Chinese “basketball” plywood
A guy recently posted some pictures of some plywood he had bought at a well known (but here un-named) retail giant. The plywood was stamped “Made in China” and was…
A guy recently posted some pictures of some plywood he had bought at a well known (but here un-named) retail giant. The plywood was stamped "Made in China" and was suitably low priced. He had intended to make some shelving out of it so he needed to cut dados across some of the 12" wide pieces he ripped out of the sheet. But when he cut the first dado, a bunch of weird, gray and red rubbery stuff started flying out. Upon closer inspection, the guy came to realize that there were pieces of a shredded basketball imbedded in the plywood!
Further discussion revealed a laundry list of stuff people have found hidden in between the layers of their imported plywood including (but not limited to) pieces of cloth, various metals, stone(s) and saw blades. So far there have been no specific reports of anyone finding body parts but it might be hard to tell for sure after all that processing. One person even went so far as to suggest that this was China's way of sneaking garbage out of their country and foisting it off on us unsuspecting American "consumers." I am a strong advocate of recycling and reusing but this seems to be a bit of a stretch.
In any case, there have got to be a few Chinese factory workers wondering what ever happened to their basketball.
D.D.
David DeCristoforo possesses an extensive resume as designer/maker of fine furniture, high-end cabinetry and architectural woodwork. His experience in professional woodworking spans a period of 35 years. For the past 20 years David DeCristoforo Design has been located in Woodland, California. During this time David's shop has ranged in scope from a "full on" cabinet production shop with as many as 15 employees to a small fine furniture and custom millwork shop, working with his son, David RBJ, a highly skilled maker in his own right.
