there be a big issue with doing what I am proposing?  I did a bunch of searching last night and all I could find was a Wood article and others saying how planing plywood can dull blades.  The ply has a 3 layer core with the veneer on the outside.  So if I remove some meat from this I would probably be taking out the middle layer resulting in the two  interior layers that would be glued back together being in the same direction.  

I was hoping to be able to get the legs thicker but when I milled them up to get them straight and such I had to take them down to 1.72" square.  This with the 1/2 ply will leave me with 0.6255" on the one side that I want to put a shelf pin into.  I plan on using metal sleeve inserts for the shelf pins.  The shelf pins are 1/4" and the sleeves are approximately 5/16" wide.  I list that last dimension as with the clearance listed above that would leave me with 0.6255" - 0.3125" / 2 = 0.1565" on each side of the pin sleeve.  That is assuming that I center the pins, I could scoot them over a little but there isn't a ton of room.     If I put the plywood on a diet there could be up to 0.2065" (taking out 0.20") on each side (with centering).  

Any thoughts are welcome, experience with putting plywood on a diet and then regluing would be even more awesome.  I'm not sure if this would cause any issue to the panels or not and would rather ask some others than do all the work and have a piece of furniture become scrap due to trying to get some more space for pins.

From what I can tell the advantages of alternating the grain orientation is as follows:

• Reducing the potential of the wood splitting when nailed (not nailing it, prob not a big deal)
  
  
• Reducing expansion and shrinkage (I would leave a little buffer on the sides for expansion regardless of a diet)
  
  
• Improved stability
  
  
• Makes the strength consistent throughout the panel
  

[KC]

After looking at the plan site, I think I'd either make the whole leg(s) bigger to accommodate the thicker panel, or attach something the leg just where the shelf pins go.  Or just glue up a solid 1/4 panel.

[Alan S]

Why not just cut a rabbet on the edge of the plywood panel so it fits into the groove?  That simply moves the inner surface of the panel so it's not recessed as much from the legs.  Unless I misunderstood the question.