Since then, plywood has become so widely used that in 1995 enough was produced worldwide to cover a football field to a depth of eight miles. How plywood is made The process of making plywood has become ever more sophisticated. Next, they are mounted on a lathe and spun at a few hundred revolutions per minute. Because the log is sliced with a knife, none of it is lost to sawdust, although some is wasted in the process of reducing an irregularly shaped log to a true cylinder. Over time, systems have improved to discard less and less of the center core at the end of the process.
New technologies allow veneer-makers to peel logs down to a core barely thicker than a broomstick.
Once veneers are made and trimmed to standard lengths, they must be handled carefully so they don't tear. The sheets are dried in a kiln, and some are then patched. The sheets of veneer are then laid up in stacks and glued, with the better-looking veneers on the face and back, and the unappealing, irregular or knottiest sheets in the center. Some final repairs are made with resin, the panel is sanded, and it's ready for use. The last twenty years have seen significant changes in the raw materials used to manufacture softwood plywood.