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Plywood cores are a total lie and I'm tired of pretending otherwise
I was over at a supplier in Nashville last month picking up some maple ply for a kitchen job and the guy at the counter showed me the actual core specs on the sheet. Turns out most of that '3/4 inch' plywood is really 11/16 or even 5/8 when you measure it dry. I've been building cabinets with this stuff for 8 years and never actually checked because I trusted the label. Measured a stack of 10 sheets from three different brands and only one hit above 0.7 inches. That throws off my scribe fits and face frame reveals by a solid 1/16 every time. Has anyone else gotten burned by this or am I just the last person to find out?
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emeryr389d ago
Well, haven't we all learned this the hard way? I started noticing this about ten years ago when a countertop install went wrong because my scribe was off. You're not crazy at all. The plywood thickness standard is more of a suggestion these days. Most of those big box places are selling what they call 'nominal' thickness, which really means close enough. For face frames and inset doors, that 1/16 adds up fast and makes you look sloppy. I started buying from a local mill that actually guarantees a true dimension, and it costs more but saves me headaches. You just can't trust the label anymore, you have to measure everything yourself.
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sandra_black9d ago
Yeah that's a rough lesson to learn and I feel for you. I've been doing trim work for about twelve years now and I watched a whole kitchen island get built with stuff that was supposed to be 3/4 but came in at 11/16 and change. The domino effect on the cabinet gaps and countertop overhang was just a nightmare. You start to realize pretty quick that the big manufacturers are cutting corners to save on veneer and glue layers. It's not even a new thing either, I've got old war stories from guys who've been in the trade since the 80s saying the same stuff. The only fix is to bring calipers to the lumber yard and sort through the pile yourself before you buy.
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