Baltic birch plywood

[Mike Mastin]

What is a good price for 3/4" baltic birch plywood? I need to build some shop cabinets and have never purchased this type of plywood before. Just curious what the going rate is typically? I seem to always find the most expensive wood available :-)

PS Has anyone ever used Appleply plywood? I have seen this stuff in magazines, but never seen it available anywhere? Just curious.

[Bob Lasley]

Mike,

3/4 BB runs around $35 per 5x5 sheet here in Tulsa. I too have heard of apple ply, but have never seen any.

Good luck with the cabinets.

Bob

[Mike Mastin]

That is about what I was quoted here in Dallas area, but wanted to make sure that was a fair price.

[Jim Becker]

Those are great prices for it, although you didn't specify the grade. My local source sells 3/4" 5' x 5' sheets for $59...for clear faces both sides.

[Herbert Yost]

Appleply has a website....you can use it to locate a dealer near you. I don't know the address...just enter "appleply" in your search engine and you should be able to find the company that makes it....and from there, the dealer locator.

For what it's worth, see if your dealer has Russian birch plywood. It's just like Baltic birch, but only about half the price. The outside plys do have occasional patches....guess that's what makes it different.

[Ken Garlock]

I guess I have been "Norm-alized" about MDO after watching NYW. I think I will use MDO for the cabinets I build in my shop later this year. I haven't found it locally, but according to their website, Dixie Plywood is a distributor of it here in greater Dallas. They are located over on/around Miller Rd. in Garland....

[Scott Coffelt]

About $60 here in KC area. Why not use birch ply? Stains nice if you want to stain it, also paints nice. I pay about $40 for a 4/8 sheet.

The other issue with baltic is its size. Not real efficient for cabinets, lots of wasted wood in my opinion. Just me ole 2 cents.

[Dave Anderson]

My sheetgoods supplier charges $40 for 3/4" 5'x5' Baltic Birch; shop grade Birch 4'x8' is $35. If it matters Baltic Birch is 9-ply whereas Birch is 5-ply.

As someone else mentioned, there will be a lot of waste if you use Baltic... I reserve Baltic for making jigs and fixtures and use shop grade Birch ply for cabinets.

As far as Apple-ply, I saw an episode of David Marks' Wood Works on the DIY channel and according to the show, Apple-ply is made in the USA as a counter to Baltic Birch. The name is misleading because it is not made from Apple wood. Made in America = "Apple Pie" hence the name Apple-<i>ply</i> NO KIDDING!!!

I've never seen it but people tell me it is as expensive if not more so than Baltic Birch.

[Ken Garlock]

which seems strange to me. The nearest distributor is in Oklahoma City.

Appleply is made by States Industries in Eugene Or. At the risk of stepping on a rule, their informative website is http://www.statesind.com . Check out their test results.

I don't understand why a metro area of over 3 million people doesn't have a retail outlet for Appleply, or at least a wholesaler

Mike, it sounds like an opportunity is at hand....

[Mike Mastin]

Commodity lumber market is minimal margins at best and then there is the intial buy in to get the stock at a reasonable price. I will leave this to the big dealers :-)

Plus Appleply is pretty pricey in comparison to Baltic or Russian birch. I found 3/4 Russian birch that is 13 ply in 3/4", not 9 ply though as someone mentioned earlier. I like the finished edge on the imported birch's.

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

I just picked up a 5x5 1/2" this afternoon for $15.49 at the local DoItBest store. It's not Baltic, but it's some kind of foreign stuff. Pretty clean, but DOES have some 'footballs' in it.

KC

[Bart Leetch]

Gee I must be poor man. I thought this was for a shop cabinet. I usually use a reasonable to good quality 3/4" or 1/2" plywood for shop cabinets & save the real good stuff for kitchen cabinets or some kind of furniture.