Tales of BORG plywood

[Robert Reece]

A year or so ago, I made the carcass for a set of built in drawers that I had planned. I had to make the carcass then because the house was being trimmed and I needed the carcass to nail the trim to.

So it came time to build the drawers and when I got to sizing everything up, I discovered the BORG plywood wasn't doing me any favors. See pic #2. That is a picture of the cabinet side with a 1/4" localized bow in it. The bow spans maybe 6". BTW, the sticker is still on the plywood and it says "Cabinet grade". Whatever, this stuff really is bad. I know we cover the subject here every now and then, so I thought I would put my experience in.

I considered tearing the carcass out and putting proper plywood in there, but decided I could just shim the slides to make it work. Well, I ended up making the drawers 1" too wide (forgot to subtract for the slides), so I ended up tearing it out anyway. Pic #1 is the current state of the project. Next project is making the drawer fronts.

[Ben Martin]

Too bad Menard's isn't in your area, they have very very nice "Made in USA" cabinet grade ply.

Those drawers look great, post up some finished pics when you get the fronts done.

[scott vroom]

I use borg plywood for wall sheathing and not much else. It is basically garbage.

By the way, your drawers look beautiful!

[Norman Pyles]

I picked up 2 sheets of USA made birch ply from Home Depot last month. It is not as bad as the Chinese ply, but not as good as the ply I get from a local cabinet shop.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I bought a half dozen sheets the other day. Not from the borg but it is the quality that's being talked about. Some pretty bad bowing in some but I thought that it was because some had been setting a good while. Still, the stuff gets cut to pieces small enough that the bow wouldn't matter. But then look along the ripped edge and it seems to be about half wood and half voids. The thing that gets me is that although I didn't minutely check all them I didn't see any voids along the factory edges. It's like the stuff was made to deceive.

[Vic Damone]

Don't forget just how much money you saved by patronizing a large importer.




______________________
"Never wise up a chump"
W.C. Fields

[Robert Reece]

Don't forget just how much money you saved by patronizing a large importer.

Yep, I did save a lot :rolleyes:. I think I spent around $45 for this sheet and I can get prefinished (2 sides) cabinet ply, made in USA, for $57 a sheet at the hardwood store. It's a bit farther, but it's better stuff. It still has a slight bow to the whole sheet, but it doesn't have any voids and the sheet doesn't vary in thickness at all. So once cut up, it works out pretty well.
I just make sure I keep that stuff on hand now.

And the original carcass that I tore out was replaced with this prefinished stuff. The old carcass is in the shop now, storing plywood cut offs. Works pretty well for that!