Oak faced ply at the orange borg

[Paul O.]

Working on my two nite stands. Last week I bought one 2'X4' piece of oak ply at Lowe's, got one of the very few that was decent for the side and back panels. Tried to find another this weekend for the other stand and no luck. Don't usually have a problem at the local Lowe's, but their selection lately sucks. So this morning I was near a Home Depot and decided I'd bite the bullet and go in, something I don't do unless just absolutely necessary. Shoulda bought a 4X8 at the lumber store when I started this, but due to space, don't like hasseling the full sheet if I don't have to. Well anyway, they had pleanty of 2X4 sheets, don't look to bad, pretty straight, good enough for me. So when I started pulling them out I'm thinking that this is different looking red oak than I'm used to. Got to looking closer and, wow, this stuff is thin skinned, like less than paper thin. Like a film impression of red oak, or what they call red oak, way to smooth, and just looked different. Are they now doing this stuff with computer generated paper or film now? Any body noticed this at their Orange Borg?

[eganders]

Very funny you mention this. I got some of what may be the same stuff (it was 4 X 8) and built an entertainment center. Looks good raw. Nice and clear. Stained it tonight. I think I have a problem with that "thin skin". It looks like the veneered surface is about the thickness of the pores. The adhesive appears to be in the pores and when I stained it, the adhesive did not stain, of course. So now I have a stained panel with pores that look like the stain did not fully take. I got to think what I am going to do about that. Any ideas, someone? The stain is Minwax Provincial. I think I need to color the adhesive in the pores somehow.

Anyway

[Profit From Wood.com]

Hey Guys,

Plywood is rated in grades with a number and a letter found on the edge of the sheet.

These are typically:

A (Best) B C D (Worst)

1 (Best) 2 3 4 (Worst)

The letter is the grade of the front face, the number is the grade of the back face.

A good hardwood/plywood distributor will often stock A2 and B2.

The Home Cheapo stores usually carry a "custom" grade which translates to Z26 on the scale above, or in other words - crap!

Hope this helps, Ed

profitfromwood.com

[BillyBob]

Sounds like you needed enough to have made a 4x8 sheet. Why not buy it and have them cut it into pieces? Its usually considerably cheaper than buying the smaller precut sheets.

Bob

[David]

I'm curious, Paul; does their ply have rotary cut veneer faces?

Dave

Paul O. wrote:

[Paul O.]

I'm not sure what 'rotary cut faces' are. This does not look like real wood veneer. The coloring is off for red oak. Just looks and feels strange.

[bob]

I've never seen anything but rotary cut veneer at the borgs.

I don't buy plywood there anymore. In fact, I don't buy any wood at the borg except for framing lumber. I opened a business account at the local supplier to the cabinet shops and now buy A1 or A2 plywood for very little more than the borg price. Plus, they have hardwoods out the wahzoo - beech, walnut, mahogany, red oak, white oak, cherry. When's the last time you saw

10" wide and 8 foot long cherry boards (4/4) for $4 a BF? It's gorgeous and knot free.

Oh yeah - the business account only requires a business license from my municipality. Cost - fifty bucks. I saved that on the first load I took home.

Bob

[John Moorhead]

Paul -

Rotary cut veneers give a grain pattern that cannot exist in solid lumber. As the name implies, in rotary cut veneer, the veneer log is turned and the veneer is cut in a continious sheet from the log, like unrolling a roll of paper towels or TP, if you will. This method eliminates seams, repetitive figure and the "banding" sometime seen in bookmatched, quartersawn or other types of cuts, but it looks odd... If you think about it, if it were lumber, you'd have a single board 8' long and however wide they managed to get in a single strand off of the veneer log.

Now, if you're talking about that "wood photo" pattern that gets adhered to particle board on the *really* cheap, cheap furniture, you're on your own. That isn't anything except contact paper with a picture of wood grain, bozo the clown or perhaps those WMD's...

HTH

John Moorhead

[tom]

BillyBob May 1, 7:13 pm show options

Newsgroups: rec.woodworking From: "BillyBob" - Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 02:13:07 GMT Local: Sun,May 1 2005 7:13 pm Subject: Re: Oak faced ply at the orange borg

Sounds like you needed enough to have made a 4x8 sheet. Why not buy it and have them cut it into pieces? Its usually considerably cheaper than buying the smaller precut sheets.

Bob

Good thinking. Wish I'da done that the last HD 3/4 oak ply I bought. Voids turned up in a # of bad places... Never again. Tom

[dalemartindesigns]

Yes, at my local HD I just bought some 1/4" birch ply to use to make some "floating" shelves (torsion box design with solid maple on three face sides). The veneer layer was paper thin almost like it was sprayed on, it wasn't but it sure was thin. Sanding was an adventure to say the least. It took no effort at all to blow right through to a core layer. Luckily I had already planned to dye and tone it to a darker shade which helped to conceal some of my boo-boo's. Soon I plan on building some kitchen cabinets and believe me I will be visiting a hardwood supplier here in the greater SF Bay Area for my sheet goods and hardwood.

Dale

Paul O. wrote:

necessary.

generated

[Paul O.]

This stuff definitely has seams, like several pieces glued side by side. My guess, the more I think about it, is this ain't the real stuff.

[loutent]

Hi Paul,

I had 10 sheets of this stuff delivered from HD about 6 weeks ago (working on an entertainment center). It is pretty awful (C-3 grade by GP), but since the project will be "built-in", very little will show - most of it will be drawers , doors etc.

I don't think I will ever buy plywood there again. Have to find a better supplier in my area.

I guess for $43/sheet, I should not complain.

I also got some 1/4 inch oak ply - this stuff really sucks! It looks almost like poplar or something to me, but it does "say" red oak. Be using that for backing.

Live & learn - tho you'd think I'd be getting smarter in my old age by now.

Lou

[mare]

Their MDF is pretty good. Better than at the local lumberyard, where

3/4" is sometimes 20 and sometimes 18 mm.

[pharmdave]

I was at Lowe's this past weekend looking for the same thing. It was all graded C-3. (new Lowe's Little Elm, TX) It's probably the same at all stores.

I passed. I figured better to wait until I could get back to the lumber store during the week, than get rubbish over the weekend...

Dave

Profit From Wood.com wrote:

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