9/17
Shop the Home Center for Convenience and Savings
Baltic birch is a premium plywood found at lumberyards. It’s strong with good screw-holding capability, making it a good, affordable alternative. It’s perfect for less visible cabinet parts, drawers and shelving. As for other plywood, home centers have a more limited selection, carrying mostly veneer core (maybe MDF core), grade B2 and lower. Face veneer cuts are typically rotary cut or plain sliced, and in-stock species will usually be red oak, birch and maple. But the home center is a good option to save a little money.
10/17
Don’t Have Plywood Delivered
If you have a way to haul sheets of plywood yourself, do it. The person pulling sheets for delivery isn’t going to handselect the nicest sheets for you. If delivery is your only option, inspect the sheets before the delivery truck leaves and reject any that are damaged or unusable. You may not have the option of rejecting a sheet because you don’t like the grain pattern.
11/17
Using Paint? Choose MDF or Birch
For projects I’m going to paint, I like MDF (medium-density fiberboard) or birch. B-grade birch or lower is fine. Sometimes, you’ll even see plywood classified as “paint grade.” Birch is close grained with a smooth texture that doesn’t show through paint. With an open-grained species like oak, the grain is visible under paint. MDF, of course, has no grain pattern, making it a good choice for painted projects. But for structural parts, I like birch veneer.
