Shopsmith Forums

Anybody used Appleply or Europly? It's high end plywood with extra ply's, no voids, and more. It's used a lot in modern furniture where the plywood end grain is a celebrated feature. not covered up with strips or banding. It's expensive but I like the look, not to mention how quickly a piece can come together.

It is also known at Baltic Birch. It is used quite a bit as drawer sides. It is very nice to work with.

tomsalwasser wrote:Anybody used Appleply or Europly? It's high end plywood with extra ply's, no voids, and more. It's used a lot in modern furniture where the plywood end grain is a celebrated feature. not covered up with strips or banding. It's expensive but I like the look, not to mention how quickly a piece can come together.

Appleply is the term Home Depot and Lowes often apply to their higher grade of ply. A while back on this forum there was a discussion about this ply and many members found it was made in China. There were reports from people of finding foreign substances (razor blades, staples, metal shavings and etc.) glued between the sheets. Also some reported there was some delamination problems and core voids.

I use Appleply product a lot and I personally never had a problem.

Most Cabinet and furniture shops around me do not use this product they use a product I know as Baltic Ply. It is European made and is without negative reports. Also this product may be known by some as marine ply but marine ply must contain waterproof glue. Baltic Ply I buy comes in 60" x 60" sheets.

The biggest thing is number of plys, Appleply I buy has 7 or more core and two surface plys and no voids in the core plys. The Baltic I buy has 11 + core plys and two surface plys and no core voids. Normal plywood has 5 plys with voids.

Though some may call it Baltic ply, Appleply is not the same thing.

Ed, I'm not sure we're talking about the same Appleply. It's not commonly available, at least here in MN. It's a special order item from commercial lumber yards and crazy expensive. I see the manufacturer is now selling it directly from their web site in smaller sizes that can ship UPS. http://www.appleply.com/

stephen_a._draper wrote:It is also known at Baltic Birch. It is used quite a bit as drawer sides. It is very nice to work with.

I think that we are mixing our fruit in the same bowl.

Baltic Birch, Europly and Appleply are all higher grade plywoods (fruit) but they are not all the same quality or price.

Furthermore, if you purchase this stuff at a BORG, I don't believe you have a chance of getting real quality ApplePly or Europly.

If you want quality wood products, find your nearest Hood Distributor.

You can add Arauco ply to the mix, as well.
I've used Apple ply, Baltic Birch, Europly and Arauco. Europly, I used only for it's finish sides. The other three for interior or hidden parts. Arauco does come in face configurations other than plain/flat. And you can find it in T&G.
As Dusty says, if you want high quality BB, Arauco or Appleply, it's best to shop at some place like Hood, Woodworker's Source or another large harwood dealer.
I've seen some crap at Lowes and HD that were labled as Appleply. Lowes used to carry actual Arauco but, since the fire at the Arauco mill, it hasn't been available. Maybe soon, though as they are back in production now.

tomsalwasser wrote:Ed, I'm not sure we're talking about the same Appleply. It's not commonly available, at least here in MN. It's a special order item from commercial lumber yards and crazy expensive. I see the manufacturer is now selling it directly from their web site in smaller sizes that can ship UPS. http://www.appleply.com/

You mentioned that you are in Minnesota. There are a few places to find Baltic Birch, but I haven't run across Appleply. My favorite lumberyard for deals carries it rarely because the lumber guy thinks like me...he won't buy it unless it is cheap. Rockler has half sheets of the 5x5, 1/2" ( or 2.5 x5) for $25, last time I bought it I paid $25 for whole sheets of 5/8". The stuff I found had Russian writing.

It is nice stuff to work with, flat and stable. Easy to cut, can route well, but needs wood filler to clean up the routed edges. I used two sheets glued togeth for a desktop and it has held up well.

I did a big search across the state for phenolic ply and had no luck in finding anything beside the small expensive sheets they carry at Rockler and Woodcraft.
Phenolic Ply is a Baltic birch core with phenolic resin on the top. Grades with less resin and lower quality cores are available as MDO and HDO plywood. It is nice stuff for making jigs because of the slick surface. I ended up finding 1/6th sheets on closeout at Rockler.

In Minneapolis you can find baltic birch at Youngblood, but it is about double the price to go from 1/2" to 3/4". I think it was mid $30s in 1/2 and mid $60s in 3/4 and you need the wholesale discount to get that pricing. You'll have better luck finding it at Menards.

Good info, thanks letterk! I believe Youngblood's also offers a 10% discount if you're a member of the Minnesota Woodworker's Guild. Rockler does too.

If I look at appleply a little differently (price it like the lumber it replaces) and if I did my math correctly, three 3/4"X48"x48" pieces of red oak appleply costs $6.26 per board foot, delivered to my door by UPS according to http://www.buyappleply.com

I like the look of some of the projects on the web site.

tomsalwasser wrote:Good info, thanks letterk! I believe Youngblood's also offers a 10% discount if you're a member of the Minnesota Woodworker's Guild. Rockler does too.

If I look at appleply a little differently (price it like the lumber it replaces) and if I did my math correctly, three 3/4"X48"x48" pieces of red oak appleply costs $6.26 per board foot, delivered to my door by UPS according to http://www.buyappleply.com

I like the look of some of the projects on the web site.

They give wholesale prices to guild members, depending on who you ask it is between 10 to 40% off.

I was able to get a catalog from them dated 5/11 which was the most recent printing as of a few months ago. 1/2" was 1.38, 3/4 was 2.56 per square foot, sold in 5x5 sheets. Those are wholesale rates for 1-5 sheets.

I'd like to join the guild, but the only benefit I'd get is lumber discount. Their meetings look great including the next one at the guy responsible for the Hand Tool Olympic at IWF, but with young kids I can't get to them. Hardwood prices are much better, but I refuse to pay to get a discount when I can drive 2 miles and get similar pricing without having to jump through hoops.

I seldom attend the MWWG meetings but I did make the last one. The presenter showed off 6 different kit guitars he's made and listed the good and bad points of each. The cheapest but still quite nice is sold by Grizzly (the woodworking equipment company) for about a hundred bucks. Add something else to my list of things to do.