plywood cabinet shop drawers - 2 different plywood choices - which would you choose

[Cory filder]

Hello,
I bought some 12mm Baltic birch plywood to build some shop drawers.I miscalculated the amount of material needed by only one or two drawers. looking around I have two options I have available in my shop. The first one is 18mm Baltic birch instead of 12mm ( no picture shown). the only reason I'm hesitant to use this material is it is not exactly flat. a bit of a bow in it. I don't know how much is considered acceptable

but also have this plywood 1/2 sheet. it is 1/2" thick with 9 plys with a maple face. I don't know if white layers are softwood or hardwood. I'm thinking the material is flatter. I'm wondering if this could be used as a substitute for the Baltic Birch. which is a better choice. can this be used for drawers?
what do you think

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[Jamie Buxton]

Baltic birch holds screws well. If you're using sidemount slides, screw holding matters. I can't tell if your 1/2" plywood has MDF layers. You might try a test: drive screws and try to pull them out.

The other question is how you're planning on making your corner joints. Real baltic birch might have an advantage in some joints.

[Andrew Seemann]

18mm baltic can be quite stiff. If the bow can be straightened and held straight it may be OK, like if you put the bow in the middle, touching the bottom, and pull the front and back in. It may depend on how wide the side boards are.

If the 1/2" maple ply is cabinet grade (which is appears to be) and not Chinese. and if it has actual wood in it, it probably will stay flatter than baltic birch. The core laminations tend to be fir or poplar which are both nicely stable. BB plywood tends to be mostly flat, but it is rarely completely flat. Birch is an unstable wood and laminating it only makes it kind of more stable. BB's main advantages are screw holding ability as noted above, no voids, and (formerly) cost. And it looks reasonably good, including the edges.

If you are careful, screwing into the maple ply for drawer slides will work just fine. Honestly the corner joints can be glued and screwed/nailed butt joints (pilot and countersink the screws). The face veneer on cabinet plywood is very thin and prone to tear out, which is more of a negative for a kitchen or furniture piece than a shop drawer. But given the option, orient the long side with the face grain to minimize tear out, or put the "cross cut" pieces on the back.

Prior to introduction/common use of BB plywood in the 90s, kitchen drawers were generally made of cabinet grade fir or even solid white or sugar pine, all of which are softer than birch. Hardwoods were also used, but those tended to be more premium, not your average kitchen.

Unsolicited advice Always buy at least one more sheet of baltic birch than you think you need, unless it is readily available at the store. It is handy enough for jigs, fixtures, kids furniture, etc, that it is convenient to have some on hand. Plus you'll be covered for unforeseen instances, like when I reversed the dimensions on some drawer sides with the front&backs on my last cabinet build.

[Jim Becker]

While the BB is certainly a better overall product in most cases for this application, unless that alternative plywood is "caa caa", it should work fine for your application to have enough material for that extra drawer or so that isn't covered by the BB you have on hand. Assemble it strong and don't worry about it.

[Cory filder]

18mm baltic can be quite stiff. If the bow can be straightened and held straight it may be OK, like if you put the bow in the middle, touching the bottom, and pull the front and back in. It may depend on how wide the side boards are.

If the 1/2" maple ply is cabinet grade (which is appears to be) and not Chinese. and if it has actual wood in it, it probably will stay flatter than baltic birch. The core laminations tend to be fir or poplar which are both nicely stable. BB plywood tends to be mostly flat, but it is rarely completely flat. Birch is an unstable wood and laminating it only makes it kind of more stable. BB's main advantages are screw holding ability as noted above, no voids, and (formerly) cost. And it looks reasonably good, including the edges.

If you are careful, screwing into the maple ply for drawer slides will work just fine. Honestly the corner joints can be glued and screwed/nailed butt joints (pilot and countersink the screws). The face veneer on cabinet plywood is very thin and prone to tear out, which is more of a negative for a kitchen or furniture piece than a shop drawer. But given the option, orient the long side with the face grain to minimize tear out, or put the "cross cut" pieces on the back.

Prior to introduction/common use of BB plywood in the 90s, kitchen drawers were generally made of cabinet grade fir or even solid white or sugar pine, all of which are softer than birch. Hardwoods were also used, but those tended to be more premium, not your average kitchen.

Unsolicited advice Always buy at least one more sheet of baltic birch than you think you need, unless it is readily available at the store. It is handy enough for jigs, fixtures, kids furniture, etc, that it is convenient to have some on hand. Plus you'll be covered for unforeseen instances, like when I reversed the dimensions on some drawer sides with the front&backs on my last cabinet build.

how do i pull the back in or out? each drawer is about 20"x40". some of the drawer bottoms are 1/4"BB and others 3/8" BB

it wasn't off shore chinese. I remember buying it at Home Depot ages ago. good tips on the stability of woods.I appreciate the unsolicited advice. I will not make that mistake again on quantities.

While the BB is certainly a better overall product in most cases for this application, unless that alternative plywood is "caa caa", it should work fine for your application to have enough material for that extra drawer or so that isn't covered by the BB you have on hand. Assemble it strong and don't worry about it.

thank youIt's good to know that I don't need to worry about this too much.

it sounds like either material is acceptable

[Andrew Seemann]

On a drawer made with bowed wood the bow can be on the inside (wider on the ends) or on the outside (wider in the middle). If the drawer is wider in the middle, it will jam, so that is no good. And there isn't a good way to restrain the middles, especially at the top.

If the middle of the sides/fronts/backs is the narrow part, the ends can be drawn together with clamps when you glue/screw/nail the corners. They are held in place by the corner joint, and the bottom will keep the sides in line. If the tops of the drawers bow in a little, it usually doesn't matter because it won't jamb.

That said, I probably would just use the other 1/2" plywood. It is already flat and the same thickness. Maple and birch tend to look almost identical to the untrained eye, and even the trained eye won't often spot the difference unless consciously looking. 3 out of the 4 legs on my Tage Frid style bench are made of maple, one is birch because I didn't notice I had grabbed a piece of birch off my rack while milling up the maple. It was years later when I happened to see one leg had different chatoyance and realized it was birch.