Much opportunity for the reduction of waste exists also in making plywood. 
Good gluing practice is necessary to produce good plywood and to reduce to 
a minimum the number of reject panels.- Much of the warping that causes 
rejection of plywood panels can "be eliminated by careful control of veneer 
quality and gluing conditions.— In the production of diagonal-grained 
panels and panels having matched- face veneers, there is necessarily a great 
deal of waste in cutting the veneer to size. Waste-reduction practices in 
this case would require the utilization of narrow widths and small pieces of 
veneers. When clipping veneers to size for matching, it is desirable, from 
the standpoint of waste reduction, to clip in small piles instead of large 
piles, so that the veneer can be arranged to best advantage. Waste occur- 
ring in clipping a large portion of a single flitch to uniform width can 
occasionally amount to one-third of the volume of the veneer being handled. 
3y clipping this same veneer in two piles instead of one, this volume of 
waste veneer could be reduced to one-half that occurring before, or to one- 
sixth of the total volume of veneer. 
The Reduction of Waste T hr ough Secondary 
Utilization Within the Plant 
The universally accepted method of utilizing veneer and plywood waste is for 
fuel. This method has the advantage that all wastes, bark, veneer, cores, 
and plywood, green and dry, can be used.— In many cases the use of wastes 
for this purpose may be justified, but most operators are, nevertheless, 
constantly casting about for more profitable outlets, 
A reduction in veneer waste is often made possible by the application of a 
certain amount of ingenuity and the introduction of new machinery. In one 
plywood plant a reduction in the proportion of veneer that normally went to 
fire the boiler was brought about by construction of a machine, called a 
"veneer retrieve," for rapidly cutting to size smaller pieces of veneer. 
The veneer passes rapidly on a conveyor through this machine, in which a 
12-foot clipper knife cuts it to width. A series of undercut saws at 1-foot 
intervals, under push-button control, cuts the veneer to lengths determined 
by the operator. Veneer pieces down to 24 by 4 inches in size are salvaged 
in this way, and the machine is said to salvage a quantity of veneer per 
8-hour shift equivalent to 5,000 board feet flog scale). 
The introduction of various types of edge splicers, such as one incorporating 
a large heated drum about 5 feet in diameter about which the veneer passes 
and from which it emerges as a continuous sheet made up of edge-glued pieces, 
has made it possible to produce economically core and cross-banded veneer 
-USDA 3ulletin Ho. 1500, "The gluing of wood." 
9 
-Forest Products Laboratory Report No. H1252. 
10 
Forest Products Laboratory Report Ho. R1666-13. 
Report No.. R1666-4 -5- 
