USA made plywood spotted at local Borg!

[Peter Quinn]

Was walking around the orange borg today to pass some time with my one year old. He likes to look at all the shiny things. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar logo in the lumber department: Columbia-Pure Bond- C-3 cabinet grade 7 Ply hard wood plywood with a decent maple face veneer...MADE IN THE USA.

I had to stop and look. Looked pretty good. They had 1/2" and 3/4" too! $3 more per sheet then the old CHina brand, but easily twice as nice. So i had to stop the guy working in the lumber aisle and ask, "What's this?", and he says, "Oh thats our new plywood, we got two bunks of each 1/2" and 3/4". Its cabinet grade made in USA." and I said, "Yeah, I see that, but what's it doing here, did they run out of the chinese stuff?" and he says "Oh no, they still sell it a bit cheaper at the front of the store, but now we sell this too."

I'm the first one to knock them when they suck, which is pretty often, but I figure I had to mention this here because its really promising. Pure Bond is pretty good stuff (formaldehyde free) I'd be happy to work with. I had a pretty good conversation with a guy in the window department who knew his stuff. Musta been my luck day?

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Hard to believe. Perhaps there's a city in China called Usa.

-Jeff :)

[Curt Harms]

It seems like with a weak $ and higher transportation costs U.S. manufacturing might become more competitive. Let's hope.

[Scott Rollins]

Blue or orange borg?

[Norman Pyles]

Hope this is a nation wide thing. I need some ply, to start my new router table.

[Jacob Reverb]

Hard to believe. Perhaps there's a city in China called Usa.

LOL!!!!!! :D:D:D

[Peter Quinn]

Blue or orange borg?

Orange! (The borg, not the wood. thought they did have red oak ply too.)

[Peter Quinn]

LOL!!!!!! :D:D:D

But it had an ANSI-C-3 stamp on it! And they even put the UPC sticker on the edge instead of the a face like usual! Did say USA though, not United States of America....hummm...I wonder.. google maps here I come!

[Matt Ocel]

Hard to believe. Perhaps there's a city in China called Usa.

-Jeff :)


I don't care what you say - that right there is funny!:D

[Jay Yoder]

Boy, if it is nationwide, that would be a dream come true! (sad it has come to that though)!!

[Thom Sturgill]

Hard to believe. Perhaps there's a city in China called Usa.

-Jeff :)


IIRC there IS a Usa in Japan. they DID mark goods 'Made in Usa', we made them stop.

[Chris Barnett]

Well, they can say made in USA all day long and get away with it. If they can put plastic in dog food, and copy CDs and DVDs and sell them here, they can do anything. But....not....quite.....sure .... who they is! They just might be some of .....us. But great news on the ply....will go there tomorrow.

[Leo Zick]

Hard to believe. Perhaps there's a city in China called Usa.

-Jeff :)

There are plumbing fittings made in China by a manufacturer called USA. They are notorious for weeping oil right through the material.

gotta look for those .'s in between the letters!

[JayStPeter]

Fortunately for me, even though I have the worst Orange borg I've ever visited, they do carry Columbia ply in Birch and Oak. Getting it out of the racks is often difficult as they like to pile drywall in the middle of the aisle, but at least it's there if I make the effort (well, they're usually out of 1/2", but better 3/4 than nothing I guess). BTW, my closest (45-min away) orange borg is the scene of the famous overloaded car incident.

[John Thompson]

Just a comment on the Columbia ply as I don't use ply often, simply for dust shields for backs of chest and drawer bottoms. The Columbia is made in the U.S. or Canada. Good grade and most is clearly marked formaldehyde free. My local hard-wood supplier carries about every species made by Columbia and it's cheaper than the Borg's.

Sarge..

[Howard Acheson]

>> Columbia-Pure Bond- C-3 cabinet grade 7 Ply hard wood plywood with a decent maple face veneer...MADE IN THE USA.

One of the keys is the "C-3" That describes the the appearance of the front and back face veneers. "C" is a rather low grade for the face and would not be considered or marketed as a furniture grade material. It is a grade that is generally painted. The best furniture grade is "A". "B" grade can be fine for many projects that will be clear coated.

This is not to say that you can't find some "C" grade that will work for a particular project. You would have to look through the stack to get material that has a appearance that is satisfying to you.

The point is that the big boxes are not targeting the folks making furniture. Their customer is the weekend DIY'er and remodeling contractors. It's stuff that this customer set is going to buy that determines what gets stocked at a particular store.

[Ken Garlock]

Hard to believe. Perhaps there's a city in China called Usa.

-Jeff :)

Just to add to the confusion, there really is a Usa Japan. It has existed since before WWII(the big one). NO, Japanese products imported to the USA have never contained a label made in USA, per Snopes....

[Charlie Plesums]

My lumber yard now sells both imported plywood (often combi core, which I hate) and "green" plywood, made in the USA, formaldehyde free. The green wood is 5-10% more, but real veneer core plywood, rather than the combi core. The face veneer seems thicker as well.

I gladly pay the premium for ply core. I don't care about formaldehyde free - from what I read, my body gives off more formaldehyde than a sheet of plywood. I haven't had a customer that has requested "green" materials, but my lumber yard says "it will happen."

[Larry Fox]

Looks like a headline from "The Onion"

[Larry James]

Visited local Menards today. They have "Made in the USA" plywood of several different grades and veneer species.

And would believe, "Genuine Baltic Birch" plywood, "Made in the USA." ???:rolleyes: Is it just me, or is that a contradiction in terms?

Larry

[Rich Konopka]

I noticed that my Orange BORG has the Columbia Plywood as well. They have Birch, Maple and Cherry. I checked against a local supplier and their prices were a tad better.

[Steve Schoene]

Some other things to be careful about.

On Columbia's website they contrast their grading with rather looser ANSI grades. It's not inconceivable that the borg has specified using the ANSI grades instead Columbia's own grading standards.

It's also possible that if there is a range of tolerance with in a grade for particular defects that all the borg's material will fall within the lower half of the grade. Suppliers of dimensional lumber must surely cull within the grades since surely 80% of all 2x4's can't contain the pith. Most of the rest are waney. Occasionally a decent one slips into the pile.

[Mark Smith, too]

Was also surprised about two weeks ago to see the USA plywood at the orange BORG here in CT. (Also found that they have trained their workers to talk. Very nice. Actually got some personal help on one of my trips.)

I saw 1/2 and 3/4. Haven't tried it so can't vouch for the quality. An interesting development.

[Peter Quinn]

>> Columbia-Pure Bond- C-3 cabinet grade 7 Ply hard wood plywood with a decent maple face veneer...MADE IN THE USA.

One of the keys is the "C-3" That describes the the appearance of the front and back face veneers. "C" is a rather low grade for the face and would not be considered or marketed as a furniture grade material. It is a grade that is generally painted. The best furniture grade is "A". "B" grade can be fine for many projects that will be clear coated.

This is not to say that you can't find some "C" grade that will work for a particular project. You would have to look through the stack to get material that has a appearance that is satisfying to you.

The point is that the big boxes are not targeting the folks making furniture. Their customer is the weekend DIY'er and remodeling contractors. It's stuff that this customer set is going to buy that determines what gets stocked at a particular store.

Funny thing is the kid in the lumber department at orange borg told me they still sell the CHINA plywood (that is the only marking on it) because "people use that one for painting. But now we got good stuff for cabinet making!". I didn't have the heart to tell him many people would only use his good stuff for painting. Of course until they let me back my van up to the plywood pile like my regular supplier their price could be $10/sheet under and I'll still go to the other guy. I'm just happy they have come that far.

As far as furniture grade plywood, huh? With the exception of perhaps a back or a dust shield, plywood is not what I'm looking for in fine furniture period. Perhaps as a substrate. I'd use C-3 for lower carcasses on kitchen cabs and lots of other places where I don't want to spend more than necessary for low visibility work. My point is that at my local borg C-3 is a big jump up from their previous grade I'd describe as "Quality so low as to be ungradable, sub D-4"

If you want to build furniture, they still can't help. Unless you want to build thin curved pieces out of really over priced MC maple with sticker stains. Then they might have you covered.

[J. Z. Guest]

Good news! I posted a while back about Menards having Baltic Birch plywood in 4x8 sheets. Now HD has some proper plywood too? Nice!

This seems like the one positive yproduct of increasing gas prices. Having to ship from China increase the price commesurate with gas prices. Now we can afford to buy American again, hehehe.

[Gary Lee]

I had one supplier of mine tell me a few weeks ago that Russia is starting to hold back on their release of Baltic Birch logs. He said they are trying to get manufacturers to set up more fascilities in Russia. He was just giving me warning of possible price increases. He also carries what he called a Finnish Birch ply. Suppose to be higher grade than Baltic Birch but is manufactured from baltic birch from Russia. This is also a reduced supply due to Finland not being able to get Birch logs from Russia. Has anyone else heard of anything related to this?