Arauco Plywood

jim crockett

Member
Messages
120
Location
Jay, Maine
Anyone used this plywood? I was at Lowe's yesterday and they had some of this for a reasonable price - around $32 for 3/4", I think. It looked pretty good - the front surface was very smooth and clear and looking at the edges I saw very few, if any, voids. A website on this, http://www.coxlumber.com/arauco.html, states that it has a composite core with very few voids. Sounds better than anything else in the plywood line that they carry around here!

Also, anyone know if you can special order BB at the Borgs?

Just wondered if anyone had used it and, if so, what you thought of it.

Jim
 
I have tried using it before just because what you observed one real good side no voids etc. Overall real nice untill I cut it and then it twisted and warped like a pretzel. I finished the project with many verbal expletives along the way. It may have been a bad sheet. I might try it again but I am a little Leary.

Good Luck

Alan
 
Here in Arizona it is very difficult to find sheets of arauco that haven't turned into potato chips. This is true of plywood in general that comes from wetter climes, but it seems to be a particular problem with arauco which, I think, comes from South America.

I bought a bunch of it to build a large shop tool cabinet because it was priced right and looked pretty good. Before I could use it, it cupped severely. I used it anyway and tried to force it flat in constructing the case, but it none-the-less caused major hassels fitting the 19 drawers in my cabinet. Subsequently I have spent more bucks and bought birch ply (not Baltic) from a hardwood supplier in town and had fewer problems.

Don
 
I have pretty much reached the conclusion that the only flat stock I can purchase locally that is and remains flat is MDF. All plywood that I have purchased cups and bends as does poplar and pine. I can honestly say that I'm sick of it!!! I've purchased regular building plywood, borg birch, luan - all of which refuse to remain flat regardless of how stored.

I'd buy BB but cannot get it anywhere within 75 miles (150 mi. round trip) and I don't get to the city often.

Jim
 
I've had good luck with the shop grade and cabinet grade ply at my local lumber yard. I do sometimes buy MDF or OSB at the BORG but that's about it. It's not a savings to buy at the BORG. The excessive waste from a given product eats up any money you might think you have saved.
 
No lumber yards that I've found within 50 miles or more of where I live carry shop or cabinet grades, just construction plywood. So I'm pretty well limited to using Borg materials which really sucks. I've looked on WoodFinder, too, and the closest hardwood dealers or lumberyards with decent stock are 75 miles or so away. So I can't just run to my local lumber yard to get something.

Oh well, I'm just venting. My rural location has more pluses than minuses, so I am content most of the time.

Jim
 
Oh well, I'm just venting. My rural location has more pluses than minuses, so I am content most of the time.

Jim

Go ahead and vent Jim. We all need to now and then. If it helps, I have to chew my air 10 months out of the year, my neighbors are 30 feet away on each side, I know there are mountains 6 miles north of me because they were there when I was a little kid (can only see them now and then now), it takes 20 minutes to get to work and I'm only 4 miles away. You get the idea. If the trade off is a once and a while 75 mile lumber run, I'd be OK with that ;-)
 
Anyone used this plywood? I was at Lowe's yesterday and they had some of this for a reasonable price - around $32 for 3/4", I think. It looked pretty good - the front surface was very smooth and clear and looking at the edges I saw very few, if any, voids. A website on this, http://www.coxlumber.com/arauco.html, states that it has a composite core with very few voids. Sounds better than anything else in the plywood line that they carry around here!

Also, anyone know if you can special order BB at the Borgs?

Just wondered if anyone had used it and, if so, what you thought of it.

Jim

I have used it on a couple of projects and like it very much.

Never had any problem with warping or cupping.

Very few voids (almost none).

I live in Eastern PA, a fairly humid climate.
 
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