Home Depot Oak Plywood Rant and Safety Warning

[Charlie Barnes]

Good Afternoon All,

I haven't been on this site for quite some time so I apologize in advance if this has already been covered. Long story short, I've been building some cabinets for my basement over the last couple of months and have been using 3/4" oak plywood for the cases. I was using some left over plywood from several months ago to start with, but had to purchase some additional sheets to finish the job. All of it was purchased at my local Home Depot in Cincinnati.

First, the quality of the sheets has gone down significantly. They are "wavy" and bowed. Even shorter pieces in the 24" to 36" range have a significant bow after being cut. This makes it very difficult to build cases that are really square and true. You really have to get creative with clamps and shims just to work with the material.

As if this weren't bad enough, I noticed that there were sparks flying off of the blade of my circular saw when I was rough cutting the last sheet. After I finished the cut, I found that there was a metal shim or something embedded in the middle thickness of the sheet right where I had cut. I was lucky that it stayed in the wood and didn't go flying.

I shot a note to the Home Depot email address on their web site just to let them know what was going on. I see that the sheets are clearly marked "Made in China" on the edge, so I suspect that this may have something to do with the quality problem. I don't know if they have changed suppliers or what, but the quality has gone down significantly from what they used to carry.

I'm done with Home Depot plywood. I'll buy my next sheets at Lowes. I don't know if the quality is any better, but it's hard to believe that it could be any worse.

Thanks. I feel better.

Charlie

[Al Willits]

HD and the other borgs have been brought up many times, but always a good reminder.

Run into a commerical cabinet shop guy loading plywood from HD, as we're walking by the wife mentions that if he can use it why not us, he happened to over hear and said he'd only use this stuff where warpage, strenght or looks didn't matter, anything else was bought at a lumberyard.

I found it was good practice stuff, and made a few cabinets or shelfs out of it for the garage, hard to justify the high buck stuff to learn on.

Although I'm now leaning towards the shop grade stuff from a lumber yard for even that now.

Al

[Brad Townsend]

I noted today in the news that the guy who took Home Depot down to its current shabby state is now riding Chrysler into ruin, as they lay off 12,000 workers. I'm sure when Chrysler is done with him, he'll walk off with a handsome severance package like he did at Home Depot. Is it any wonder American business is getting it's butt kicked!

[Paul Johnstone]

Yep, I stopped using HD plywood a couple years ago for anything I cared about. Then, like you, I was building some shop shelves.. didn't care how they looked.

The plywood piles were uneven inside (layers on top of each other). Lots of voids. Huge areas where the layers were coming apart.

Worse I've ever seen.

The sad thing is that about 10 years ago, they charged $10 more per sheet, but it was good stuff. B grade, and you could use the whole sheet.

[Alex Carrera]

I absolutely despise HD. There's one a mile from my house, and I keep going there out of convenience. Every single time I go there I walk away pissed about something.

[Dick Bringhurst]

I normally don't shop at HD because of, among other things, poor quality and terrible service. But, I got in a bind and bought some 2' x 4' pieces of 1/2" ply the other day. I found the stuff was warped; it delaminated; and. a portion of it was only 7/16th thick. I returned it and they commented "oh, not again". Dick B.

[Lee Schierer]

Good Afternoon All,
As if this weren't bad enough, I noticed that there were sparks flying off of the blade of my circular saw when I was rough cutting the last sheet. After I finished the cut, I found that there was a metal shim or something embedded in the middle thickness of the sheet right where I had cut. I was lucky that it stayed in the wood and didn't go flying.

I shot a note to the Home Depot email address on their web site just to let them know what was going on. I see that the sheets are clearly marked "Made in China" on the edge, so I suspect that this may have something to do with the quality problem. I don't know if they have changed suppliers or what, but the quality has gone down significantly from what they used to carry.

I would suspect that if you returned to the store with the piece having the embedded metal in it in hand and polietly spoke with the store manager you might not only get a new piece of plywood, but he might also give you a saw blade or at least a store gift card with some money on it for your trouble.

HD isn't my facvorite source for wood, but they and the Blue store are the only place in town where any sort of hardwood faced plywood is available that I've found. I look through their stack and get the best pieces. If I don't find an acceptable piece I go down the block to the other one.

[Don Stutsman]

Charlie,

I hate to break it to you but US made cabinet plywood is becoming scarce, I just bought some maple plywood from a hardwood supplier and when I noted it was marked 'made in china', he said they had not been able to get US made cabinet plywood in some time. On the surface, it looks good (it should based on the high dollar cost) but I haven't cut any of it yet - this weekend will tell.

I agree that you should take the wood back to HD. I've had good luck with returns for quality reasons.

[Paul Gatti]

I look through their stack and get the best pieces. If I don't find an acceptable piece I go down the block to the other one.

Regardless of where I buy plywood, I always inspect each and every piece. Even at the local lumber yards that specialize in plywood, I dig through the stacks. This means that I need to bring along someone to help me lift the sheets off the stack. Sometimes we'll have to go through an entire stack to get 3 pieces that don't look like potato chips. I always make sure that I neatly put back pieces that I don't buy. The lumber yards that don't let me pick through the stacks don't get my business. I agree that the quality of plywood at HD is especially bad. I have found that the 2x4's, 2x6's, etc are not too bad at HD.

[Jack Ganssle]

Among wood boaters Chinese ply has always been (in)famous for its poor quality. I had a boat built in China in 1961, planked entirely in teak (can you imagine!) but using an under-deck layer of plywood, which was horribly delaminated. Every other similar boat I ran into had the same problem.

[Bill Wyko]

I bought some of their cabinet grade ply to do the floor on my workshop. Great for a shop floor but I'd never build a cabinet with it. It wants to warp and has a lot of variation in thickness. 5x5 birch is even out of square but at least it's flat. Everyone these days seem to be making plenty of JUNK. I'm in electronics and I've seen a downfall in quality there too.

[mike wacker]

This thread is really timely. Just sent kid #2 and #3 off to college this fall. Still have #4 but he really likes the shop so its fun. Finally re-aquainting my self with my tools.

I have a big (for me) Cabinet project going. Horse Shoe shape in the end of a long deep garage. My shop. 30 feet total length. I'm experimenting several products. Birch and Maple ply, Melmine (sp), MDF, etc. HD and Lowes Birch, Maple and Oak all run in the mid $40's per sheet. They pretty much aren't good for much more than sub-flooring. I did find a "hard wood plywood (Poplar veneer) that was $25 per sheet and appropriately priced and stable enough for me to experiment with.

Found the Wholesale (but they are nice and sale retail) Sheet goods supplier for a big chunk of New England. Yup they had Chinese 4x8 sheets of 3/4 birch. But it was $39 a sheet and at least two grades above the BORG's junk. They had the good stuff too. REALLY nice, But $60 and climbing. Maybe I'll get good enough to do that justice.

[Kevin Groenke]

RANT ON

I don't recall a single instance in which I visited a HD that they were not out of something that I needed. If I need 1 thing, 3/4"x10'EMT conduit and 1"x1"x3/4" copper T most recently, they don't have it. These are hardware store essentials, not oddball stuff, and it's out of stock. I thought these borgs had high tech inventory maintenance systems, and you're out of 3/4" CONDUIT???.

Ohhh do I lament the closing of the corner hardware the used to be 100yards from my back door. They ALWAYS had what I needed, if by some oddity they didn't, Andy (the owner, who was usually in house) would personally add it to his order sheet, and he would call me when it got there. BTW, I didn't kill my hardware store, I never minded giving Andy 10-30% more than the borg, because I knew he wasn't squirreling it away in tax-sheltered, off-shore investments, and he didn't have a golden parachute when he decided to hop onto the next sinking ship.

And what's with screws??? $.99 for a little bag with 4-#10machine screws in it??? YGTBSM!! When I go to the hometown farm store, ANY hardware (except the weird sh!+) is $1/lb. Why don't they just ROB us? I've developed my own fastener warehouse in the basement so that I NEVER have to buy 4 screws for a dollar from a borg.

The plywood... my only question is where does the birch in chinese plywood from the borg come from? If it comes from anywhere other than china (especially the US), we're in big trouble.

RANT OFF

sorry, this wasn't the place for that,
and I don't even feel better.
-kg

[tim mathis]

hi , i use the stuff from hd and lowe's at work ( oak and birch $40.00). the red glue smells when you cut it. uneven thickness , voids , bowed and try to put a finish on it 4 coats of helmsman and it still looks bad in places and still rough.i don't think this crap is graded, i can't find any markings other than "china" on it.i think they intend for you to pour the finish on so it soaks through to the other side to help the glue hold it together.

now when i make somthing nice and highly visable i go to requarth lumber in dayton and get "roseburg" brand made in usa $78.00 each 4x8 oak or birch.it is marked a1 , alot less voids but i can tell the quality has gone down from where it was a year ago.
thanks china poison our animals ,lead poison our kids, our tooth paste,ect.....and thanks for screwing up our wood too.

[Leland Berry]

LOWES ARRIVED !!!!--Not 1 nickle of my money will be spent
with a business-HD- where employees , lower/mid-mgmt
included, could care less whether they have my business.
--When I have to load 180 2x4s, or 1650 Cedar pickets
while employees stand around and play grab-ass, I took
my $35,000 +/ yr business where its appreciated !!!