Jon Endres
03-01-2016, 5:02 PM
For the past few months I've been walking past an end-cap stack of nominal 3/4" (I think it's 23/32") Arauco plywood. This stuff is stamped "araucoply.com" on the edge, says made in Chile, and has a sticker on it that has the barcode and the same website listed. I bought a sheet a while back and used it to build some rough shelves for my office at work. Nothing special but the price, roughly $30 per sheet.
Today I was in the store and saw that the endcap they normally stocked the stuff, had a different product - something like a 2.4 mm 'backing sheet' of what appeared to be luan plywood, the stuff looked like it had been left out in the rain for days. I've seen less warp in Star Trek reruns. Well, I needed 3/4" plywood so I looked at the other *ahem* 'quality products' they had. For only another $10, I could get a sheet of poplar plywood, which also had a case of the taco shell disease and the face plys were no thicker than cardstock. B face, and maybe a C-D back, full of knots and checks. The birch and oak weren't much better, for even more money.
Well, I thought, maybe they moved it? Let's find an 'associate'. Normally they're in your face like paparazzi, even if they don't have a clue about the products they sell. Of course, when you're actually looking for assistance, there's none to be found, but I did manage to track down one of the nearby Cheeto-lookalikes and asked him what happened to the endcap. Turns out it was indeed moved, to a permanent home in the aisle. Yay me. I put the poplar taco shell back and went in search of the Arauco product. The top sheet, as always, seemed to be a protective device and must have been fished out of the dumpster. I pulled a nice sheet out from underneath. 7 plies, face plies are a solid 1/16"+ (closer to 3/32"), probably a B-B or B-C grade to my untrained eye, and sanded very smooth one side. A bonus is that it does not smell like third-world beaver vomit when cut.
For rough work, including paint-grade work and especially shop cabinets (which I will need some quantity of in the near future), I really like this product. Of course, now that I have made that statement in public, they'll probably drop it next week in favor of something like recycled OSB. I wish I had a place to stockpile 20 sheets in case that happened. It's almost cheap enough to use for the interior walls of my shop. If they had a 1/2" product I'd be all over it.
One thumb up and a half-hearted hoorah for Arauco plywood at H-D. That's all for today folks.
Today I was in the store and saw that the endcap they normally stocked the stuff, had a different product - something like a 2.4 mm 'backing sheet' of what appeared to be luan plywood, the stuff looked like it had been left out in the rain for days. I've seen less warp in Star Trek reruns. Well, I needed 3/4" plywood so I looked at the other *ahem* 'quality products' they had. For only another $10, I could get a sheet of poplar plywood, which also had a case of the taco shell disease and the face plys were no thicker than cardstock. B face, and maybe a C-D back, full of knots and checks. The birch and oak weren't much better, for even more money.
Well, I thought, maybe they moved it? Let's find an 'associate'. Normally they're in your face like paparazzi, even if they don't have a clue about the products they sell. Of course, when you're actually looking for assistance, there's none to be found, but I did manage to track down one of the nearby Cheeto-lookalikes and asked him what happened to the endcap. Turns out it was indeed moved, to a permanent home in the aisle. Yay me. I put the poplar taco shell back and went in search of the Arauco product. The top sheet, as always, seemed to be a protective device and must have been fished out of the dumpster. I pulled a nice sheet out from underneath. 7 plies, face plies are a solid 1/16"+ (closer to 3/32"), probably a B-B or B-C grade to my untrained eye, and sanded very smooth one side. A bonus is that it does not smell like third-world beaver vomit when cut.
For rough work, including paint-grade work and especially shop cabinets (which I will need some quantity of in the near future), I really like this product. Of course, now that I have made that statement in public, they'll probably drop it next week in favor of something like recycled OSB. I wish I had a place to stockpile 20 sheets in case that happened. It's almost cheap enough to use for the interior walls of my shop. If they had a 1/2" product I'd be all over it.
One thumb up and a half-hearted hoorah for Arauco plywood at H-D. That's all for today folks.