It’s came in 4x8 and 4x6. Usually 4x6 will be only a few bundles of 4x6.
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It’s came in 4x8 and 4x6. Usually 4x6 will be only a few bundles of 4x6.
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5x5's work out great for cabinets when using adjustable feet. they also work out better for the 30" deep cabinets I often incorporate into kitchens. I like.
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My local supplier carries both 4x8 and 5x5 Baltic birch in most thicknesses. Pretty sure I remember seeing the edge of the 4x8 stuff stamped with Russia, just like most 5x5 sheets, but could be wrong. I know some Baltic products are manufactured in Finland, and I assume across the entire “Baltic” region. Like Larry I usually prefer/buy 5x5 sheets. The 4x8 they stock around here are annoyingly a true 48”x96” as opposed to being slightly oversized for squaring up
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Many shops around here stopped using it because of the price..
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My supplier stopped carrying it. Too expensive and inconsistent sourcing. I miss it....
Chris
Member
The Baltic birch I got was from Russia, which might explain the supply issue. It's metric. The supplier would have 4x8 sheets,as well as the 1.5m x 1.5m, but still in metric thickness . I got one of his last 12mm 4x8 sheets recently. Dado stacks aren't a problem, but router bits require a trip to the tool store.
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Why would there be an imperial thickness?
~mike
happy in my mud hut
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I take my old 3/4 bits in to a sharpening shop and they grind them to fit metric. I know you can buy metric, but this is almost free and I can have them in small increments to fit whatever.Originally Posted by Ray Selinger
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The price has come down to reasonable levels from my supplier, maybe 10% higher than pre-pandemic. He always had material in stock, too, but the quality was poor for a while. Check with your supplier again if you want/need some, or look for a new one, because it's available.
I've never seen 4 x 8 ft sheets with Cyrillic writing on it, only 1.5 x 1.5 m.
John
Contributor
When I bought a bunch of baltic birch ~4 years ago, it was in 4x8 sheets and from Russia (Cyrillic writing on it)
More recently I've bought some, also in 4x8 sheets (different supplier), but it is coming from Vietnam or other place in SE Asia. Sort of blurs the meaning of 'Baltic'. But the material looks otherwise identical to the Russian material (same surface, no voids, etc). Price seems reasonable now - at one point, BB was selling for ~3x the price of the stuff I bought 4 years ago - now it might be more like 1.5x the price.
I do wonder if location has any impact on the source of the BB - I'm on the west coast, so importing from Asia vs Europe may make sense via shipping, but opposite might be true for east coast.
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It’s strange how varied pricing and availability seem to have fluctuated from region to region here in the US since Russia invaded Ukraine. Prices here doubled for a short period and have since gone down considerably to what I consider normal and acceptable. Availability was never an issue from my closest supplier a few miles from my shop (Aetna). I was there a few days ago and they had stacks of it in every thickness from 3mm to 25mm
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For a while BB (at the supplier I use) was a little more than 2.5 X pre-pandemic pricing (PPP).
All 5x5 and typical metric thickness, [approx] 1/8" to 3/4".
It's come down to a little more than 2X PPP. It seems to be the same quality.
I don't like the price but I don't use much and (so far) I can still use it without breaking the budget.
Last edited by Patty Hann; 03-30-2024 at 2:53 PM.
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
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I hadn't looked in a while--place near me is now at $81 for 5 x 5 18mm ($78 for 4-9 sheets). I'm thinking that 18 months or so it was in the $150 range, but that is a fuzzy memory. Seems reasonably close to pre-pandemic and pre-war.
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This thread begs the question of why 4 x 8? When and how did building in the US standardize on doing things in 2 ft increments with 16 or 24" spacing? There's no indication in older houses that the spacing was anything other than whatever looked good to the carpenter involved, and plenty where there is no particular consistency within a single structure.
1.5 M square seems as sensible as any other measurement for cabinet plywood-- does it fit 32 mm cabinet dimensions particularly well? Construction in most of Europe uses vanishingly little sheet goods and US standard construction methods with stud walls is regarded as a very inferior method suitable only for temporary structures and cheap commercial space, if that. (Masonry and framing timbers being the norm)
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Full lift pricing for 4x8 3/4" BB/BB is currently $98. 10+ is $107 Just before Covid I was paying $57 full lift and $65 full lift for Columbia 3/4 prefinished maple 2 sides. I have not bought any since as I bought several lifts just before Covid, but it says "Call for price" which always makes me flinch. I am almost out, so I will know soon.
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