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?
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!
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.