Looking for alternatives to baltic birch for Systainer cabinets?

[MMCO]

I am getting around to building systainer cabinets, 16 in total. Baltic Birch is $180 per sheet at my local dealer so I am looking for a much lower cost alternative since these are for my garage. Has anyone tried Sande Plywood or anything else that is a good alternative?

 

[luvmytoolz]

I use what we call Formply for those sorts of things. Has a nice black resin coating on the faces. and reasonably cheap given the dimensions.

I'm guessing you're in the US? Not sure if it's the same there, but it's commonly used for concrete form work.

 

[Hawkeye0001]

I used 19mm / 3/4" melamine particle board from Egger, they've got a wide range of available colors along with matching 0.8 - 3mm ABS edgebanding. Easy to work with, only 2/5th of the price of birch ply and very sturdy.

 

[woodferret]

If you're using the SYS-AZ drawers, any cheap ply would work, even Chinaply. The SYS3 rails however, do require straightness, so like Hawkeye0001, I just use melamine.

 

[Allano]

I use what we call Formply for those sorts of things. Has a nice black resin coating on the faces. and reasonably cheap given the dimensions.

I have some of that too. It seems to be baltic birch under the coating, and I really can't understand why it is so cheap. Do you know the reason? Is it because it is sold in larger volumes than "real" birch ply?

Examples from a local store:

• 18x1250x2500 mm form ply, 120 gram(/m2?) fenol coating: 135 €.
• 18x1250x2500 mm birch ply, grade S/WG: 200 €.

Both are described as birch ply. Both are 13 layers.

Some of the explanation is of course that they can use a lower quality birch for the top layers when it is going to be fenol coated. But S/WG only has one good side (S). The other side (WG) is quite poor quality.

 

[woodferret]

It's the top-most face layer that is most of the cost. Clear birch that isn't veneer peeled to death mostly comes from RU. The interior, while the same thickness, is low grade. It's gotten so bad that there are providers out there now that make 15 ply, but using all interior grade veneers with the wispiest top layer that makes even most China Ply blush. On first pass, it looks like standard 13ply BB, until you look closely at the glue line.

 

[Imemiter]

My garage-grade standard is 3/4" MDO with Black PVC peel and stick edge-banding from FastCap.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I just made 6 for my home shop, using the same 3/4" Melamine as the originals. It was far more cost effective than the plywood alternatives.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I have some of that too. It seems to be baltic birch under the coating, and I really can't understand why it is so cheap. Do you know the reason? Is it because it is sold in larger volumes than "real" birch ply?

I really don't know myself, unless as it's made in such high quantities for the construction market it lowers the price dramatically. But it's sensational stuff to use for general sheet projects and it lasts forever.

 

[onocoffee]

You might consider me a charlatan for this, but for my shop projects, carts and cabinets, I've been turning to salvaging wood. Like this plywood pallet from Harbor Freight. Looks to be about 3/4" thick and in reasonable shape. I tear the pallets apart and then make the cabinet out of them. In this case, I'm going to use this ply to make the carcass for my oscillating spindle sander which will also have some amount of systainer storage with SYS RAILS.

 

[Packard]

I’ve built plenty of cabinet boxes from 3/4” thick conventional birch plywood. It takes dowels well as well as biscuits. I assume it will do as well with dominoes.

I don’t use it for drawers, but for boxes it seems to work fine. Not suitable for wet environments though.