Ping Mike: Pine Plywood

Lowes is really 3 feet wide ? John T.

I do not think I have ever seen plywood with an even number of ply's. It would result in the top and bottom veneers running 90 degrees to each other. I would steer clear of that.

I don't think so. In the specs it says 3' but also "Application as 4 x 8"

I'll let you know tomorrow but I'll go out on a limb and say "ain't no way."

I believe Lowes was recently caught up in a lawsuit for not fully disclosing the actual dimensions of a 2 x 4...I suspect the .9xx was cropped from the 3' dimension...(Note the 7.989' in lieu of 8')

That is too funny. 3'x 7.989'. Application as 4' x 8'. How do you make

Well looking at the picture, I'm guessing it will warp having twice as many plies going 90 to the other 1/3 of the ply's.

I look forward to your report! :-)

I was curious about that, too. They appear to have doubled up the middle plies of lengthwise grain. Perhaps they experimented and that orientation keeps it from warping. Who knows?

The lawsuit got thrown out and the laywers that brought got a sternly worded letter from the judge.

Report follows:

Lowe's inventory system sucks.

The system says they have 62 sheets in the store, we found one (1!) warped sheet in the bin and nothing anywhere else in the store. The guy even went up to the top on the lift and couldn't find any.

Lowe's labeling system sucks.

Remember that someone mentioned the web site says it's only 3' wide? Well, it's more than 3' but we're not sure if it's 3.950' or 3.989'. We're also not sure if it's .703" thick or .688"

The manufacturer's label doesn't match Lowe's label. You would think that they would check that, especially when the labels are less than an inch apart.

The product itself sucks (at least for my application)

It's listed as "Veneer Grade ACX". One face is really nice, the other is C-/D+ at best. It won't work for my bookcases.

The Home Depot 6 ply Radiata is paint ready on both faces, but now you guys have me all worried about the 6 ply configuration. Ack!

I need to stop over at Lowes and see if the surfaces are the same.

I'm not worried about the ply configuration at all. The orientation of the plies look to be stable.

Besides, you're building a box with a full back panel. You can pull slight warping out during assembly. It happens, you deal with it.

Most bookcases are built with an attached center shelf to help with that, anyway.

That all makes sense. Rough cuts start tomorrow.