What was I thinking? (Home Depot plywood)

[Bob Jones 5443]

For a few years now I have focused on smaller projects involving quality hardwoods. Recently I took on a larger built-in that I figured would be fine with plywood, as I was going to use face frames, molding trim, and paint.

I went to Home Depot with my frame of reference stuck in 2010, the last time I bought 4x8 sheets for another large built-in (different house). I remember Purebond as the brand that was of sufficient quality that it held up under the needs of that type of project.

Boy, have things changed.

The best piece I could find was a maple veneer. I checked for voids between the plies, and there didn't seem to be any, so I mentally put the sheet in the category of the sheets I used to buy there a decade ago. Purebond it is not. Where to start?

The edges weren't straight or even square to the face of the sheet.
The outer veneer is probably 1/128" thick if it's that (I should have noticed that in the store).
The back face is just plain unacceptable: foot-long voids that I'll need to fill and sand before painting, lower-quality maple veneer compared to the front. (I didn't pull the sheet to look at the back!)
SO...MUCH...PITCH! My crosscut blade, dado stack, and router bit –– heck, the whole router table around the bit –– were all gunked up after a very few cuts. What is that glue they're using? Yuck.


The sheet is flat enough, and with no inner voids it will likely hold up in use. But what a piece of inferior product it is.

C'mon, folks; back me up. Surely you remember when Purebond was an acceptable medium-quality sheet good (suitable for face frames and painting)? That memory is what brought me back to Home Depot. I am now done with buying plywood there.

I know what you're thinking: I wasn't observant enough. Guilty as charged. I let my positive memory of Purebond prejudice my judgment of the junk they're selling today. But now that I'm down to the rabbeting stage on all the parts, it's too late to start over.

[Brian Tymchak]

Are you sure it was Purebond? I've never seen Purebond maple ply at my HD, only birch. Purebond is the only plywood I'll buy at a big box store. I just bought a few sheets of 1/2" @ HD ast week. It was perfect. Both sheets even had a square corner to start from.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Brian, what I bought in 2010, Silicon Valley, was definitely PureBond (and yes, it was birch). Today my four nearest Home Depots in Contra Costa County do not carry a selection of PureBond, so I bought that inferior (maple, not PureBond) piece last month that was on the shelf. I see now I didn't specify that in the first post.

Also, I just checked online. They asked for my location, so I gave it to them. The only 3/4" "Purebond" that came up as available was 1/2" boards precut for corn hole games.

Then I opened up the search for just plywood. Reading the fine print, I saw Columbia Forest Products PureBond. Only Red Oak came up as in stock in stores within 20 miles of me.

Maybe I should have ordered a sheet and waited for it to come to the store, but I didn't want to take a chance that the sheet would have something wrong with it. Instead I get a sheet with a lot wrong with it.

My wood guy just retired after 4 decades in the business. He always had top quality everything. There's nothing to take his place in this county of 1.2 million.

[lowell holmes]

You need to find lumber yards near you. I have three yards with in thirty minutes. I never have inferior wood.

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&type=Y21_F159_200679_021421&p=kilgore+lumber

[ray grundhoefer]

10 or 15 years ago I bought some 3/4 red oak plywood from home depot for a project.. It was by far the worst plywood I have ever had the displeasure of using. Voids all over and yes ,terribly thin veneer coat. At the time my regular supplier was out and I wanted to get started that weekend. BUT neverf again

[Jim Dwight]

If you are going to paint it, I think the softwood plywood HD sells (3/4) from Chile, I think they call it Radianta, is a pretty good buy. One side is clear and the other side is normally completely sound but will have some knots. I have a large cabinet in my bathroom made from it and painted and it is holding up great. It has a few voids but it pretty good. The face plys are thick enough you shouldn't sand through. It may have gone up a little but I've bought it for $40/sheet. Their Sandeply can also work sometimes but is made of some sort of very soft wood with lots of pores. Internal voids are not too bad in it either. I agree their hardwood plywood leaves a lot to be desired. Face veneers are typically rotary cut and very thin. Lots of internal voids and internal plys are often softwood. But sometimes I've had poplar internal plys which is typically sounder.

[Peter Kelly]

https://www.truittandwhite.com
https://www.macbeath.com

Not more than 30 minutes drive from Lafayette.

[Rich Aldrich]

I prefer the Timber Products hardwood plywood at Menards. It is decent quality. I have had good luck with it.

[Jim Becker]

What's available in your local home center (orange, blue, whatever color) will generally vary geographically. Menards is a slightly different animal from what I've observed from folks posting here and elsewhere over the years, as they seem to combine "home center" with "real lumber yard that caters to builders" into one operation. But since they are not in this area, I've never been in one to see with my own eyes what they carry. For a few years now, I've been buying most of my sheet goods from a commercial plywood supplier. (Industrial Plywood out of Reading PA in my case) I've only ever had one bad sheet...which they replaced two days later... and they deliver to my area twice a week with no delivery fee for a $300 minimum order. (which is not hard to accomplish...) It's the "good stuff".

[Ed Gibbons]

What's available in your local home center (orange, blue, whatever color) will generally vary geographically. Menards is a slightly different animal from what I've observed from folks posting here and elsewhere over the years, as they seem to combine "home center" with "real lumber yard that caters to builders" into one operation. But since they are not in this area, I've never been in one to see with my own eyes what they carry. For a few years now, I've been buying most of my sheet goods from a commercial plywood supplier. (Industrial Plywood out of Reading PA in my case) I've only ever had one bad sheet...which they replaced two days later... and they deliver to my area twice a week with no delivery fee for a $300 minimum order. (which is not hard to accomplish...) It's the "good stuff".

There is an Industrial Plywood in Lewiston. Good place.

[Dave Cav]

If you are going to paint it, I think the softwood plywood HD sells (3/4) from Chile, I think they call it Radianta, is a pretty good buy. One side is clear and the other side is normally completely sound but will have some knots. I have a large cabinet in my bathroom made from it and painted and it is holding up great. It has a few voids but it pretty good. The face plys are thick enough you shouldn't sand through. It may have gone up a little but I've bought it for $40/sheet.

I have used this stuff with fairly good results as well. Generally pretty flat and few to no voids and the A side is usually pretty good. The local HD generally has it in stock but shipments are hit and miss. I try to keep a couple of sheets around for utility work or shelves. One thing to note, it's not at all weather or waterproof. I had some scraps outside and they fell apart.

[Jim Becker]

There is an Industrial Plywood in Lewiston. Good place.
Same company, Ed. They serve more central PA from Lewiston and more eastern PA from Reading. Great folks. Good products. Acceptable prices. And...they deliver. :) (two days a week to my area)

[Mark Carlson]

I got a sheet of 3/4 inch Columbia Forest PureBond birch yesterday at Home Depot for $60. It was the last sheet. It wasn't bad. No voids, very flat and the faces were fine. I've used about 4 sheets in the past year for shop shelving and it worked well for that.

[Bob Riefer]

For a few years now, I've been buying most of my sheet goods from a commercial plywood supplier. (Industrial Plywood out of Reading PA in my case) I've only ever had one bad sheet...which they replaced two days later... and they deliver to my area twice a week with no delivery fee for a $300 minimum order. (which is not hard to accomplish...) It's the "good stuff".



Deliver to your area eh? Does that mean they would also deliver to my area (aka your old stomping grounds)? I can call and ask of course, but if you happen to know...


----

And, more on topic... I used a few pieces of the 2' x 4' maple veneer plywood from Lowes for a recent project at our own house. I had to painstakingly handle it, ensure no glue drips (therefore extremely minimal sanding), and in this case the top was ambrosia and all the edges received ambrosia trim. In the end, it turned out very nicely but it definitely wasn't very nice to work with.

[John TenEyck]

I recently bought some birch Purebond plywood at my local HD. One side of the 3/4" (which was well less than 3/4" actual thickness) was good, the other poor, but OK for my paint grade project. The 1/4" was not even 3/16" thick, but the show side was OK. Overall, the quality is not as good as a few years ago but still OK for what I needed.

When I need higher quality plywood I go to a local millwork supplier. For my own furniture related plywood needs I normally use Baltic birch and cover it with shop sawn veneer. Time consuming but top notch.

John

[Tom M King]

I bought some of that Radiata plywood, a few years ago, to build a cabinet base for my sharpening sink. The cabinet sat in the shop for a couple of months, while I got sidetracked on other stuff. It grew the most horrible looking mold on it. There was no mold on anything else in that shop, so we carried it outside, quickly, and burned it.

[Jim Becker]

Deliver to your area eh? Does that mean they would also deliver to my area (aka your old stomping grounds)? I can call and ask of course, but if you happen to know...

Yes, they will deliver to you no problem. You're even closer to them. :) Call them, ask for Dave. My mention of "my area" was relative to two delivery days...typically Tuesdays and Thursdays for the truck that comes down here. The driver is great, too. Their outside sales person stops buy about quarterly to chat on the same day he's visiting my cabinetmaker neighbor across the street. He's also very nice.

[Mike Rambour]

last 2 projects were shop cabinets, I went out of my way to find Baltic Birch, that stuff was expensive but nice stuff. My shop sells it in 5x5 and 2 grades of 4x8, one may have defects on the outside that have fixed with football shaped patches and the better grade is no defects. There is $55 difference better defect or no defect and since I was painting I went with the cheaper ones. Can't always afford Baltic but its the way to go.

[Brian Tymchak]

Oddly, after bragging on Purebond at the top of the thread, I pulled a sheet of 1/2" Purebond today at HD and had them cut it in half. Huge delamination in the middle of the sheet. Looked like the glue got skipped between a couple layers for a good 2 sq feet. Pulled a second, cut it, no problems. First time I've seen a problem with Purebond. But, I'll still buy it for the shop projects.

[Bob Jones 5443]

https://www.truittandwhite.com
https://www.macbeath.com

Not more than 30 minutes drive from Lafayette.

Thanks, Peter. Yes, it’s time I made the pilgrimage to MacBeath. I’ve been in my cocoon over here, but that’s over now. Time to go see for myself what they have.

I don’t think I would have considered Truitt & White, since they call their stock ‘building materials.’ But maybe for plywood the next time I need some. I’ll tell you, though, I’m about ready to insist on nothing but Baltic birch from now on.

As a one-off hobbyist I can’t seem to connect with suppliers of professional quality Baltic birch. Many years ago I bought some single sheets from an independent cabinet maker I lived near at that time. They were beautiful: 60x60 inches. Maybe I’ll approach a cabinet shop near me now.

[Jim Becker]

Bob, if you're venturing forth to "more capable" suppliers, consider pre-finished for your project so you don't have to deal with finishing the interiors for any portion of it that will have doors instead of drawers. It's a big timesaver and also pretty durable stuff. There's a little bit of additional material cost, but a big reduction in your own labor.

[Peter Kelly]

As I remember, Truitt & White usually stocked 3/4", 1/2" and 1/4" birch or maple veneered sheet goods (and Festool!). Either way, they're only about 5 minutes from MacBeath. Also, Hida Tool (https://hidatool.com) is conveniently close to both of them.

Many ways to blow all your money at that end of Berkeley..

[Tim Andrews]

Bob, I feel your pain. I’ve also noticed that I can no longer get plywood from the box stores as good as a few years ago. I was buying my lumber from Macbeath in Berkeley too, until I discovered a better source in San Leandro, Moore Newton: https://moorenewton.com/.

They are not as well known since they deal mainly with professionals but they also sell to the public. Their inventory is huge, an incredible selection of hardwoods, plywood and other sheet goods in multiple thicknesses (thickni?). Their prices are also better than Macbeath. I live in San Francisco but it’s worth the drive to me.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Bob, I feel your pain. I’ve also noticed that I can no longer get plywood from the box stores as good as a few years ago. I was buying my lumber from Macbeath in Berkeley too, until I discovered a better source in San Leandro, Moore Newton: https://moorenewton.com/.

They are not as well known since they deal mainly with professionals but they also sell to the public. Their inventory is huge, an incredible selection of hardwoods, plywood and other sheet goods in multiple thicknesses (thickni?). Their prices are also better than Macbeath. I live in San Francisco but it’s worth the drive to me.

Tim, Moore Newton looks intriguing. I'll definitely get myself down there. Thanks.
Bob