Actual thickness of Europly

[dlu]

I've gotten used to US-made softwood plywood being thinner than its nominal size, so I was expecting the same thing when I started figuring out the dimensions of some drawers I'm building using Columbia Forest Products Europly, which is the closest thing to Baltic Birch that my supplier can get. I ordered a sheet of 1/2" shop grade and when it arrived I measured the thickness -- it was 12.7 mm (1/2") on the nose in the first spot I measured and the variation is less than ± 0.05mm.

So, I'm wondering is hardwood plywood made to the actual thickness? Or, could it be that the reason this (otherwise very nice looking) sheet is shop grade that somebody goofed and it's too thick? Feeling just a bit sheepish here...

 

[woodferret]

Cabinet grade plywood doesn't mess around.  When they write 1/2", 90% of the time they mean actual 1/2".  There's typically a separate SKU/listing for 12mm for those of us who prefer to deal with mms and euro construction.  Bottom of the barrel will make up that 10% - and that's what the big boxes tend to stock. 

Shop grade merely refers to the facing veneers - not the cheapness of construction.