The last time I used the import birch ply from H.D. or Lowes, what I got was inconsistant thickness, always less than 3/4″, and never flat. I said I would never buy again. Well, I needed to make to pipe chases to be painted, nothing fancy, so at $40 a sheet, I thought how can I go wrong. As soon as I started to rip some 6″ wide strips, the material started to bind in my table saw. What I ended up was twisted and almost not usable. Not sure if it was a moisture issue, or what. I will go back to paying the extra $20 bucks for the domestic product and know it will perform as expected.
Robert
Replies
Welcome to the club! - lol
I swore off of that cr@p several years ago and have been a much better human being ever since.
My only argument with your list of deficiencies would be about the thickness. Plywood went metric many years ago and I can't recall the last time I saw a piece of true 3/4" (or 1/2", or 1/4") plywood. In fact, when I draw up a design, I use 11/16" for my plywood thickness.
Oh boy can I ever relate. A while ago I needed an extra sheet of 3/4 ply. As it happened it was a saturday and the "real" wood supplier was closed on weekends. So off I go to HD. This was not for a fine veneer but simply a structural component. G1S would do.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing when it hit the outfeed table. I swear it was twisting like a pretzel! Cupping and twisting. Both sides of the cut. It started that behavior about 8 inches past the blade, and away from the blade. I wish someone had been there to take a video of this.
So I took both pieces back and they offered to replace the sheet. I gave them a look and they continued that a refund was also available.
Cheers,
Peter
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
I go with paint grade baltic birch, when I can get away with it. I can get it for 40 bucks a sheet at my local HW supplier.
14 years ago I remodeled my photography studio. I used birch cabinet ply from HD. I got beautiful stock and beautiful results. So when I read posts knocking the box stores sometimes I wonder if the person posting has really bought from them or just ranting against these stores.
Now I am ready to remodel my home office, utility room, pantry and kitchen. I went to Lowes, and one pallet of 3/4 birch had banding removed. The entire stack of about 44 sheets was bowed up approximately 4" in the center of the 96" dimension. Think of the internal stress it took to bow the entire pallet. I wonder how long it took for the bow to reveal itself after the banding was removed. There were 3 or 4 additional pallets still banded together and no bowing was revealed.
Greg
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Exo 35:30-35
Welcome to the world of China ply or Formaldeply .
14 years ago the plywood you bought was a different product than what you saw all warped up .
A large portion of the suspect panels are made up of Poplar core with Poplar skins that at first glance to the casual looker may look like Birch .
My guess is the moisture content in the plywood is higher then optimal , perhaps from shipping or the mfg process itself .
It is a wonderful product and can be used with great success and with no warpage problems , if you screw them to box car walls .
regards dusty
No, I am not just ranting about these stores, most of the products sold are quality, and the employees are always very helpful. I am comparing two different products that are both sold as paint grade birch veneer plywood. The material at H.D. and Lowes is typically made of 9 to 11 plys. The thickness varies within the sheet and is no more than 11/16" thick. Now, what I get from my 75 year old lumber yard is typically a seven ply material, is a true 3/4" thick, is flat when purchased, and stay in place after cutting.
Robert
I'm not usually one to say anythig good about HD but the ones local to me now sell poplar plywood made in Canada. While it'is ugly it is smooth as can be and does not seem to warp, delaminate of show any of the other problems I have seen in the past with HD plywood. Not for fine furniture but at $45 a sheet it works pretty well for shop cabinets and painted stuff.
Dana
The last time I used the import birch ply from H.D. or Lowes, what I got was inconsistent thickness.. And I will add many other things in that wood.
I will say that I have had some problems with plywood a got at $100.00 OR MORE a sheet from my local supplier. Good folks I THINK..
I guess, this is a generalised problem now; let me explain.
I recently bought a sheet of 3/4" Baltic birch plywood for a cabinet from a reputable wood dealership in Montreal and for a substiantial price. Well, believe it or not, the sheet closed down on the blade within the first inches and eventually STOPPED the blade altogether before I had time to shut down.
This happened on all the cuts in any direction. Never seen anything like this, I mean PLYWOOD binding the saw. Who knows, mabye the russian mafia has taken hold of wood procuction!
Pierre
AND HERE I thought it was my novice skills and lack of knowledge for the past years! I cannot believe what I am reading here! This has happened to me with a good clean blade and really precise spacing front and back of my fence (old TS and fence but precise spacing). I too have had the blade bind up on big box cabinet grade plywoods. I have used my blade guard with old style riving knife and that seems to have helped but honestly I run the TS without the guard 95% of the time.
This is going to take all of us complaining and returning half cut sheets and creating more expense in making good on lousy products in returning them and refuse to purchase them , it is that simple .
Try taking a sheet back and tell them you felt sick after cutting the sheet , ask to see the hazard data sheet , should be interesting as they will pretty soon become accountable for selling defective products tainted with deadly chemicals, as litigious a country as the U.S. imo it is only a matter of time .
If McDonalds can get sued for hot coffee , you bet the sellers of poison may also have their day .
Besides the poor quality core issues of moisture content and variable thicknesses and warping , by far the worst thing about the China ply is the Formaldehyde content often being 100 times over the safe limits , do you really want this stuff off gassing in your homes ?
dusty, buy domestic when possible , don't feed the greed !
I have bought china ply from reputable sheet goods suppliers in the past but now they don't stock it anymore because of the wrath of tradesmen.The big draw is the number of laminations for the price.At a glance, almost as many as baltic birch.Close inspection will show plys overlapping and crushed flat. I wonder if this too adds tension and undulations within the sheet .Like the previous posters mention there is some good Canadian Birch/maple faced poplar out there 5 or 7 ply in 18.5 or 19 mm for paint grade work or of course Baltic in 60"by 60" sheets
jako ,
I think what a lot of folks may not realize , we have always associated more plies with better quality , but in reality it means there are more layers of glue , if the content is high in Formaldehyde now there is more of it , this may be adding to the problem the way I see it .
dusty
I got some china ply. what garbage! When I cut it it twisted and looked like a snake.
Looking at the plys some were overlapped and like said crushed to fit. Were those plys over lap the panel gets a tension bend.
Norecore has a osb core and nice veneer. cost more but flat, period.
it's not moisture it's just poor manufactuing!!!
Yunz guys are all a bunch of whiners! I got some 1/2" ply from HD last year and trimmed the edges off. I then had TWO sheets of 1/4" plywood 'cause the sheet automatically separated nicely in the middle! What a deal! Two sheets for the price of one! How can you complain about that?
It's a FEATURE, I'm tellin' ya! Not a bug.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Mike you were lucky, I got snake ply for cabinet boxes out of my 3/4 material !!!!
I once had a guy try to convince me that the thinner plywood comes from the bottom of the stack and the thicker stuff from the top. Believable?
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
(soon to be www.flairwoodworks.com)
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Thinner plywood comes from manufacturers bamboozling the rating agencies into thinking that they actually needed !/32 or 1/16 inch for normal manufacturing tolerances.
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