Curt Harms
06-12-2009, 7:29 PM
I debated whether to add this to the thread about plywood vs. solid and decided to start a new thread instead rather than hijack it. Yeah, I know this is kinda stating the obvious but I had my first experience with Non-BORG plywood and oh my, what a difference. SWMBO wanted a "broom closet" so I made a few calls to non-borg sources. I was looking for flat sawn red oak trying to match the existing kitchen cabinets. Existing are builders boxes and probably aren't too bad considering. The cabinet doors look like raised panel but aren't, there's no end grain where there should be. Probably composite panels with some sort of veneer. Anyway, I found Industrial Plywood in Reading which wasn't too far away. Got 5 sheets of this
120515
last fall for $70/sheet. Flat sawn red oak on one side, birch on the other. I'm not positive about the origin but I'm pretty certain it is either US or Canada. There was printing on the edge but it wasn't well done and was hard to read. It wasn't true 3/4 but rather 18mm, I think, .72"-.73". Yes the thickness was within .01" everywhere I checked. The nice part is that it was 97" long and 48 1/2" wide so there can be a couple saw kerfs taken out and there's still 4 full 2X4 panels or whatever, not nominal size minus saw kerfs. I also picked up a sheet of 3/8" birch for the back. They all spent the winter in the garage stacked on edge clamped together. SWMBO wondered how crooked they'd be this spring. They weren't, they were as flat as when I brough 'em home. I rigged up a way to cut them in half longways and went to work. Virtually NO voids, no warping, no splintering. Life is good:).
SWMBO's happy, I'm happy, well worth a few extra bucks. Thanks for looking.
Curt
120515
last fall for $70/sheet. Flat sawn red oak on one side, birch on the other. I'm not positive about the origin but I'm pretty certain it is either US or Canada. There was printing on the edge but it wasn't well done and was hard to read. It wasn't true 3/4 but rather 18mm, I think, .72"-.73". Yes the thickness was within .01" everywhere I checked. The nice part is that it was 97" long and 48 1/2" wide so there can be a couple saw kerfs taken out and there's still 4 full 2X4 panels or whatever, not nominal size minus saw kerfs. I also picked up a sheet of 3/8" birch for the back. They all spent the winter in the garage stacked on edge clamped together. SWMBO wondered how crooked they'd be this spring. They weren't, they were as flat as when I brough 'em home. I rigged up a way to cut them in half longways and went to work. Virtually NO voids, no warping, no splintering. Life is good:).
SWMBO's happy, I'm happy, well worth a few extra bucks. Thanks for looking.
Curt