Another reason to not buy HD ply

[Craig D Peltier]

I bought two sheets of this instead of using melamine for some lower boxes.
As you can see it seperated very bad. Its agathis ply. I wanted to save a few dollars , I only saved $10 it wasnt worth it.I could of bought from my supplier shop maple. The veneer is like paper in this stuff as well.
Another thing about agathis is it has a simile to agriculture and my fiance says whats that smell? I said its that plywood, it reminds me of a farm. Maybe they drag the lumber through cowfields first.

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[Craig Summers]

Craig,

I bought a sheet of 3/4 oak from one of the Borgs last year to rebild a broken bathroom cabinet side.

After cutting length/width and staining, overnight the 32 inch wide piece cupped 1 1/2" in the middle :mad:

Ended up replacing the cabinet

You will never see me buy Borg hardwood plywood.

Side note ... i might be having a tool gloat coming soon (not including the Mike Gabbay table saw i bought last month) ... but still working this deal.

[Dave Burris]

I had the same thing happen to me on 3/4" birch ply from HD. The first rip down the middle and had the same split. Needless to say I took it back and received a refund. I know the store manager and he told me they were having that problem with a few shipments and changes were taking place to make sure it won't happen again. Not sure if I am willing to try again myself.

[Joe Chritz]

I can happen to any sheet goods but is less likely with better grade wood.

I recently had a sheet of maple 3/4" HVPA rated plywood delaminate badly.

I like the "curl" it looks like a skate board ramp.

Joe

[Tom Veatch]

There's a locally owned lumber yard/hardware store less than a mile from home. Last batch of 3/4 oak veneer core ply came from them. A world of difference between the quality of that compared to the last I got from the orange borg, but the cost differential was negligible.

You can actually see the thickness on the face ply on the sheets from the local place. The last stuff from the borg had face plies that were more like tissue paper than veneer. I'm done buying "good" plywood from the borg.

[Ben Cadotte]

I have had good luck with the borg ply in the last couple months. But I have only gone through 6 sheets and only for shop projects. Really don't care if the face ply wears through. Just wanted a decent multi core ply. So far no signs at all of seperation. Would I buy it for kitchen cabinets? Nope don't think so. Looking at the way its made I don't like the way the layers are layed out in the ply. I can see where issues would occur if it were not glued propperly. For shop projects I think its worth the money. But not sure the savings is worth the risk for "good" uses. I do agree the face ply's do seem to be slim.

[Dennis Peacock]

When buying plywood and you want a better quality plywood with a thicker veneer face? Go to your local lumber yard (not a borg) and specify "domestic" plywood...otherwise it will be foreign made ply.

I learned my lesson the hard way.....:mad:

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Im not sure what I think of ply from HD....I have overall had decent luck, although I've used it mostly for 'rough' work....but I had a piece of 'good' ply from them in my basement left over from something last year, and I noticed that the 'good' face has some splits and started to ever so slightly peel. not sure if it was from humidity, having one end on the concrete floor, or just a bad piece. I'll have to be careful...
.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

That looks just like the "Cabinet Grade Birch Plywood" I bought at HD. Mine didn't decide to de-laminate until I had used more than half of it. Maybe it was humidity related... dunno. Well, good thing I didn't use it for anything that needed to stay together.

Paul

[Craig D Peltier]

Theres no humidity in my shop. Its been there for maybe 7 days. Temp between 50-70. Some sperations went down probaly 18 inches and failed the entire width of piece that was ripped.
If I had a pickup truck I would of brought the whole thing back. Time is money and I needed to keep going. I just put some glue in three pieces and clamped her up.
I will mention to them when in there next time and I wont be buying any ply from them anytime soon. Even birch.

[jim sauterer]

bought a sheet of 3/4 oak it split just like yours and yes it does smell.no more for me.

[Dave Burris]

Down here in "no man's land" humidy is a vicious rumor. That sheet of ply that split on me was simple a piece of junk.

[Matthew Voss]

Amazingly, the HD here carries domestic birch, maple, oak, and cherry ply, all 3/4". They even have pre-primed birch and pre-cut 1/2" birch drawer sides.

[Dave Burris]

Sounds to me your HD store has a manager that enjoys woodworking. Must be nice ...

[Peter Quinn]

I don't see the problem? Those pics look better than most of the stuff my local Borg supplies. Hardest thing at mine is trying to get one of the monkeys riding around on forklifts to bring a fresh lift in out of the rain when the shelf is empty! Yes, I have seen them store the cabinet grade (using that term loosely) hardwood plywood out of doors.

Here in CT humidity and rain are much more than just a rumor but somehow Borg ply is the only stuff that de-laminates and behaves like reaction wood when cut. I've stopped using it for anything. I'd rather build my shop cabs out of CDX from my local builders supply, at least I know that's not going to fall apart. Come to think of it I have built shop cabs out of T1-11 that came out more square than those made with borg ply. Perhaps they should specify on the shelf tag "For radius work only"?

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Be sure to go to the store and let them know what happened. Take the plywood in or at least a picture of it. It accomplishes two things; It hopefully gets your money back and lets them know what happened to their product. Enough 'negative feedback' and they should get the point that if they want to sell plywood they better carry a decent product - as some seem to have done.

[David DeCristoforo]

Those are called "blows". Most factories bundle up their "blows" and "seconds" and sell them off in bulk for next to nothing. Some stores (not mentioning any names here) buy them in container lots and sell them to anyone who thinks they are going to save a few bucks.

[Peter Quinn]

LOL..they got the name right...that plywood definetly BLOWS.

[David DeCristoforo]

"...that plywood definetly BLOWS..."

So to speak....

[Peter Quinn]

This is a little off topic...at the Borg near me often the only register open is the 'self checkout' which is inconvenient for many things. I often get that "UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA" computron message. I have an image in my mind of an irate customer wielding a 20# sledge smashing the self check out to pieces as the computron continues repeating "UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA" until the noise finally stops yielding to gentle sledge hammer persuasion.

Perhaps in that spirit those 'blows' would make good target practice for the local shooting club, perhaps meetings could even be held in the store in the back. HD Manager to employee "What's that noise in the lumber department?" Employee "OH that? Just a couple of guys with shot guns...said they ran out of skeet!"

[Bruce Wrenn]

Local HD here carries both cheap Asian plywood and shop grade birch from Columbia Forest Products. Since going to the low emisions glues, I have seen some more delamination in the ply from Columbia. . It is almost as cheap to drive forty miles to hardwood place, and get prefinished plywood. When I go in, I usually buy 5 - 20 sheets, so I'm not bashful about asking them to get down another bundle.

[Peter Quinn]

Blue borg near me carried canadian birch, oak and maple in 1/2" and 3/4" when they opened 1 1/2 years ago. I was excited! Decent stuff at a fair price. Now they stock poplar and oakish junk from china, slightly lower price but ugly defective stuff mostly useless to me. It used to be worth the 35 min drive, not sure why they changed products. My guess is some corporate stooge ordering from a catalogue with three bean counters looking over his shoulder. Actuaries and accountants don't always make the best purchasing agents.

Local orange borg had a sign in the window of the contractor entrance for about a year that read "Immediate opening for millwork expert to manage our molding department, inquire with contractor services manager". I entertained the idea of applying for about 2 minutes. Not really the corporate type myself, plus all my friends would laugh at me. Wondered exactly what they needed a millwork expert for anyway, and what their standard of 'expert' was?

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

All this HD slamming. Quite frankly, I don't know what I'd do without mine. Like someone else said, mine carries maple, cherry, birch finished or unfinished and you can buy birch primed both sides. I just bought 10 sheets of birch 3/4 for $30 ea. Veneer on one side has some dutchmans and other side I would say is grade 2 clear. Perfect for paint and with no visible voids. They also sell a very clear 3/4" rotary cut poplar for $40 if I was in need of something nicer. Incidently, the 3/4" cherry sells for $90 ea, a far cry from the $115 my local specialist carries with same quality.
Now, Lowes on the other hand is a horror show, the plys they sell are as flat as a piece of kelp. And 2X stock measures a full 3/4 shy of advertised thickness.
So, 2 thumbs up for my local HD.

[JayStPeter]

My feeling on plywood in general is that you have to seek out decent stuff. It doesn't matter where you buy it, you have a chance of getting paper thin veneers or delamination. You can spot the worst of it by simply looking at the edges for overlapping plys. But, that doesn't guarantee decent ply, just eliminates that particular stuff from consideration. Where it's made may or may not indicate the quality. I've had US made stuff delaminate and have paper thin plys.
Fortunately, the HD that's "only" 45 minutes from my house carries decent stuff at decent prices. The Lowes that's 10 minutes away, however, carries horrible junk. A few years ago, the Lowes had really nice stuff. I sent an email from the Lowes customer service website and told them they lost about $500 in ply sales from me last year plus whatever else I bought while I was there getting plywood. They answered and asked me some more questions. Don't know if it'll do any good, but what the heck.

[Scott Kilroy]

All this HD slamming. Quite frankly, I don't know what I'd do without mine....
So, 2 thumbs up for my local HD.

The two near me in Queens NY are a horror show. Every time I go in (usually only because they're open 24/7) I think of Barter Town from the last Mad Max movie.

I visited both the Lowes and HD near Shrewsbury Mass. and the stores we're clean, the staff was helpful (not very knowledgeable but at least they tried) and guy at Lowes even offered to call other stores to try to find some tools they didn't have in stock. I haven't bought any wood but the stuff I saw looked good.

[sean m. titmas]

Maybe they drag the lumber through cowfields first.


to be more accurate they drag it through the rice fields first.

my local cabinet material supplier, Imagination, has better quality, better variety and better price (account sales) on sheet stock than either of the two big boxes. the only advantage to the big box is that they are open on weekends. personally i don't use any of their sheet stock on anything that i build, its not worth it.

[Craig D Peltier]

So I went there with about 1/3 of a sheet in three pieces. Went to returns desk. Was a young gal didint know if it was a whole sheet or not :eek: So She had to call head cashier over. I told her what happened. She says well we usually dont take back wood after its been cut but she told the gal to do it anyways.
I was kind of suprised, like how was I supposed to know you couldnt cut up there plywood cause it may fall apart ?:) Duh. I should of known you can only use it in its entirety.
It was on the weekend so the lumber purchaser wasnt there. I will let him know. Also will let him know that he loses about 8k a year in plywood from me.
At least it will keep me going back there and not to lowes. There both same distance. Got 33 back and spent it on a diablo rip blade.