I've built 3 kayaks and a canoe and have relied heavily on this forum for advice and guidence. MUCH THANKS! Now I've turned to building furniture for my children. I want to use 3/16" sapele wood strips glued on top of plywood base for a table top. Will there be a problem with expansion and contraction of the sapele on the plywood base? If so what are my options to prevent it?

How thick are your strips? Am assuming the 3/16" is width. I would not use anything thicker than 1/8". A bigger potential problem is that the entire top might not stay flat if you only glue the strips on one side. Whatever you glue to one surface you should also glue to the other surface. Doesn't necessarily need to be sapele, but should be close in density to the sapele. It is also advisable to glue the strips in a direction 90 degrees to the grain direction on the surfaces you are gluing to, unless you are using something like a particle board material (which I would not recommend) although a medium density fiber board (MDF) works well.

Stephen