While working at the theater set shop one day, one of the guys that buys materials was going to pitch some 2'x2' plywood cutoffs.   It looked pretty good to me, so I asked if I could have it instead of trashing it.   It turned out to be pretty good stuff.   It's 5mm thick (slightly less than 1/4") and has very nice wood on one side and decent wood on the other.   I've used it for a few projects since then.  

 

One thing I noticed is that it is 3 ply and the plies are all about the same thickness instead of just having a microscopically thin face veneer.  Here's a photo of the edge compared to a sheet of 1/4" oak plywood.

 

Here's a piece on a recent project:

 

And what to shop for.  It is most likely that he found this at Menards.  But it can cause cancer. :-) 

 

I use it all the time for various projects.  Cheap, yes but a great many drawers have this as a bottom.

31 minutes ago, kmealy said:

But it can cause cancer. :-) 

Only if you drill, saw, sand or machine it in the State of California, so you're good!

Edited February 26, 20215 yr by HARO50

38 minutes ago, HARO50 said:

Only if you drill, saw, sand or machine it in the State of California, so you're good!

You beat me to the punch....line!

Oops, my error.  It turns out this is actually a 5 layer plywood and the face ply is very, very thin.   I've not had a problem with it though.

 

I was wondering about that, I've used Menard's floor underlayment but it was all 3 ply with face veneers. Still good stuff for drawer bottoms and such.