Metal in my ply and indispensable tools

I don't know if any of you have ever run into this. I noticed a little flake of metal embedded in my plywood I was gluing up for the lectern legs. Very, very small, and I could not find any in the other pieces. So, I believe it was the only bit of metal, but I've never seen this before.


Oh, yeah - the indispensable tool? Dental picks. I purchased a cheap set at Harbor Freight some years ago and I can't beleive how often I pull them out of the drawer for some job or another. Like picking out little bits of metal.

I also use them for getting way into corners to remove glue, clean out the tip on my glue bot, and a dozen other things. Worth the few bucks for sure.

Rennie Heuer said:

I don't know if any of you have ever run into this. I noticed a little flake of metal embedded in my plywood I was gluing up for the lectern legs. Very, very small, and I could not find any in the other pieces. So, I believe it was the only bit of metal, but I've never seen this before.

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Yes, I have seen this with a piece of ply I had recently. It was sandwiched between ply's. It was very small. At the time I thought it was an single aberration, but I am now wondering.

I saw a post where a guy had cut through a razor blade! +1 on the HF dental picks; surprisingly handy for a just few dollars.

I recall seeing on another forum (don't recall which one) someone who has found used razor or utility knife blades embedded between layers in plywood...more than once. I think it was Steve Clardy, if I recall correctly.

I agree on the dental picks, too. I bought one a few years ago at the "cheap tool" booth at the LA County Fair, and use it for a lot of things in the shop.

I've never seen metal in the plywood (yet). But dental picks.... wonderful tools I worked on automatic transmissions for 30 years and couldn't have done it with out the picks. I still use them in woodworking too. The one I keep the pointiest I use for getting slivers out. Needles are too small to find in my shop.

Back in the day.... (why is everything I remember coming from that era?) anyway, A local plywood plant went on strike, after it was over, the company called the schools and offered truck loads of plywood free for a good home. (they may have told the lords in charge but they didn't tell us) The Plywood had nails strewn all about and sandwitched between the layers, We found this when we tried ripping on the TS, sparks ,overheated blade that curled and locked onto a nail (steel blades back then).

May have been OK for subfloor or barn sheeting but not for general use.

I often see sparks when I rip or cut Plywood, never actually seen a piece of metal, just assumed it was a tooth wearing on the blade. It may be a common occurance as it is done almost entirely by machines and they are metal and they do wear and break down and there are metal all about that may fly across the room and land on the sheet as it is pocessed. (I watched them make some on one of those how they do that shows on TV) What are the odds of exposing the single piece of small metal fragment in a 4X8 sheet of Ply, and have it come to the edge and appear right where you wanted to cut? If it is a single piece in all that sheet, then you should also purchase Lotto tickets this weekend.

Wonder if anyone ever picks their teeth with a dental pick, I lost mine had it mounted in a holder (block of wood with a hole in it) just inside the center cabinet door over my bench (horrizontal surface for piling stuff) and last flea market I went to, I didn't see any, maybe nex trip.... I have a dentist appointment next month, maybe I swipe one of his....

Bill Simpson said:

What are the odds of exposing the single piece of small metal fragment in a 4X8 sheet of Ply, and have it come to the edge and appear right where you wanted to cut? If it is a single piece in all that sheet, then you should also purchase Lotto tickets this weekend.

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I did. You're all invited to the new shop..... maybe.....

Wonder if anyone ever picks their teeth with a dental pick, I lost mine had it mounted in a holder (block of wood with a hole in it) just inside the center cabinet door over my bench (horrizontal surface for piling stuff) and last flea market I went to, I didn't see any, maybe nex trip.... I have a dentist appointment next month, maybe I swipe one of his....

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If he finds out I would not want to be on the business end of his drill. Better you should just drop a couple of bucks at harbor Freight.

I was on a project one time at a cigarette plant in Georgia. Being an ex-smoker I was quite put off by that place because of course smoking was permitted (actually encouraged) everywhere...free cigarettes anywhere in the plant. It was interesting to see, though. These huge machines (called "makers") made individual cigarettes, packaged them up in packs, put the packs in cartons, and put the cartons in cases...very quickly. Then onto the conveyer and out to shipping. In shipping there was a station at a point on the conveyor where a couple of teams looked at xray monitors trying to discover unwanted "stuff" in packaged cigarettes. Mostly metal. I watched this for awhile, and a guy pulled a case off the conveyor, took out a specific carton, and dumped packs out on a table. Then he took a magnet and passed it over the packs. One of the packs jumped up to the magnet. He dumped the cigarettes out of it, and one of those jumped up to the magnet. It contained a small piece of metal that he said had fallen off a maker and gotten embedded in the cigarette. How he saw that I'll never know. Metal in plywood?...haven't encountered it, but I can certainly believe it.

One thing I found kinda funny about that place is that out in the part of the factory where the loose tobacco was being processed, OSHA required earplugs. They were issued...the kind that were joined by a nylon cord. I asked my host why that particular style, and he said that if they were separate and a plug happened to fall down to a tobacco conveyor and end up in a cigarette, the rubber in the plug was carcinogenic. Hard not to laugh...the whole bloody product was carcinogenic.