There has been some discussion about china plywood as opposed to the plywood
made in Canada and the U.S. here lately. I had my first experience with it
today. As you know most of my items are small, they can be held in one
hand. Wood that most of you would discard is often great for my uses. I
went to my local lumber yard and ordered a 3/4 sheet of birch plywood for a
project, looked at the chinaply and it looked good in the dark confines of
the lumber shed, stacked in a rack between other sheet goods. Cost was $30
less then the U.S. made ply, so I told them to load up a sheet. When I got
it off the rack and did a quick layout of my project on it I found that 50%
of the sheet would be waste, due to plastic wood fills, cracks and other
"surface " problems. The veneer on the surface was only a few thousands of
an inch thick and poorly surfaced (looked like a bad planner job). Went
through about 10 more sheets and all were pretty much the same. Loaded up a
sheet of U.S. made ply and gladly paid the difference in price. Bottom line
I got better quality wood for less then half the price I would have paid for
the chinaply and half the trouble and labor with less then 1/10th the waste.

In article , "Curran Copeland" wrote:
There has been some discussion about china plywood as opposed to the plywood
made in Canada and the U.S. here lately. I had my first experience with it
today. As you know most of my items are small, they can be held in one
hand. Wood that most of you would discard is often great for my uses. I
went to my local lumber yard and ordered a 3/4 sheet of birch plywood for a
project, looked at the chinaply and it looked good in the dark confines of
the lumber shed, stacked in a rack between other sheet goods. Cost was $30
less then the U.S. made ply, so I told them to load up a sheet. When I got
it off the rack and did a quick layout of my project on it I found that 50%
of the sheet would be waste, due to plastic wood fills, cracks and other
"surface " problems. The veneer on the surface was only a few thousands of
an inch thick and poorly surfaced (looked like a bad planner job). Went
through about 10 more sheets and all were pretty much the same. Loaded up a
sheet of U.S. made ply and gladly paid the difference in price. Bottom line
I got better quality wood for less then half the price I would have paid for
the chinaply and half the trouble and labor with less then 1/10th the waste.

And in addition to that, I had an allergic reaction a couple years ago to the
airborne dust from cutting a sheet of that stuff. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I
shoulda been wearing a mask, and I wasn't -- but I've never, ever had that
problem with US or Canadian ply.)

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

Vic Baron wrote:

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
t...
In article , "Curran Copeland"
wrote:
There has been some discussion about china plywood as opposed to the
plywood
made in Canada and the U.S. here lately. I had my first experience with
it
today. As you know most of my items are small, they can be held in one
hand. Wood that most of you would discard is often great for my uses. I
went to my local lumber yard and ordered a 3/4 sheet of birch plywood for
a
project, looked at the chinaply and it looked good in the dark confines of
the lumber shed, stacked in a rack between other sheet goods. Cost was
$30
less then the U.S. made ply, so I told them to load up a sheet. When I got
it off the rack and did a quick layout of my project on it I found that
50%
of the sheet would be waste, due to plastic wood fills, cracks and other
"surface " problems. The veneer on the surface was only a few thousands
of
an inch thick and poorly surfaced (looked like a bad planner job). Went
through about 10 more sheets and all were pretty much the same. Loaded up
a
sheet of U.S. made ply and gladly paid the difference in price. Bottom
line
I got better quality wood for less then half the price I would have paid
for
the chinaply and half the trouble and labor with less then 1/10th the
waste.

And in addition to that, I had an allergic reaction a couple years ago to
the
airborne dust from cutting a sheet of that stuff. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I
shoulda been wearing a mask, and I wasn't -- but I've never, ever had that
problem with US or Canadian ply.)

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.


My main gripe is that they warp easily, especially anything under 3/4".

3/4" also looks like a propeller...

---
************************************************** ****************
* KSI@home KOI8 Net The impossible we do immediately. *
* Las Vegas NV, USA Miracles require 24-hour notice. *
************************************************** ****************

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
t...
In article , "Curran Copeland"
wrote:
There has been some discussion about china plywood as opposed to the
plywood
made in Canada and the U.S. here lately. I had my first experience with
it
today. As you know most of my items are small, they can be held in one
hand. Wood that most of you would discard is often great for my uses. I
went to my local lumber yard and ordered a 3/4 sheet of birch plywood for
a
project, looked at the chinaply and it looked good in the dark confines of
the lumber shed, stacked in a rack between other sheet goods. Cost was
$30
less then the U.S. made ply, so I told them to load up a sheet. When I got
it off the rack and did a quick layout of my project on it I found that
50%
of the sheet would be waste, due to plastic wood fills, cracks and other
"surface " problems. The veneer on the surface was only a few thousands
of
an inch thick and poorly surfaced (looked like a bad planner job). Went
through about 10 more sheets and all were pretty much the same. Loaded up
a
sheet of U.S. made ply and gladly paid the difference in price. Bottom
line
I got better quality wood for less then half the price I would have paid
for
the chinaply and half the trouble and labor with less then 1/10th the
waste.

And in addition to that, I had an allergic reaction a couple years ago to
the
airborne dust from cutting a sheet of that stuff. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I
shoulda been wearing a mask, and I wasn't -- but I've never, ever had that
problem with US or Canadian ply.)

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.


My main gripe is that they warp easily, especially anything under 3/4".



Vic

"Doug Miller" wrote

And in addition to that, I had an allergic reaction a couple years ago to
the
airborne dust from cutting a sheet of that stuff. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I
shoulda been wearing a mask, and I wasn't -- but I've never, ever had that
problem with US or Canadian ply.)

So, you are allergic to that cow **** glue they use?

Subject

You are not walking in blindfolded.

If you buy that crap, you deserve the screwing you are going to get.

Lew

"Steve" wrote in message
.128...

I recently make a cabinet for a client, using 3/4" Chinese plywood, to
fit in an alcove he built himself. I missed the spot where the wall
bowed in by 3/4", so my cabinet wouldn't slide into the opening. I
muttered a few words to myself about never again trusting amateur
wallboard work (or professional), and broke out the belt sander. I took
more that 1/8" off of each side of the cabinet, and it finally JUST
slipped in.

The point of this is that after I got through the veneer layer, I
started seeing shiny spots in the glue, with more in the second glue
layer. Since there's no good reason to introduce metal shavings into a
wood product, they must be in there because of a shoddy manufacturing
process. Either that, or they're using plywood as a cheap way to get rid
of industrial waste.

--
Steve B.
New Life Home Improvement


Quite often I see sparks fly from American made MDF.

Steve wrote:
"Curran Copeland" wrote on 04 Dec 2007
in
group rec.woodworking:

There has been some discussion about china plywood as opposed to
the
plywood made in Canada and the U.S. here lately. I had my first
experience with it today. As you know most of my items are small,
they can be held in one hand. Wood that most of you would discard
is
often great for my uses. I went to my local lumber yard and
ordered
a 3/4 sheet of birch plywood for a project, looked at the chinaply
and it looked good in the dark confines of the lumber shed, stacked
in a rack between other sheet goods. Cost was $30 less then the
U.S.
made ply, so I told them to load up a sheet. When I got it off the
rack and did a quick layout of my project on it I found that 50% of
the sheet would be waste, due to plastic wood fills, cracks and
other
"surface " problems. The veneer on the surface was only a few
thousands of an inch thick and poorly surfaced (looked like a bad
planner job). Went through about 10 more sheets and all were
pretty
much the same. Loaded up a sheet of U.S. made ply and gladly paid
the difference in price. Bottom line I got better quality wood for
less then half the price I would have paid for the chinaply and
half
the trouble and labor with less then 1/10th the waste.

I recently make a cabinet for a client, using 3/4" Chinese plywood,
to
fit in an alcove he built himself. I missed the spot where the wall
bowed in by 3/4", so my cabinet wouldn't slide into the opening. I
muttered a few words to myself about never again trusting amateur
wallboard work (or professional), and broke out the belt sander. I
took more that 1/8" off of each side of the cabinet, and it finally
JUST slipped in.

The point of this is that after I got through the veneer layer, I
started seeing shiny spots in the glue, with more in the second glue
layer. Since there's no good reason to introduce metal shavings into
a
wood product, they must be in there because of a shoddy
manufacturing
process. Either that, or they're using plywood as a cheap way to get
rid of industrial waste.

I wouldn't have thought of anybody using Chinese plywood as cabinet
wood. My impression was that it was being sold as construction grade.

And why would the Chinese want to be getting rid of metal shavings
that could be melted down and made into stuff to sell?

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

On Dec 5, 9:03 am, "Leon" wrote:
"Steve" wrote in message

.128...







I recently make a cabinet for a client, using 3/4" Chinese plywood, to
fit in an alcove he built himself. I missed the spot where the wall
bowed in by 3/4", so my cabinet wouldn't slide into the opening. I
muttered a few words to myself about never again trusting amateur
wallboard work (or professional), and broke out the belt sander. I took
more that 1/8" off of each side of the cabinet, and it finally JUST
slipped in.

The point of this is that after I got through the veneer layer, I
started seeing shiny spots in the glue, with more in the second glue
layer. Since there's no good reason to introduce metal shavings into a
wood product, they must be in there because of a shoddy manufacturing
process. Either that, or they're using plywood as a cheap way to get rid
of industrial waste.

--
Steve B.
New Life Home Improvement

Quite often I see sparks fly from American made MDF.

Seriously?!

Reclaimed jarrah seems to be the sparkiest wood for me!

JP

"Jay Pique" wrote in message
...

Quite often I see sparks fly from American made MDF.

Seriously?!

Seriousely.

"Leon" wrote:

Quite often I see sparks fly from American made MDF.

I have a customer who makes MDF.

Will have to ask them the next time we talk.

Lew