I’m in the planning stages of a new project, and have got 2 questions for you about sourcing the wood.
First, where do you buy your project wood from? Second, any tips on whether to go with 1/2″ plywood or solid wood to build a bunch of drawers?
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I’ve built shelves before, boxes, rollout drawer-like shelves, vertical rollout panels, and things like that. But this is going to be my first drawer cabinet project. It’s a big project, and I’ve already convinced myself to build it with better-than-homecenter materials.
I figure that solid wood drawers will require too much work. Not that I don’t like work, but I’d rather build my cabinet and put it to use rather than try to find the time to flatten and straighten 14 drawers worth of hardwood. The drawer fronts will be hardwood, though.
Unless I can be convinced otherwise, I’m all set to go with Baltic Birch plywood. It’s a higher grade than typical homecenter or construction-grade stuff, but not anywhere as readily available.
I just can’t seem to find it locally. I’m going to try one more place tomorrow.
I came across Woodworkers Source (link) in my search. They seem to have great prices, and although they cut the 5′ x 5′ boards down to size for shipping, you have a few choices as to how it’s cut. If you want full sheets or larger cuts, that’s an option, at extra cost.
But then I looked at the shipping costs. Yikes!
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Some online dealers bake shipping into the price of their Baltic Birch, but I wasn’t quite expecting shipping to be so pricey. Well, I guess I should have expected it. It just hit me hard that the price to ship the plywood costs more than the actual plywood itself.
I like the sizing options, and the cost is still lower than some other online sources, even when shipping is included, but I’m going to try my best to find a local distributor that offers free delivery.
I’ve heard good things about Woodworkers Source for plywood, and have had good experiences with Bellforest for solid wood. I would still prefer to source my wood locally, if possible. But, if tomorrow’s search doesn’t pan out, it looks like online sources will be my only option for Baltic Birch plywood.
If my math is right, I’ll need about 65 square feet of plywood. In theory that means 2 full sheets of plywood, but it’ll work out to a bit more, or a lot more, depending on how I lay out the cuts.
Whether you have an awesome lumberyard near you or not, where do you get your wood from? I’m really curious to find out. Construction-grade plywood is widely available, but it’s the cabinet and fine-furniture stuff that’s proving to be elusive.
Part of me is wondering whether it’ll just be easier for me to build the drawers out of hardwood, with only the bottoms being plywood. What say you?
As of now, there will be (6) 24″ wide x 6″ tall x 15″ deep drawers, and (8) 18″ wide x 4″ tall x 15″ drawers. Or around those rough dimensions. They drawers will be built to hold everything from tools, to camera supplies.
And if you know of a great source for Baltic Birch plywood, pleas send me their way.
Rob
Baltic Birch is the way to go for drawers and non-visible areas. Depending on the look you are going for just as sound as true cabinet grade maple/cherry/walnut/etc veneered plywood but not as nice looking. BB isn’t meant to be used in visible portions of high end furniture but is great for all aspects of shop cabinets or anything like that. Hardwoods for anything but the drawer faces will only warp and bind when opening/closing. Rockler and Woodcraft will carry and are fairly common but if you can find a true hardwood dealer (not a construction lumberyard and NOT a box store) you will find much more variety and usually for less money both for the BB ply as well as multiple species of cabinet grade ply for the actual case. I’m in New England and love Highland Hardwoods in NH.
Bob
Home Depot’s Purebond Birch plywood will be plenty stable for any drawers you are using. Baltic is nice, but super expensive. Only thing with Home depot is store the supply flat so its weight doesn’t warp if you end up setting it aside for a long time.
Tom
There is a hardwood lumber place in suburban Chicago that not only sells Baltic Birch (full sheets and partials, so you can buy what you want), but also sells precut drawer parts from BB ply. I havent looked at them in a long time, and the precuts may not be what you are looking for (slot for the bottom, etc.), but might be worth a call. I dont know if they ship or not, but I know they will do custom cut orders. Many of the better trim guys in the area get their high-end orders from here. The name is Owl Hardwood: http://www.owlhardwood.com.
Matt
I love Owl Hardwood. It feels like Christmas every time I walk in there 🙂
ChrisK
I drive four town down to my local wood dealer. I get my Baltic birch at roughly $60 a sheet and they have a wide selection of both soft and hardwoods. The plywood I get there is way better than the “cabinet grade” plywood at the big box stores and not too much more expensive.
ChrisK
Oh! One more thing! I’ve bought a few lumber packs from Bell Forest with discount codes and free shipping for hardwood. Even with the 10-20% codes, it’s still cheaper by about 20-25% to go to my lumber dealer. Just food for thought. Most of the lumber yards here in New Hampshire have a price sheet per board foot so it’s real easy figure out what your going to save or not save with an online dealer. Let me add though, that I’ve made four 20bf hardwood packs from Bell Forest and they are great to deal with, fast on shipping and I always purchase rough as I can joint and plane at my house and save a few bucks. But walking into the lumber yard is like…..well…..nirvana.
Lamar
Have you tried http://www.woodfinder.com/? It does a pretty good job of finding dealers you were unaware of.
I agree a good multilayer plywood is a good choice for the drawers. Baltic Birch is great but you can usually find cheaper alternatives too if you ask your supplier. One you find one.
Jimmie
For small quantities of Baltic Birch, I’ll just grab a sheet or two at Woodcraft since they’re just down the road. If my project is bigger, I’ll go to a hardwood store across town that caters to cabinet shops. They also have an good selection of various veneer rolls and veneered MDF (need 30 sheets of cherry-veneered MDF? no problem).
For exotics, my local Woodcraft actually has a decent selection. Wenge, purpleheart, zebrawood, etc. Not huge quantities of exotics but if you’re building a desk and need 30bf of bloodwood, they can usually hook you up.
For domestics, if I only need a few boards, I can usually find it at Woodcraft. But there are a couple sawmills within an hour’s drive that almost always have large quantities of kiln-dried cherry, walnut, ash, etc.
If all else fails, call around to various custom cabinet shops in your area. Sometimes you can talk them into selling you a few sheets of BB.
John Hemmendinger
Mendham Plywood 973-543-7762
RKA
Williard Bros. in Trenton has 5×5 Baltic birch. Call ahead to make sure they have what you need because the stock isn’t particularly large.
Monteath Lumber in Old Bridge has high quality plywood, including pre finished, a few different verneers and 4×8 Baltic birch-like.
RKA
Just saw the post below about ApplePly…that’s the Baltic birch-like stuff Monteath has! But they don’t show up in the dealer locator, only one place does in my area which makes me think they are only listing distributors and not retailers.
Noah
I live and work in Chicago, locally we buy from:
LEE Lumber, especially for large poplar orders
Wood World, our first choice for sheets of veneer ply.
Owl Lumber. We just bought several hundred feet of oak from them.
We also buy from AETNA Plywood but idk if they sell on the consumer level.
Benjamen
If you do decide to use solid wood for your drawers remember my favorite mnemonic : IDIOT
Inside of Drawer Is Outside of the Tree.
While Baltic Birch is great to work with, I wouldn’t eschew some of the higher grade plywood you can buy at the local big box or a lumber yard. Sometimes you just have to do a little sorting.
BonPacific
I’ve had decent luck with some Home Depot Radiata Pine plywood. The veneer is worthless, but it’s got about twice as many layers as the common 3/4 (10-12 vs 5-6). For shop furniture it’s solid enough, and at $28 a sheet it’s a steal. From talking to one of the workers there, it seems it might be a quirk of their individual store though.
Kevin
Try Appleply. http://www.appleply.com/about.php
I have used this for drawers with great success. The cut edges look terrific and very stable.
Buy online http://www.buyappleply.com/default.asp
Kevin
BonPacific
I’ll second ApplePly. At work we had a custom cabinet make using it, emphasizing the cut edges. It looks pretty good, and the edges are glass-smooth.
They have a dealer locator on the website.
RKA
Just saw that they sell pre finished drawer sides already grooved for the drawer bottom and bull nosed at the top. 8′ lengths but you have to buy in boxes of 10. Free shipping too! I might do this for the next drawer cabinet! Thanks!
Mark
Might want to look at using good quality pine for the sides? Joinery is more fun in solid wood.
Also worth considering is pre-finished plywood. Finish is a whole another bunch of pain in the butt. 🙂
Are you able to transport 5’x5′ or 4’x8′ sheets? I’m up the same creek in northern NJ, and haven’t figured out anything good.
Jerry
Small towns only around here, but there is one custom cabinet maker in the area. If there is no big hurry,like up to 2 weeks, he will order whatever anyone needs and add it to his regular order. He knows where to get the good stuff, and shipping charges are low as he kind of averages it out with his order.
Hepdog
The sanded South American ply at HD/Lowes is great for this kind of stuff. They used to call it ‘para-ply’but the name has changed to something else. Great quality, at least one good face, relatively void free, and readily available in 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, and 3/4. Next big box choice would be the oak or maple veneer stuff; I’ve never used it, don’t know what it’s inner construction is like. It is more expensive than the SA stuff.
Save the BB for Marshall stacks and boats.
Todd
Just find a local supplier. They are out there, otherwise the cabinet makers wouldn’t last. Most of these places are geared towards shops so the buying process is a bit different, so know what you want going into it. They’re usually pretty nice since wood is still a commodity and price/service is king. A lot of places offer delivery too.
MichaelHammer
Like Todd says, plywood distributors are everywhere and geared for the big shops. I’m fortunate enough to have one in my town in suburban Boston, but I have to purchase through a third party, i.e. my local lumber yard. There are also tens of lumber yards and plywood specialty shops close by. I would start with your local lumber yard. If they don’t have it or can’t get it, they will know who can. Those guys are tapped into the trades and know where source stuff.
Doug
Youngblood Lumber in Minneapolis.
Benjamen
Cool, I visit the Home Depot right there in St. Anthony now and again when I’m in the area. I didn’t realize it was right there.
Hang Fire
Dumpsters at construction sites, after hours and on weekends. It actually saves them on hauling costs, because they need to empty it less often.
SawdustTX
Funny – I have a similar problem for a different reason. We have a few really nice lumber dealers here in Houston, can get almost anything I need locally. Except with their limited store hours, and you know – being employed and all, I can’t ever get there when they are open. So I end up working with some of the higher end stuff from the big box, or going to Woodcraft on their late night. I did discover that my local Ace Hardware (Pearland TX) carries a number of cabinet grade plywoods out back, including Baltic birch. Nice since I can usually get off work in time to make it before they close or hit them on Sat.
Curt
There’s always Clark’s Hardwood Lumber Supply – open on Saturday 9am – 1pm. Extensive selection of boards, plywood, mouldings, trim, etc. Located near Studewood and White Oak. Probably my favorite yard in Houston, especially like their 50% discount on off-cuts (there’s a wall of shelves holding all their off-cuts, built more than one piece of furniture out of em…)
Jay
Not a lot of choice where I’m at now but back in the day I sourced all my lumber needs direct from the only actual lumber mill within driving distance.
http://portsmouthlumber.com/
Great bunch of guys and they will run whatever you need within reason.
As far as ply goes I had a good relationship (subbed out a lot of casework to them) with a local custom cabinet shop that was more than happy to provide whatever birch or oak sheets we needed. They always had the good stuff. No footballs and almost no hollow edges to fill.
John Blair
Hi Stuart,
Maybe I missed the general area where you live, but that would be helpful. Plenty of places where you think there isn’t a yard near you, you would be surprised how close they can be.
For the drawers, I would actually go with prefinished plywood (of whatever hardwood my local guy stocks cheapest). It will be finished without having the joy of spraying them yourselves. Brush a little poly on the cut edges and you will be good to go.
Here is another crazy idea. Ikea drawers. Available from 15 to 36 inches wide. Blum hardware (relabeled), Soft Close. You put your own drawer fronts on and you will have the smoothest opening and closing They have 3 different heights, 2 depths, and plenty of widths. For $25-49 dollars, they can be cheaper than good slides and the plywood. If the sizes work, they are the easiest, best option.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70265662/#/30265659
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80265666/
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10265679/
Stuart
Thanks for the idea!
I actually did consider Ikea’s Maximera kitchen drawers. Actually, I considered their Sektion kitchen cabinets as well. Their cabinets are actually really easy to assemble and install. But I wanted to go the DIY route for a least one long workbench-length cabinet. I’ll need more cabinetry, and might then go the IKEA route, either for the drawers, or a whole base and upper setup.
Here was my process. Step 1: Ooh, I like these Ikea Sektion wall cabinets in the office furniture section.Step 2: Yes, wall cabinets would work well in my new workspace setup. Step 3: Ooh, maybe I can remove a workbench and install a nice shallow depth cabinet that serves as high density storage plus a staging area for parts and supplies. Yes, base cabinets would work well. Step 4: Why not build a cabinet myself!
There are 3 reasons why wanted to go the DIYer route.
1. Weight capacity. The frame I’m building will be STRONG. I’m going with 80/20.
2. Drawer capacity. Ikea’s drawers are rated to 45 lbs. The Blum slides I ordered are rated to 100 lbs. Yes, Ikea slides are said to be made by Blum, but they’re not identical.
3. Customization. I’m actually on the fence about how to attach the slides to the 80/20 frame, but I’m able to build the drawers exactly to my liking. There are some depth limits imparted by the drawer slide sizes, but there’s flexibility in width and height.
Plus, I really wanted to try the Blum undermount drawer slides, and figured it would make for a good post opportunity. There are also a couple of drawer joinery techniques I wanted to try out.
Curt
Stuart, if you’re laying out plywood sheets for furniture products, there’s some helpful software tools for optimizing cut plans for sheet goods. Optimalon has a free version of their 2d optimizer that I’ve used for building garage cabinets from plywood – saved me two sheets from how I was thinking of doing it.
http://www.optimalon.com/online_cut_optimizer.htm
Daniel Lawson
Pure bond plywood from HD is decent stuff, there is a place in old bridge NJ that sells lumber one of the you tube guys from south jersey goes there. There is also i think its huston lumber in watchung nj, one of the guys i work with at FD does cabinet making and gets his stuff from there. I can always help you you get stuff from there through his discount.
BradH
gahnal and austin hardwood for SoCal, and just home depot for some birch ply if needed.
slophoto
After remodeling my kitchen and making my own boxes, I’ll jump in for places i’v e used. The pre-finished 5′ x 5′ sheets is the economical route but I’ve bought pre-cut widths ranging in 5, 9 and 12 inches. It’s more expensive going that route but both edges are bull-nosed and they fit in my mid-sized car. I don’t own a truck, although I have taken my cordless circular saw and made necessary cuts to sheet plywood in the parking lot to fit in my car. In the San Francisco Bay area I have used: Aura Hardwoods in San Jose, MacBeath’s (several locations), and Plywood and Lumber Sales (PALS) in Oakland. My local HD currently sells pre-finished ¾ inch ply which are great for the box shells. The pre-finished is quite durable (better than varnish/poly), looks professional and saves on painting/finishing. As a last resort, buy pre-made drawers from Western Dovetail – lots of options (including cut outs for slide hardware) professional quality and reasonable prices.