Difference in plywoods

[Salty]

Can you guess which one came from the box store?
You have to look close to see the surface veneer, but it is there. And it is very thin.
The one on the right is from a piece that is about 15 years old and came from a real lumber yard.
I could sand on that one all day and not go through the surface veneer.
How times have changed.
I have a question, as I have not checked. Can you still get cabinet grade plywood like the one on the right?

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I don't know of anything like that on the market. That is nice. TRUE 3/4" thick, no special router dado bit required. I guess we know where they took away the thickness.

That is a decent looking sheet product from a Big Box. All they carry around here is Red Oak. What is that?

[cgallery]

Isn't the one on the right a construction-grade plywood? Made with fir faces? And the one on the left hardwood? Hardwood plywoods typically have a much thinner face due to the very high cost of the veneer.

[Salty]

The one on the right is definetly not construction grade. It is what I would call AB.
The one from the box store is from the blue box and is called 3/4 birch 7 ply cabinet grade. It is not full 3/4".
I don't mind that the veneers are thinner but they have made it to thin. If there is a scratch on the surface there is almost no way you could sand it out without going through.
I'm going to stop by the local yard one of these days and see what real cabinet grade plywood looks like.

[cabinetman]

The hardwood specialty suppliers and some plywood suppliers that cater to cabinet shops carry a much different type of hardwood plywood than the big box stores. Sometimes their prices aren't that much higher. If you're looking for bookmatching and/or sequencing you almost have to go to a specialty supplier. I have had the amazing experience of accidently finding marked plywood for sequence at HD. It had to be an accident.



"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"

[Bob Bassett]

Ask your wood supplier to get you some 5' x 5' sheets of BALTIC BIRCH plywood. That is the name of the ply in the Right Hand window.

If you don't need a 5' x 5' sheet, the scrollsaw suppliers carry smaller sizes. Try:

Sloan's Workshop

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[Garasaki]

I'm using some of the 5 by 5 ply that Bob refers to on my garage cabinet project. Bought it from the local lumberyard (NOT Borg!!!)

It's 9 ply, 1/2" (not true I don't think) and is very nice. It does not have a veneer ply at all...9 equal plys.

I'm fairly new to this whole woodworking thing. This plywood has been a joy to work with though. And while I do not have a sophisticated wood "pallet" (read: I don't know the diff between good wood and bad) I find this plywood quite attractive, both on it's face and even the edges are pretty.

I compared with some Borg 3/4" oak the other day. The Borg stuff was not even in the same galaxy as the 9 ply birch.

Lesson learned, to me: Buy your stuff at the local lumberyard.

[Warren]

The Borg is not in the business of selling to woodworkers. They target builders and remodelers. My best selling projects are fortunately built of deminisional lumber so I can shop them as they are handy.

For some projects you just have to suck it up and find a supplier who caters to cabinet makers and, I don't use this word loosely after seeing what some of you guys create, artisians.