Has anyone actually used Okoume plywood?

[Steve-O]

Hi,

I called a local wholesaler and found that most retail lumberyards in the area have accounts with them and can order Okoume and Baltic Birch from them, by the sheet.

Okoume is supposedly okay for our purposes, but there have been warnings here about using plywood of Asian manufacture. Most Okoume seems to be made in China.

Has anyone here actually built with Okoume?

Thanks,
Steve

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

The species is far less a concern than the quality. The main considerations are at least 5 plies (1/2") and full thickness outer plies, not thin veneer.

[JazzyRick]

If you can find good quality Okume use it. The strength to weight ratio is very very nice. As in you'll save yourself a bit of weight over a comparable cabinet made of Birch especially. I think the weight savings is in the neighborhood of 10+ lbs per 4x8 sheet(about 4.5 kg for those of you outside the US).

[sddj]

Steve... I used Okoume on the very first Tuba Slim prototype (i.e. handle placement, top hats, hardware, etc...) I built. It was lighter... but also a little trickier to work with. Ultimately, I wound up using cabinet grade birch due to availability, and I am planning on building 8 Tuba 30 slims. Didn't want to buy all the wood at once.

The biggest knock, that I found out later, was that the Okoume that was cut and NOT assembled immediately, seemed to warp easily. Outside layers also seemed to ply apart when corner edges were routed. Later when assembly was to happen I had a harder time keeping things square. For that reason, and the availability, I decided to use the birch.

I will say that the Okoume was lighter, definitely lighter. Not huge. If I recall, the T30 slim, unloaded, just cabinet with 3/4" Okoume outside, and 1/2" birch inner horn panels, weighed something like 60 lbs. I think my completed Birch Tuba 30s, fully loaded with driver and hardware weighs like 85 lbs.

Felt almost like balsa wood... if you remember those days??

[fender3x]

Okoume is very common here, and I had planned to use it on my T39 build. I ended up not using it, because when I went to pick it up it was already REALLY warped. I have seen Okoume at a lot of lumber yards here, and there has been a lot of variance in the quality. One time I found Okoume with nice, thick outer plies. Mostly, however, the outer plies have been super thin veneer. I am having some problems with the plywood I am using now because of thin veneer and will NEVER make that mistake again! Bottom line: eye-ball the plywood before you purchase. I would not order it if you have not seen a sample.

[Steve-O]

Thanks for the eyewitness reports. I will use birch. I may still have to order it, but I sense my chances of getting good wood are better with birch. I'll ask them what recourse I have if I order it and it shows up sub-par.

Thanks,
Steve

[sddj]

Used it on first trial T30, with good success. 9 ply was what I used, about the same cost as birch, but much lighter and easier to handle. Wound up not being able to get more, so I used what I had in the same locations of the future Tuba's. Don' remember which parts, but they were all the same. The rest I went with a combo of ocoume and birch. Seemed a good combination of strength and lack of weight.

[Michael Ewald Hansen]

[DJPhatman]

Hey, LOOK! A herd of ZOMBIE-threads!



ARE YOU GETTING THE POINT, SDDJ?