Source for plywood?

I am looking to buy some 3/8" birch plywood to make some tapered cores for fins. I will be using four pieces of plywood, each 12" x 28" (I will probably end up buying 12"x48" pieces).

Does anyone have a good source for high-quality plywood?

Right now I am thinking about this site:
https://www.nationalbalsa.com/aboutus.asp

Have you tried here?

https://www.balsamachining.com

timbucktoo said:

Have you tried here?

https://www.balsamachining.com

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Cool site, but they only sell plywood up to 1/4".

where do you live? maybe someone knows where a bricks-and-morter shop is....

Personally I buy my Baltic birch off eBay and have had good success: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Single-Pie...642209?hash=item3d0e4892a1:g:GUIAAOSwGotWkX8J.

Depending on where you are located (looks to be western US from your avatar) check with a lumberyard specializing in hardwood lumbers, in the northwest that would be like Windsor Plywood (lots of stuff besides plywood), better yet contact a local cabinet shop that actually makes their cabinets and ask them if they will order/sell/give you a piece of 9mm Baltic Birch ply, most likely you will have to buy it from them but it will be a 5'x5' sheet and will cost between $20 and $30 per sheet depending on grade ( I pay $18 per sheet last time I bought it from my regional wholesaler for B/BB grade iirc.). It will be most likely 5 ply. FYI shipping will eat up any online saving pretty quickly.

Aircraft Spruce has real aircraft quality baltic ( Finish) birch plywood as well as other grades. The Baltic birch has waterproof glue and is heat pressed. It's great stuff but expensive.
Try looking for a local lumberyard that specializes in millwork. They usually have ply that's a grade better than Home Depot etc.

pythonrock said:

Aircraft Spruce has real aircraft quality baltic ( Finish) birch plywood as well as other grades. The Baltic birch has waterproof glue and is heat pressed. It's great stuff but expensive.
Try looking for a local lumberyard that specializes in millwork. They usually have ply that's a grade better than Home Depot etc.

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Home Depot ply is import and is crap, expensive crap as it has lots of voids and delaminations. Real Aircraft Birch ply like Aircraft Spruce sell is the best stuff, but expensive.

Sorry for the rant here: HD plywood is one of my pet peeves, I have used it for a couple of furniture projects and the delaminations were so bad I had to constantly inject glue and clamp them closed, missing knots from inner plys creating voids, and surface veneers paper thin so that they couldn't be touched with a sander for fear of sanding through to the underlayers.

Woodcraft or Rockler. They are a bit pricy though. Otherwise as said above, look for a local hardwood supplier. They often carry such products. Otherwise do a search for boat building plywood. High quality and water resistant glues to boot.

Thanks for the replies!

I will be contacting a few local suppliers, there is a place in Portland (a little more than an hour's drive) called "Mr. Plywood" that looks promising!

Since I will be tapering the sheets from 3/8" to 1/8" I want the best quality I can get, probably Finnish aircraft grade if possible.

I have used Woodworkers Source, for me it is local so no shipping.


M

I found a place in Salem (~40 minutes' drive) that sells 3/8" bb plywood, they will even sell me half a sheet for roughly a fourth of what is was online. Now I just need to get the high school wood shop to do some planing for me....

I buy from here: https://www.woodnshop.com/hardwood/Baltic_Birch_Plywood.htm
Not local to me but they sell it in manageable sizes.
They sell up to 1/2" thickness.

JD