Pre-finished maple plywood

[John Loftis]

Hi folks, all the major plywood suppliers in the DFW area sell pre-finished chinese birch plywood for cabinet interiors. I was hoping to find a source for pre-finished domestic maple or birch, aiming for a bit higher quality (fewer voids, less delamination concerns, etc). I've called everyone I can think of and apparently nobody wants or orders domestic stuff for carcass interiors. Columbia Forest Products makes it, but nobody here sells it because there (apparently) isn't demand for it.

Any thoughts on this? Do any of you use pre-finished domestic stuff for interiors? Or does everyone either finish their own interiors or use hecho en China stuff?

[Andy Giddings]

I used 3/4 veneer core maple ply from Columbia Forest Products (via Plywood Co of Fort Worth) in my last cabinet build. It wasn't pre-finished as I was painting the cabinets anyway with General Finishes Milk Paint. I've never used pre-finished ply as I prefer to apply the finish myself

[Malcolm McLeod]

+1 on Plywood Co of Ft Worth. Good prices.
Been too long, but I think they told me they'd apply a finish to sheet goods? ...Maybe? (Or maybe I destroyed that brain cell.)

[John Loftis]

Plywood Co gets a whole lot of my money. I like them. They sell unfinished C2 maple and pre-finished Chinese birch.

[Andy Giddings]

My money too John. Their delivery charges are reasonable and they are quick to deliver. They also sell unfinished A grade Maple ply if you need it

[Jeff Duncan]

I use a good amount of pre-finished although not all domestic. I've used Columbia products for years, but been using a lot more Garnica lately as one of my suppliers carries it and it's a better product. Believe it comes from Spain? Anyway I wouldn't touch the Chinese import ply for anything I even partially cared about.

As far as finish goes you just can't touch the finish on this stuff. It's better than anything I can get even close to in my spray booth with an Airless rig. For more furniture type of stuff it may not be the best choice, but if your building boxes, like for kitchens, there's nothing better IMHO.

good luck,
JeffD

[mreza Salav]

Up here we can get pre-finished domestic (I guess Columbia Forest?) birch. The finish is very smooth and as Jeff said I can't imagine one can get a similar consistent finish in a shop let (forgetting the cost/time it would take).

[peter gagliardi]

I use a good amount of pre-finished although not all domestic. I've used Columbia products for years, but been using a lot more Garnica lately as one of my suppliers carries it and it's a better product. Believe it comes from Spain? Anyway I wouldn't touch the Chinese import ply for anything I even partially cared about.

As far as finish goes you just can't touch the finish on this stuff. It's better than anything I can get even close to in my spray booth with an Airless rig. For more furniture type of stuff it may not be the best choice, but if your building boxes, like for kitchens, there's nothing better IMHO.

good luck,
JeffD

I too use the Columbia product, almost exclusively. All poplar core, and no urea formaldehyde glue- some people care. The all poplar core is a much,much better product than the usual fir/aspen mix most suppliers sell.

Jeff, if you don't mind, who is your supplier for the Garnica product? I am always looking for better products in general.

A looooong time ago, I had a salesman talk me into trying the cheap import plywood. I was cutting up the first sheet when the blade just started throwing sparks and "carbide bullets" everywhere!!
Shut it down, and found part of a veneer slicing knife broken off and glued between the plies! Hardened steel, it destroyed that blade.
The supplier promptly took back all that stock, brought me my old standby Columbia, apologized profusely, and had to supply me with a new blade!

[John Loftis]

Really glad to hear I'm not the only one interested in higher quality pre-finished sheets for cabinetry... now I just need to FIND the stuff in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Surely it exists...

[Justin Ludwig]

Pre-finish 1 sided birch is a step above unfinished. Pre-finished 2 sided birch is even better. I don't know if they select the sheets they are going to finish or if finishing them makes them more stable - regardless, the PF1 and PF2 stock I buy is much nicer and easier to work with than unfinished (which I use for bottom nailers, hidden toe kicks and other parts unseen).

To get pre-finished maple I would have to buy 35 sheets at a time and they are $10 and $15 more than the birch here. I show my customers the birch and they love it. It's extremely durable and stable and saves me a ton of time from having to finish interiors.

[roger wiegand]

The stuff I get from Boulter Plywood (Somerville, MA) seems to be very high quality, never asked where it comes from. They sell prefinished cherry, maple, and red oak. It is described as "domestic poplar core".

[Jeff Duncan]

Peter, I buy mostly from Atlantic and Goodfellow.

good luck,
JeffD

[Martin Wasner]

and saves me a ton of time from having to finish interiors.

My finisher charges the same for melamine interiors, or wood. He claims the time and cost spent taping stuff off is about the same as just shooting it.

I use a Roseburg bitch plywood for box parts and have been very happy with it. I've tried Columbia, Murphy and a few others, but always come back to the Roseburg. I'm just not a fan of prefinished material. It's a good hard finish, but then I'd have to be more careful when throwing parts around. I can sand out dings and scratches currently, not so much if it's finished. Plus, I use Baltic Birch for backs in cabinets. I've never looked to see if I can get that prefinished. Then it would also rule out using the drops from ¼" backs for drawer bottoms. Not a huge deal, but it'd all be waste otherwise.

I wonder how much better, if any, prefinished sheets suck down in a CNC, or are less likely to skate around? Melamine vs. Plywood there's a big difference in vacuum requirements.

[Martin Wasner]

I also edge all my shelves with a 1¼ face instead of edge banding, that'd be tough to sand and I'd also lose the ability to burn up the scradrops from cut out with shelves.