Replies

1. 
   JMartinsky | Sep 17, 2008 12:25am | #1

   Dear CK,
   I have come across metal "shavings" but never something large enough to wipe out a blade. That is pretty bloody dangerous and although, I doubt that they will do anything about it, I would bring it to HD's attention. Perhaps they will give you a new sheet! (Yikes!)

   Best,

   John

2. 
   PaulMooreAR | Sep 17, 2008 12:26am | #2

   I've bought quite a few sheets of the "cabinet grade" plywood at HD.  Around $29.  There were many times that I was cutting dados and saw sparks off the blade.  I just thougth they were caused by the blades maybe hitting one another or something else or my imagination but after reading your message it may have been that there was some type of metal in the sheets.  I never saw any metal but maybe because it was a dado it just exploded the metal.  I'll pay more attention next time.

3. 
   SgianDubh | Sep 17, 2008 12:37am | #3

   It's not particularly unusual to find stray bits of steel or metal in man made board material. Just because you found the metal in a board purchased from a DIY outlet I wouldn't use that alone as a valid basis for taking your business elsewhere. Bits of metal appear in more expensive boards purchased at specialist board suppliers.

   I've lost count of the number of times I've lost teeth from sawblades, chipped a router bit or damaged spindle moulder tooling in much the same way. Slainte.

   Richard Jones Furniture

4. 
   oldusty | Sep 17, 2008 03:12am | #4

       and All ,

                 What most may not know is domestic plywood mills use a color coded system with the use of metallic chips spread into the glue between the plies .

        This is an identification tool for liability and such they alone use the code or color , now across the pond Richard maybe this is not so ? If you look close to an edge cut of plywood you can see mircroscopic er well small chips of metal .

      The sparks sound scary , my take is China ply , anything goes , who has complained for 30 to 40 % lower prices , My feeling is the days are numbered to continue at the same quality control Formaldehyde levels as currently allowed by the U.S. but not all other countries allow it to be sold there does Brittain ? China does not sell the stuff we have available to us in the homeland , no they have health , air and safety standards that apply to many products , obviously the air from the commerce has taken it's toll .

             dusty ,  No / Ch##a  Ply

5. 
   ring | Sep 17, 2008 09:51am | #5

   Yeah, well it happens. I never hit anything very substantial in plywood but I'm not surprised. I've found shotgun pellets in French oak, 22 cal rounds in Black Walnut, and the best of all - a native blowgun dart in Afromosia. Wish I had the presence of mind to take a photo of it. Sawmills get this stuff on a routine basis.

   David Ring

   http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e

1. 
   oldusty | Sep 17, 2008 05:09pm | #7

     David ,

                 I have found a few 22s in Eastern Red Oak , it had already been sliced and surfaced . I have noticed in Oaks usually a darkish mineral stain will be present in areas metals may be present , I suppose because of the Tannin in the Oak .

                dusty ,up to my ears in Cherry

1. 
   ring | Sep 17, 2008 05:11pm | #8

   Lead seems to plane very nicely, dontcha think?David Ringhttp://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e

   Edited 9/17/2008 10:29 am by ring

1. 
   oldusty | Sep 17, 2008 05:30pm | #9

    Yup , cuts like butta .

                 d

2. 
   heartwould | Sep 17, 2008 07:06pm | #10

   A good friend ruined a resaw blade on a horseshoe he found in a nice piece of cherry.  He kept the chunk with the horseshoe as a keepsake.  Maybe we should all invest in metal detectors before we start sawing away into the unknown?

   Edited 9/17/2008 9:48 pm ET by heartwould

1. 
   oldusty | Sep 18, 2008 02:27am | #12

     Most all lumber mills do employ metal detectors as well as instruments used in the woods when falling trees , this largely was due to tree spikers that would spike the trees in ways that made it hard to miss the spikes of course this was done all in the name of saving old growth , Spotted Owls ,Marbled Mureliettes (sp) and some lizard maybe global warming could of been prevented too if they had only known about it .

        Lets face it a spike will play heck with a chain saw blade or worse .

                        dusty

                   

1. 
   heartwould | Sep 18, 2008 04:43am | #13

   A farmer flatly denied having any black walnut trees on his property even when I took a five gallon bucket of walnuts to him.  The tree was really something special--probably three feet in diameter and as straight as could be.  There were other great walnut trees on his property that were at least as old, but not as nice as that one.  The farmer probably said he didn't have such a tree in hopes that people like me would leave him alone.  I can live with that, but the militant environmentalists do a lot of damage in their quest to do what they believe to be good. 

6. 
   dkellernc | Sep 17, 2008 02:22pm | #6

   Not sure if this is the case here, but one has to be careful with the Big Box stores use of "normal" terms to describe woodworking products. In particular, I've found that Home Depot was carrying somethign they claimed was "birch" plywood that was not Baltic Birch of the type typically sold in 5'X5' sheets, but rather something that had veneers of birch on the surface and was manufactured in China.

   Another, related antecdote is a very good friend of mine that is starting a boat building enterprise in AL. We talk frequently, and he related that he'd bought a bunch of ply from Lowe's for decking material instead of his usual cabinetmaker's supply, principally because it was a about $10 a sheet cheaper. He coats these sheets with epoxy resin to make them tougher, and in this particular case, the epoxy would either not cure, or radically blistered. He returned the rest of it to Lowes, but not before observing the "Made in China" label on it.

   That doesn't mean that someone will eventually figure out a way to manufacture high-quality ply in China, but at this point it seems this hasn't happened yet.

7. 
   Fotze | Sep 18, 2008 12:07am | #11

   I would take the plywood with the blade back to home depot and ask them what THEY are going to do about it.