Plywood size rant

[Gene Howe]

I needed some 1/8” material for drawer bottoms. Thought I'd pick it up while in Tucson for Thanksgiving. Turns out that the places I'd go for good plywood were all closed on Friday. That was OK, they should have that time with their families. Or, to fight the hordes of Black Friday shoppers.

So, went on the “My Lowes” website before we left Tucson and found some 1/8” ply labeled “Hardwood Plywood” supposed to be in stock at the store closest to my house in the mountains.
After the 6 hour drive home and unpacking the pick up, (my wife must take half the house for a 4 day visit) I made another 40 mile trip south to Lowes to get the ply. When I got there, I found that 1/8th plywood was actually 5MM. And it was indeed labeled as that. The young guy in lumber said they never carried 1/8" ply of any species. When I told him their website said they carried it, he just shrugged. What was strange was that they had true 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 of the same material in stock.

Damn, that irritates me.

Since I was unable to get some true 1/8” in Tucson, I had no options left so I bought the 5MM. The guy did cut it for me so I could carry it in the back seat.

Anybody got a 5MM thick rip blade?

No?
Guess I’ll just make two passes on the SS.

[billmayo]

[quote="Gene Howe"]I needed some 1/8&#8221]

This was one of the few areas where I was able to make use of the Magna wobble saw blade. I am not sure where mine is located these days since I have not used it in years. These saw blades are still listed on Ebay a couple times a year. It are hard to find anyone who would sharpen mine but I was able to find an older woodworker with the equipment. My other wobble saw blade had much thicker carbite teeth for wider grooves. I doubt if you can stack 2 saw blades for that width.

[crosscreekcraig]

The young guy in lumber said they never carried 1/8" ply of any species. When I told him their website said they carried it, he just shrugged. What was strange was that they had true 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 of the same material in stock.

Damn, that irritates me.

Gene, the big box stores tend to irritate me too in that regard. One day not long ago I was in Lowe's looking for 1/4" hard board. I was in the sheet goods aisle of the lumber section and didn't see any, so I asked the first employee that happened by. He looked at me as if I'd spoken to him in Greek and said he didn't think they carried it. After he walked away I realized that I didn't see peg board either and I KNOW they have peg board because I've bought it there before, and thus I went in search of peg board believing that hard board would be near by. I was right and all of that type of sheet ( peg, bead, hard, etc.) was in another section of the store all together. Although 3/16" and (ahem) 1/8" was all they had, so I decided 3/16 was close enough. I saw the same employee right around the corner and said, "This is what hard board is." The same look crossed his face as before. Long story, but believe me when I say I feel your pain.

[shipwright]

Sorry Gene, I commented on your other plywood size rant.

[charlese]

Gene, I also feel your pain.

The size of plywood is one of those things we have to learn to work around. A while back, when I wanted 1/8" wood I had to make some. A litt;e re-sawing, gluing up 1/4" then planing 1/8" solid wood.

I glued up 1/4" because I'm not too good at getting edges exactly even when edge gluing narrow wood.

[Gene Howe]

Don't know how two threads got posted.

Sorry Gene, I commented on your other plywood size rant.

[eartigas]

I have not been able to find real 1/4 or 1/2 or 3/4 inches plywood near me; mostly is all metric.

The most elusive if the famous 1/4" Hardboard; every Lowes and HD I visited only had 3/16" and 1/8".

As for doing a groove, I got the "plywood sized" router bits from MLCS.

I am used to metric and like it but the mix of metric and imperial is what makes everybody nuts. In the USA I happily stick to imperial and all matches perfectly until your overseas suppliers send the metric stuff!

Ed