I just returned from the house of a fellow carpentero that used a new
product they had at HD. It was a cab ply material that came from
Ecuador. He showed me some of it, and it looked completely without
any sign of character, and was so soft that it easily scratched with a
fingernail. The facings were without blemish, but they were obviously
cut from some super soft wood that rode easily on the rotary cutters.

He told me he bought it because it was cheap, and was going to be used
for shelving in a linen closet. How much abrasion did he need to
worry about from folded towels? Three coats of paint should have done
all he needed.

But.... a coat of paint proved that wrong. After a good coat of
latex, the grain swelled to the point it looked like plywood that had
been left outside for a couple of months. It raised up so high I
thought he got a nice piece of utility grade and painted it, not "cab
ply".

He wound up waiting a day for the paint to harden and sanded it all
down and started over again on the finishing. The grain rose again
(!!!) but not as much. One more day to dry, then sand, then recoat.

If you see it, don't buy it. It is pure crap for its intended use,
and I have no doubt many a pro and DIY guy will rue the day they
bought this crap. It more than doubles the work to use junk like this
for anything (except maybe fire starter).

I have had more than one philosophical discussion about hitting the
DIY price point for the consumer with HD managers, but when you pay
anything for garbage, you simply get screwed, regardless of the price
paid. Shame on HD. The should at least give you a choice between
their normal lousy stuff and just outright junk.

The reason my buddy bought this at HD was because our normal supplier
is about 15 miles from his house, and his old 3/4 ton hoopy gets about
8 mpg on a good day. He was thinking that the convenience would be
offset by the gas savings.

And all he wanted to do was to keep the wife off his back by throwing
in a few shelves over a couple of evenings.

Robert