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+-- Thread: is any plywood FLAT these days?! (/showthread.php?tid=7252139)
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - jteneyck - 03-26-2016
I must be blessed. I buy a fair amount of maple plywood from Lowes, and poplar and sometimes Luan or SandePly at HD. It's all flat, or darned close to it. In my experience, the stuff I used to buy at my local full service lumber yard was more apt to warp after I got it home because they store their plywood in unheated buildings so the RH is sky high, while my shop is low. HD and Lowes are as dry as my basement so there is little change in RH to my shop.
If you buy plywood from a source where you know the RH is a lot different than your shop the potential for warping is pretty high. About the best you can do after you get it home is to dense stack it with a cover sheet below and above it until you use it.
I recently found I can buy BB plywood through my local lumber yard. I bought 3/4" x 5' x 5' sheets for $52/sheet, which is pretty good for a small time user. I can get 4 x 8' sheets, too, if needed. The quality of the sheets I bought was very good; no plugs on one side, tight plugs on the other.
Overall quality may be down, but you can still find good material. Find out what you want then go to your local lumber yard and see what they can order for you. A local cabinet shop may be willing to sell you some material, too, as mentioned above.
John
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - Steve N - 03-26-2016
I might be wrong, but I think BB ply, provided it is BALTIC, not chitainese, as evidenced by the cyrillic stamp is all made to one spec, unless it is made to market specifically for outdoor use, or has special sheathings and coatings. The plain old BB is what it is, here or there. Like another poster already mentioned even that is a little less perfect than 20 years ago.
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - Steve N - 03-26-2016
Well I just looked, and proved myself wrong it appears it does have a number of Plain old grades, and choices of faces.
says here anyhow
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - Cdshakes - 03-26-2016
Steve N said:
SO the quick and dirty answer, and one you probably don't want to hear is that piece of 28" x 36" (probably max size for a sled) is pretty darn flat,
Does this look "pretty darn flat" to you?
or how bout the 2 pieces to become the front fence?
Keep in mind i'm looking to BUILD the crosscut sled-- it's not a piece i'm trying to cut on a sled!
Steve N said:
If it is not, then I'd suggest that it is you at fault
So, u still thinking i'm at fault here???
Colin
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - handi - 03-26-2016
The plywood is made flat. Improper storage is likely your culprit.
Could be your storage, could be the store's. Plywood, in an ideal world, is best stored on edge, perfectly vertical. But that is inefficient.
Laying flat, it should be well supported with several cross bars to hold it, but typically at the box stores, the stacks lay on racks of two, maybe three arms.
Ralph
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - JR1 - 03-26-2016
I used to buy BB from Lowes. If I got there when they got a fresh shipment I could pick flat, good pieces. But that ended a couple years ago. Now I buy BB from my local Woodcraft, or a somewhat nearby Rocklers. I can get good BB ply from a local lumberyard; but they have a minimum of 10 sheets (that's just >$650 but they do deliver). (They have a really nice hardwood ply as well but there's that 10 sheet minimum. Last price I got was for some cherry and it was over $150/sheet!) They also carry Appleply and will sell single sheets if I go in and pick up or they used to—I haven't bought any in over 2 years as the last I bought was a bit over $120/sheet. Buying from a quality supplier I get high quality at a reasonable if not bargain price. Unfortunately there are Menard's in Nebraska but not Colorado and I'm not up for a 4 hour one way drive anymore.
As for flat and no dings etc. I don't have any problem.
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - SteveS - 03-26-2016
I buy my ply from a lumber store that sells US made stuff and also has the Russian birch stuff which is also pretty good stuff. Yes you pay anywhere from $60-$140 per sheet (depending of veneer specie), but the quality is there as opposed to the Chinese stuff.
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - jteneyck - 03-26-2016
Cdshakes said:
[blockquote]Steve N said:
SO the quick and dirty answer, and one you probably don't want to hear is that piece of 28" x 36" (probably max size for a sled) is pretty darn flat,
Does this look "pretty darn flat" to you?
or how bout the 2 pieces to become the front fence?
Keep in mind i'm looking to BUILD the crosscut sled-- it's not a piece i'm trying to cut on a sled!
Steve N said:
If it is not, then I'd suggest that it is you at fault
So, u still thinking i'm at fault here???
Colin
[/blockquote]
That looks like plywood for sub-flooring; not what you need for something you care about. You need to buy cabinet grade, hardwood plywood.
John
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - Mark A Smith - 03-26-2016
Besides what you have not being a good hardwood veneer plywood, it isn't what I'd use anyway. To keep the weight down (and increase the potential depth of cut a bit) I'd use 1/2 inch ply. To get that and get it flat Baltic Birch is the best way to go. If you are near a sign shop an alternative might be MDO, medium density overlay which is usually available in 1/2 inch thickness.
I would also not use plywood of any sort for the fences. Use hardwood. It will screw down properly.
Re: is any plywood FLAT these days?! - Gary G™ - 03-26-2016
Your fences should be hardwood not plywood.