Has anyone mentioned .118” or .190 (nominal) masonite clad with white melamine on one side and clad with black chalkboard (Flat Black enamel). I usually call ahead to Lowes and have them cut the boards 12 x 18 inches on their panel-saw. Depending on raw sheet size, I can get 21 pieces for for about 15 bucks.
This stuff will blow your mind with the possibilities. Settings are similar to med and thick PG draftboard. Details come out great on either side. Have fun!
Here is one of the links.
Colombia Forest Products sells what the call “Revolution Plywood” that they build from 100% sustainable sources and was $15 a 48"x 96" sheets. I get these cut to 5 19 inch sheets and you can cut each of them to 5- 9x19 inch and get 25 sheets total Somewhat smaller than the maximum size you can cut in the Glowforge but excellent for students and better than glorified paper.
Birch plywood from Home Depot can be extremely problematic and totally different from Baltic Birch as this is Home Depot Birch …
I spent $55 at HD yesterday on getting 2- 4x8 sheets of Columbia Forest Products 1/4 inch birch plywood cut into the appropriate sizes. Got 32 full size 20x12 sheets and various smaller pieces. Works out to be pretty cost efficient.
Weird - I haven’t seen that in any of the HD birch I’ve cut, but makes sense as who knows what’s in the middle of that stuff.
Perhaps it’s time to find a more consistent source, although I haven’t had issues.
Depends on the birch you select at HD. Though it’s not well marked, they have the Columbia Forest products out with the other plywoods. I have to look it up online and get what bin they’re in to make sure I’m getting the right stuff.
Maybe you have been getting lucky!
Time to by that powerball ticket…
As one cannot actually cut 20x12 I get stuff cut to 19 x 48 and use the passthrough for whatever width I need.
Well, I tell them to cut it 20x12, because I always end up getting it about 19.5 x 11.5. They cut both sheets at once and they always, always cut it a little short at this particular store.
I don’t have a pro, so the pass through is not an option for me, but they (usually) cut it all for free, it’s easier to get them to do it than for me to fire up the table saw.
Because they have a quarter inch kerf, The next time I intend to buy a roll of masking tape and put that on myself and save another half inch of shattered wood at each cut. Those saws get a lot of use and are not as sharp as would be nice. 
That would be called ‘dado’…
Cheap and fast (perhaps not even flat)
Other than their obvious lack of cutting skills, this wood seems to be every bit as good as the “glowforge” package they push at HD. And I don’t have to wait a week for it to be delivered to the store.
I would put it more to abused equipment. Then again when you hobble in with a cane and get one of their carts there is no place to put the cane, Now a drug store might be a challenge for them to find a bit of hardware like a clip for a broom or something, but a hardware store?
Nah, I explained in great detail how to cut this. even had a diagram drawn out…if cut correctly, i would have had 32 full pieces and 4 leftover smaller pieces…no. I got the 32 pieces pretty close…but 12 small chunks to go with it… and the whole time, he was scratching his head trying to figure out how this was happening.
He cut the 20- inches down the 96? = 3 at 20" and one at 15" The 15 inches gets 2@20inches and one 8 x15" then you cut those to 11" and get 2 @ 4x20 inches. Cutting down the 20x48 at 11" and you have 4 at size x 3 boards = 12 plus the other two is 14 total full size and 5@3x20 and one 8x15
In two sheets that makes 28 at size, 10 narrow pieces, and two that are a bit small but more useable. That is not as good by my lights as 50 pieces, all a bit small but all the same size and no tiny pieces at all,
He started off doing that, then got confused and I ended up with 2 pieces that were 2 x 6 inches 4 that were 6 x 8 inches… and i stopped trying to correct him at that point.
But, for the project I’m doing, very little of that will go to waste.
2 months until I go back home for the first time in 5 years, where I’ll have my woodshop and two outlying shop buildings, and can just cut my own.
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