Pre-finshed Plywood Wish

[John Carlo]

I wonder if there are others out there who would like to see the marketplace offer a plywood with pre-finished maple on one side and an offering of unfinished red oak or cherry for example on the other side for those exposed ends.

[Jim Becker]

I would just like to be able to buy pre-finished plywood in a single species (cherry/QS Cherry for me) without having to jump through hoops...the distributors around here will not even speak to a serious hobbyist. Enormously expensive for my retailer to order it, even though they give me a "contractor" price.

[Joe Chritz]

I'm with Jim on this one. It is such a pain I just buy Maple ply and knock it down to finish size and do a spray fest.

All that stuff is available but it is normally an issue where you have to order in bunks and that is a lot of plywood, even for a really serious hobby.

Joe

[Tom Majewski]

Jim, Have you tried Industrial Plywood and Russell Plywood in Reading PA?

I've been getting my good ply from them for years.

Tom

[John Carlo]

I have a place here in Michigan called Drayton Plywood. They have the maple finished 1 side or both. I just finished a vanity for our downstairs bathroom and I love the tough finish. The face frame and doors are red oak. They do sell quite a variety of hardwood plywoods but only the maple in pre-finished. I just bought 4 sheets of red oak to do a set of cabinets for the laundry room. As I head into retirement this spring after 39 years of teaching, my wife has every day planned for me. Prefinished eases the pain!

[Joe Chritz]

Not to mention you really can't match the finish on pre-finished plywood with anything available to any regular shops. Most pre-finished is some kind of UV cured or some space age super stuff.

Joe

[Jim Becker]

Jim, Have you tried Industrial Plywood and Russell Plywood in Reading PA?

That would be close to a 3.5 hour round trip, not including "shopping time", depending upon the day/time of day/traffic and with work travel, my buying is pretty much limited to Saturdays most of the time. But I do know about them and understand they are an excellent source.

[Prashun Patel]

I would just like to be able to buy pre-finished plywood in a single species (cherry/QS Cherry for me) without having to jump through hoops...the distributors around here will not even speak to a serious hobbyist. Enormously expensive for my retailer to order it, even though they give me a "contractor" price.

Jim, where DO you get yr pre-finished ply? I'm in yr neck of the woods and am searching for a source - even if it's spendy.

Update: I called Willard Brothers. They have birch (not Baltic), cherry, maple, oak, mahogany, and ash available prefinished @ 4x8.
The prefin price is actually only about 10-20% more than the unfinished price. That being said, the prefin cherry is darn expensive...

[Thomas Bennett]

The pre-finished plywood available has a laquer based finish I found hard to match, repair or guarantee. I pre-finish myself. I do a quick sand with 220, clean the sheets and apply polyurethane. If I have more than 10 sheets I use a paint pump(it takes a bunch of finish and solvent to clean the machine) . It takes just seconds to coat a sheet. I put it on thick, and don't worry about a few drips. Stand it up verically and put a little stick between sheets.If I'm doing less sheets , I will just use a conventional spray gun. If I'm just doing one sheet and in a hurry, I will roll a coat on with a foam roller. This, of course, repells glue upon assembly and gets you one closer to finish. After assembly of a cabinet, I sand the ply surfaces with 220. Give it a try!

[Jim Becker]

Jim, where DO you get yr pre-finished ply? I'm in yr neck of the woods and am searching for a source - even if it's spendy.

In a nutshell, I don't get it. I just pre-finish components before assembly so I can spray them flat. I don't do enough work in plywood to justify all the running around to find pre-finished. And when I think about it, the pre-finished cherry that I'd be looking for wouldn't likely look like what I do since I use a BLO, shellac and USL finishing schedule. If I could get pre-finished birch "easily", then I might buy it for convenience for carcass work, but again, I don't do a lot of it.