Plywood from China

[samson]

I'm never using it again.

S.

[Mark & Juanita]

So, what was it that convince you? The quality or the intoxicating aroma?

[samson]

So many things.

S.

[Doug Miller]

Could you be less specific?

[sweet sawdust]

Let me see if your reason is the same as mine Went to lumber yard and purchased a 3/4 sheet of furniture grade birch plywood to cut into pieces about 14 inches by 18 inches for a project. The plywood was only about 3/4 usable due to voids in the material, lost another few pieces due to lamanite seperation. Finaly got 8 "good" blocks out of the sheet. Out of the 8 two warped out of shape, so now out of the 12 I needed I have 6 usable blocks and those are from good to fair. While cutting I had a stink in the shop worse then a skunk just not as powerful and went away quickly, while routing the blocks I hit metal and ruined a new

30 dollar router bit. I now have $30 invested in wood and $30 in a router bit and only half of material for my project. Went back to lumber yard purchased a 3/4 inch sheet of furniture grade birch plywood made in Canada, cost $50, got all 12 blocks out of it, no stink while cutting, no metal to ruin router bit, no voids, no warping Is this sad tale something like what you are going through? Sad part is that the lumber yard only carries the china made ply now except by special order.

[Renata]

Agreed.

Two places in the area, both carrying it, but one being a hardwood place isn't willing to order anything. Other place (Allied in VA) carries Chinese and other. Used to be, their cherry was Canadian. Which was good since it was cut to metric sizes which was a tad bigger than imperial, giving some leeway for a sawcut or two. Now, you gotta specifically request non-Chinese, which fortunately they do have or can get, but it (cherry) was from NCarolina last time I ordered some (fine, except for being non-metric).

Aside, but vaguely related. Went to lunch with some buddies from work. One had just been to Taiwan. He and a couple others were Chinese (but US citizens, etc., etc.). In Taiwan, he said a lot of the people are carrying chopsticks with them that they pull out of their purse at the restaurant. Why? 'Cause the chopsticks in the restaurant are from China and may have some nasty chemicals used to "sterilize" them.

Renata

[Lew Hodgett]

Always has been garbage.

What took you so long to discover that?

Seriously, someday they will learn to play by the rules when selling to a spec market.

Mean time, ignoring them is safest thing you can do.

Lew

[RicodJour]

Non-disposable chopsticks have been carried to restaurants for a far longer time than China has been a manufacturing player. I bring them because I don't like the rough texture of the cheap chopsticks. I don't trust too much coming out of China, but there's also scaremongering and a bit of urban legend at play.

[samson]

For me, all that except the metal. The separation is bad in parts. Also, some of the birch laminate is superthin, so sanding just a bit took the birch right off. I'm paying the extra 20 bucks or so to get something else next time.

S. to the

[evodawg]

I hung a mirror for customer the other day. Used 2 heavy duty lags, well the head of one lag sheered off and the mirror came crashing to the tile floor. Damage, the mirror broke into pieces, the frame also broke, the tile under the mirror cracked. The screw cost how much? Later I find out its not even made of steel, its made from Zinc and made in China. I charged $50.00 to hang the mirror. It will cost much more than that to replace the tile and the mirror, not to mention fixing the scratch on the wall. All because of a lousy screw. Thanks China, for turning a life long customer into a lost irate one. Wondering where you go for customer support for something like this? Freakin Chinese CRAP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lew Hodgett]

SFWIW, I standardized on 316L fasteners a long time ago.

WHY:

It's the standard for marine applications which is my primary area..

China is NOT a supplier of 316L, YET.

Fasteners, for the most part, represent a small percentage of the total project cost, so purchase price is not an issue.

Jamestown Distributors has an extensive S/S inventory so availability is not usually an issue.

They don't rust.

They look purty

Lew

[Frank Boettcher]

On packaged stuff from China, as a matter of routine, I buy it and open and inspect right there in the store. Saves gas getting to the returns desk. learned that the hard way.

Frank

[Doug Miller]

Saves even more time if you set it aside the moment you see the magic words "Made in China" and get something better instead.

Eventually, I'm sure they'll start making better-quality products -- I'm old enough to remember when the words "Made in Japan" meant "crap", and we all now what those words mean *now* -- but it may not happen until after they've transitioned to a capitalist economy.

[Lee Michaels]

I learned long ago to go to an industrial fastener place for my fasteners. It took more time, but it saved me an incredible amount of grief and money. And the price isn't bad either when you buy in quantity.

[Morris Dovey]

In the spirit of fine woodworking, I made a trip to Fastenal and bought a big box of stainless steel pop rivets to use with my HF pneumatic riveting tool. :-)

[Ken]

It means a lot of lost jobs, because of all the Jap cars when will we wake up, buy AMERICAN. We've already lost the electronics, next will be the Automotive, WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!

[Doug Miller]

Back in the 1970s, I used to see a lot of cars with bumper stickers saying "Buy What America Builds." They didn't understand then, any more than you do now. The U.S. auto makers went into the toilet because it took them -- and the UAW -- twenty years to get the message that they needed to *build* what America *buys*.

[evodawg]

Yes, and between then and now they've made these ridiculous pension deals with the UAW. That's already dealing a death blow to the US Auto Manufactures. I just don't like the fact you can't even go into a hardware store and buy a decent SCREW!!! What is this world coming to???????

[evodawg]

Or anything else for that matter.

[J. Clarke]

I don't know what is is with you people that you can't find decent products. Maybe if you worried more about function and less about place of manufacture you'd be happier.