At Borg they have what they label as cabinet grade plywood for $25 + change. Does anyone know the quality of these? I heard they weren't so good before. Anyone know if this has changed?
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-Paul -
I have been building new cabinets for our laundry room. I bought some of this and took it back as soon as I made the first long rip on it. It was full of voids and in one place was already delaminating.Dennis K Howard
www.geocities.com/dennishoward
"An elephant is nothing more than a mouse built to government specifications." Robert A Heinlein -
Get some BB ply from a local cabinet shop. Anything I've ever seen at the borg isn't even in the same league as real BB ply. And it isn't very expensive either.-John
"Look, I can't surrender without orders. I mean they emphasized that to me particularly. I don't know exactly why. The guy said "Blake, never surrender without checking"
-Henry BlakeComment
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The 3/4" oak-veneer plywood I purchased at Lowes recently doesn't seem too bad.
It has been some time since I've purchased "real, cabinet-grade plywood" from a real lumber yard. My recollection was that the real stuff still had some voids (BB is about the only plywood I've ever seen w/ pretty much no voids).
This stuff from Lowes had one small void in one sheet (I purchased three 2x4 sheets). In that same area there was a little delamination.
The void didn't bother me because it will be covered and it was small (a single ply and about an inch long). The delamination was fixed by spreading a little glue on the area, blowing the glue into the plys with a straw, then clamping it together. Seems to hold fine.
The Lowes stuff has only one good face. The rear face has filled knots and other defects.
I've inspected the stuff at HD and wouldn't touch it. The top sheet or two are always twisted like crazy, and serious delamination is often obvious at two corners.Comment
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I've used HD ply for shop cabinets (and even a sewing room cabinet for my wife). In my experience it seems some shipments of the ply are good and some are junk. None of it is good enough for top of the line kitchen cabinets but almost all I've purchased has been great for shop cabinets, only a couple of sheets that were really bad. I've also used the birch ply from Lowes and it seems to have fewer voids but the outer ply is very thin and delaminates very easily. So I guess to sum up, I think it would be fine for shop grade cabinets but check it carefully before you buy.
DonHoDonComment
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I've so far had very good experience - I bought several sheets, and already used some of them in various shop projects, no voids, no delaminations. One sheet has been sitting in my basement for several months now - again, haven't warped or delaminated or anything. Maybe I got lucky, but I will not hesitate to buy more of that stuff.Comment
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About 18 months ago I bought one sheet of 7 ply 3/4" at HD they called Lauan that's better than any of cutoffs I bought from a local cabinet shop more recently. It's got a light colored but very nice veneer on one side and B grade on the other. Machines well. NO voids. Haven't found it since but I would stock up if I found it again. Good enough for high quality cabinets IMHO.Comment
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Unless the plywood grading has changed since I took my last nap, construction grade plywood has an alpha character for front and back. Decorative, or furniture/cabinet grade hardwood plywoods have an alpha character for the face grade, and a numerical designation for the back grade.
I have no idea what HD or Lowes is selling.
.Comment
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Agree with the quality of the $25 sheet stuff is pretty random. I made a really nice sewing table from 2/3rd of a sheet, and it was really nice, only one void I ran across that was minor. But I'd bought it before and it was utter trash.Comment
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For the price of $25.00, I highly doubt they're selling real "cabinet grade" ply. Or real anything ply, maybe recycled.
About 6 months ago, I bought from my usual source of great wood (M.L. Condon in Westchester, NY) 2-full sheets of 3/4" Maple ply, price $125.00, and one sheet of 3/4" Cherry ply- $135.00.
Trying to get it home, as the full sheets won't fit into the back of my Honda Pilot, Priceless.
Now I'm aware that these prices are higher then most of you guys pay for the good stuff, but this NYC suburbs pricing and the only carry excellent stuff.
Don't even ask what they charge for Wenge, or Cocobolo.
Bruce"Western civilization didn't make all men equal,
Samuel Colt did"
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It's of Chinese origin, appears to be real wood in the plies, but the quality is definitely hit-or-miss. I agree that if you told the owner of a millwork shop that this stuff was "cabinet grade," he'd likely look at you like you'd lost your mind.
It's okay for shop cabinets, but would be marginal for inside the house. My biggest objection to what I've seen and bought locally is that the coloring of the face veneers varies WILDLY -- not just from sheet to sheet, but on the same sheet.LarryComment
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One point I want to bring up that I think we've all missed: you get what you pay for. $25 a sheet about the same cost as what you'd pay for wall building or sub-floor grade plywood. For the average project - shop cabinets, items that will be painted anyways, home improvement stuff - it's perfect.Comment
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I will reiterate - the $25 sheets I bought were all very good quality. One set of sheets that I already used in workshop actually had a very nice face texture - dark and curly, way better looking than any other ply - at least at HD, something I would not hesitate to use even on a home project. The sheets I bought afterward looked less interesting, in fact it was no longer called 'cabinet grade', it was called 'poplar-faced', and it was a very uniform light color, almost devoid of any kind of grain. Would make a good base for veneering, or for kitchen cabinet carcass use. Again - very solid, no voids, did not delaminate or warp. I did not count the plies, but it has at least 11 of them.Comment
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