Ugly Proofgrade finish on walnut plywood

Community Support
1

I know someone posted earlier about this issue but I’ve searched and can’t find it.

I just cut a last minute gift box out of Proofgrade Walnut plywood - cut fine. Yay!
Then I removed the masking - the front surface looked ok, but the backside - ick! The finish is not smooth and it looks like a cheap plastic. Not at all what I’m used to from using the PG Maple ply (it’s all been fantastic). I also uncovered a scratch on the back surface- I think it goes across the whole sheet (it was not visible until I removed the masking).
I ordered several sheets of cherry and walnut plywood recently- now I’m worried that all in this batch might be bad and there’s no way to know unless you pull up the masking.

Is there a resolution for this subpar Proofgrade?

IMG_6478 Back of 3 pieces, one with scratch IMG_6479Front of one piece
IMG_6480 Back of same piece

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2

I think that’s what you were looking for.

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3

Yeah that’s pretty ugly. You could block that down with sanding, but that’s not what we pay for with proof grade.

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4

Yep, that was the one. Thanks!

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5

I got a piece of maple with the same problem. It isn’t as obvious with the lighter wood.

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6

agreed, that’s poor quality. hopefully they’ll credit/refund you. but it’s frustrating because you can’t really tell it’s bad until you cut and peel off the masking. i guess that’s the one good thing about masking your own material, you know what it looks like before it goes in to get cut.

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7

They should be able to ID which batches are bad and let those who got bad material shipped know. Depending how the barcode is set by batches, could warn us when we load a bad board that we don’t waste a long engrave (I would vote against prevent us from using it, but a clear warning would be great). I can see it being even more frustrating if folks paint/post process prior to tape removal…
Of course that requires good supply chain traceability, but would be great feature.

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Yes, that was me. GF support responded to me last night (Christmas!), apologised, and credited me for the improperly-finished sheets. I’m 100% satisfied with how this was resolved.

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9

Looks pretty rough. I would think one could detect that right through the mask with a sweep of the hand. Good that the material carries a guarantee.

10

Oh no! Thanks for letting us know about this, and for including pictures. This is a quality issue, so I’ve credited your account for the sheets of Walnut Plywood, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

We’re working hard to make sure your Proofgrade is shipped in perfect condition. @Brantmeister, thank you for the suggestions. I’ll make sure the team gets them, along with the information about this material.

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