[Harold]

anotherbrick…first I would like to thank you for participating in this forum. It is a bold move on your part, many here in America including myself are frustrated with the current sitiuation and right or wrong you will be seen as the cause. Just out of curiosity, what is the wholesale cost of a sheet cabinet grade plywood delivered to the US.

 

[irishhandyman]

Ok I been reading these posts and I agree that we need to speak with our money. The thing of it is we can blame China all we want for making a dud product. I think we need to take a closer look at reason its even allowed to come to our shores to begin with. No more ply that buy in a year would make a difference. I agree you get what you pay for. Its been that way for years. The American companies have made a good product for years, and I try to buy American when possible. That isnt meant to be anti anything, but I do believe in being PRO American. I hate to say it folks, but we have allowed this to happen. If I made a widget and it was crap and you bought it, who is the sucker here? This plywood situation is the same thing. Now lets look deeper, OUR government has allowed and in some instances ENCOURAGED this to happen. Not only do we need to stop buying the junk product, we need to look at some of the voting records of our elected officials to see where they really stand on the issue of allowing the U.S. to even let this stuff on our shores. Lets look at some of the lumber mills that are sending U.S. wood overseas to be mangled and shipped back to us. The borg stores can send all the $25-$50 cards they want. They can do that for a long time, what they cant afford is not to sell anything. Their profit margin is so high they dont care. The cost of making a crappy piece of ply is so low I bet your jaw would drop like an anvil. There are no wage laws, overseas. I guess in short, its all our faults for allowing this to happen.

 

[irishhandyman]

Anotherbrick I will have to give you credit, you are walking head long into a storm here. I hope anything I have said has not offend you, that is not my intent. I dont blame you personaly, nor you country. I hope you can shed some light on the problem we are having on this side of the pond. If nothing else give us some company names from your country that are making product that is worth the money. All in all it wont make a difference to me, but there are people in this site that make their living working with wood. They deserve to know.

 

[Loogie]

This past weekend (Fathers Day) I went to my favorite Home Depot to pick up 6 sheets of Birch plywood for some shop cabinets. The only thing I could find there was Samling USA plywood @ $44.86/sheet. It was complete crap. It had closed knots all over it and the back side had huge patches of filler. I left empty handed and drove 30 miles to another town where there is a Lowes and HD very close to each other. I went to Lowes first and found really nice plywood that was Birch on one side and Maple on the other. Very nice stuff. It has a sticker on the corner that said "Made in the USA". It was $48.34/sheet. I bought 8 sheets just to be safe. It milled fine and has very few voids at all. I was quite happy to pay and extra $4/sheet for a much better quality product that was also Made in the USA.

 

[GaryCN]

And were talking about something easy to make - plywood,
this is why I will only drive a vehicle engineered and produced in the US or Canada.
That is hard to do today, I don't want to find out the hard way that an air bag failed to deploy
because of sub standard components or possibly that a very low paid worker on a 16 hour shift
failed to connect a wiring harness properly. My 1994 F150 with over 200k is still serving me well.
Were sending all our money offshore then wonder why housing prices are dropping by the
thousands. There should be a made in label on all goods, most of the stuff from China should
be in a landfill not on store shelves. Just visit your local dollar store. It will end up there after
Wall Mart cant sell it.
(end of rant)

 

[jerryz]

Well, I am happy to report that my local HD is now carrying plywood from Columbia Forest Products, I bought a couple of Oak 4×8 sheets for a couple of projects I'm working on. I already pre-cut the sheets and so far they have not twisted or delaminated after hearing all the bruhaha that's going on with the plywood I wanted to wait before further cutting/assemblind to then find out the panels were no good.
Any way as I was inspecting them to check for warpage or other issues I came across the sticker from Columbia Forest products.
The label says:

PUREBOND PANEL: 3/4", 4' X 8', VCL, C, 3, R/C Whole Piece, Red Oak, HD, R/C, Red Oak, PureBond FF

Maybe somebody with more experience here can tell weather this is good material, by the way I paid 49.99 for each sheet.
And they cut it up for me for free, hehe I have some clout at my local store, the missy works there.

 

[jerryz]

Checking the Columbia Forest Products web page I found that the Purebond sheets are Formaldehyde free materials which is nice to know.