At a plant tour in HuangPu (I won't mention what company was involved), they
showed us how nice the employee apartments were. Apparently, they bring
folks in from out in the country to work at low wages in the city. The
"apartments" had a store and various other things, but after awhile we
noticed that there were no families, no kids. The workers charge against
their paychecks. Looked like indentured slaves to me (22 cents per hour was
a typical labor rate). I've seen more than one analysis that claims there
is about to be a labor revolution in China ...these people are tired of
doing all the work, getting low pay and no benefits, and they aren't going
to do it anymore. The unrest is growing. When all costs are considered,
manufacturing in China is only 30-40% cheaper than in the US ...the pendulum
will come back, don't worry. Times are changing. And if you're too worried
about China being a super power economically, consider how fast it can
change when the economics change, or if they get uppity and threaten Taiwan
too much (or actually do something about it.) Here's a couple of clues: a)
How many products are invented by the Chinese, then produced in China, then
sold world wide ...versus how many are invented somewhere else but are
*manufactured* in China? b) How many American or European companies are
investing in China, paying for the building of factories and buildings with
their own money? and c) How many western nations offer mutual funds and
other investment vehicles that focus on the Chinese economy? It's a paper
tiger, friends. They invent nothing on their own and the primary attraction
is cheap labor that'll likely go away. If the cheap labor folks get more
money, then it won't take much to equalize the cost of business, there
versus here, and the happy happy joy joy ride will be over. In spite of
oodles of companies doing manufacturing over there, note that investors vote
against investing in China. Last I heard, only one company could be found
that had Chinese investment funds that you could participate in. The
investors understand the risk ...and the risk will return the work to other
locations. (I'm betting on eastern Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, etc.
....NOT western Europe and the United States.) The EU is stable and the US
is on a slide... damn fools.

Brian D



wrote in message
oups.com...
I built my MiniCups from cheapo plywood bathroom underlayment and now I
regret it. Should have used marine ply. The underlayment has serious
voids and places where there seems to be no glue. It isnt exactly
waterproof either and water soaks right through. I am now glass and
epoxy reinforcing them. The dinghy I built with marine ply seems very
strong with no voids. Of course, it is also painted with epoxy.
I would not willingly buy anything from China as their politics suck, I
object to slave labor and support the self determination of Taiwan.
Sorry about the political rant.

Brian D wrote:
When you say "China", I think "yeah, right". There is absolutely
nothing
guaranteed about Chinese quality. They can and will cheat whenever
they
can. They are still a communist country and are very difficult to
deal with
legally. I'm not just spouting off ...I work for a blue-chip high
tech firm
and we've had to chase down exactly these issues ...provision of
products
not meeting specifications or quality requirements, using substandard

materials rather than what we asked for, not protecting intellectual
property (confidential disclosures, nondisclosure agreements,
patents, etc
are not respected), and using Kopy Kat materials and products from
Chinese
companies that are illegally copying and violating the patents owned
by
western nations. Chasing things down legally is an expensive
dead-end.
Like I said, it's a big communist country that has little intention
to be
influenced by your concerns, even if they are ethically correct and
the
country WOULD benefit by cooperating with rather than ignoring your
concerns. Taiwan is little better.

That said, I would not trust the adhesives in plywood from China to
always
be correct. I would boil test a sample from every piece of plywood
that I
got and personally inspect the wood itself too. You might find
variation in
wood species in addition to variation in what adhesive they used. To
a
slightly lesser extent, these same issues apply to wood obtained from
3rd
world countries like the Philippines and Malaysia too. Wood from
Europe,
Israel, Canada, or the United States will in general NOT have these
issues,
but keep in mind that much of the available wood (especially Meranti,
Lauan,
and Honduras or Philippine Mahogany) is imported from the countries
that
have more of a quality issue than others. Also, check your ply for
squareness ...many of these other countries just don't have high
enough
quality control and non-rectangular plywood is common. Even the more

reliable countries are getting more slack on producing nice
rectangular
wood.

All wood should be encapsulated with epoxy to waterproof it, and any
species
that may be subject to splitting or checking would benefit from at
least a
light layer of fiberglass, even if only 1-1/2 ounces.

Brian D




"Danielle Anderson" wrote in message
.. .
Waterproffing is not the problem here. Pretty much ALL plywood is
made
with
waterproof glue. Marine plywood is about the highest grade of
plywood due
to it's ridgid spec requirement. Most plywood contains numerous
cracks,
voids, and large knots in the interior laminations. Often they
will be
repaired on the outside layers only. Marine plywood has very few
cracks,
NO
voids, and knots must be under 1/2 inch. Pay the extra money and
only do
the job once. Cut this cost corner at extreme risk of failure.

Jon


"Pop" wrote in message
...
Has anyone used the 1/2 in. plywood from China, Home Depot has
this but
it
is interior grade, colud it be used for boat building if it was
completely
sheathed in a waterproof material.