The other day my neighbor across the street called and asked if I'd be interested in any of the wood her husband had in their garage. They recently sold their house in an effort to downsize and didn't have space for it.
I went over and looked to see what there was. Mostly a lot of scrap pine lumber and odds and ends. Nothing that I needed or wanted. Then, against one wall I noticed some half sheets of veneered plywood and luan. My lumber racks are fairly full so I told her I would have to pass.
Thinking about it overnight I decided if I could make a little room in my sheet goods rack I would take some of it. The movers came yesterday and my neighbors were back this morning still trying to clean up the last of the stuff in the garage. I backed my truck into the driveway and told her I'd changed my mind but could only take some of what was there.
I ended up with 5 half sheets of luan, one half sheet of birch ply, two half sheets of cherry, and two walnut. The veneered plywood appears to be B-B grade because the veneer seams show on both sides, where an A-B grade would only show them on the B side. No matter. I've never bought or used cherry or walnut veneered plywood but I figure it can't hurt to have a little just in case. At least the price was right!!
One of my early projects was a pair of dressers out of cherry veneer ply. The veneer was rotary cut, very uniform in appearance, and compared to sawn cherry lumber was just plain boring. Never used it again.
A couple of years ago, a buddy and I bought some things at an auction of the contents of a millworks. I picked up a couple thousand square feet of nice veneer, among other things.
While we were loading our booty, the owner mentioned that, just the previous week, they'd hauled to the dump something like five (and it might have been 8 or 9) 30-yard roll-offs of very nice veneered panels. It had to go, but much of it was likely one or two matching sheets left over from jobs, and apparently they thought it wasn't worth lotting for the auction. Plus, they had to pay quite a bit to dump it.
Very nice, David. Do you think she believed she was doing you a favor or asking you if you'd take the plywood and smaller pieces off her hands since she didn't have room for it ?
I think I was doing her the favor so they didn't have to worry with moving or disposing of it. We weren't close as neighbors, even though they were across the street. I think knowing I had a wood shop and looking for a way to lighten their load, she called me toward that end. I didn't take all of it. There were still four half sheets (2 x of cherry left. I just didn't have space for it.
I built the cabinets in our last two kitchens from cherry ply and solids. I usually get sequence-matched sheets to keep whatever figure consistent. I've never seen rotary-cut cherry ply, but I imagine it would be pretty bland. Back when I was doing a lot of architectural interior work, we often ordered domestic and exotic hardwood plywood. Sometimes, we made our own, although my old veneer press could only handle a 39" x 10' panel, so for larger tabletops and such, I took my taped-up veneers and substrates over to a buddy who had a big hot press. Outsourcing is definitely a valuable practice for a lot of custom work -- metal, glass, plexiglas, electronics, stone, etc., not to mention specialty tooling -- all the stuff you need to fabricate the whole package for someone.
of cherry left. I just didn't have space for it.
