affordable cabinet material?

[kitchandos]

Hello,

Im just wondering if anyone has any good alternatives for birch ply for making carcasses? Id rather not deal with painting MDF if i can.

Thanks, Kit

 

[johnnyb]

Just mrmdf really. There is reasonable ply occasionally available from b and q. Not really cheap but they cut it for you. Its called post industrial hell hole syndrome.

 

[Kayen]

Hello,

Im just wondering if anyone has any good alternatives for birch ply for making carcasses? Id rather not deal with painting MDF if i can.

Thanks, Kit

Carcasses for where?

MFC with a 2mm ABS edging is a good option. You can get it cut to size and edged at a very reasonable cost.

 

[Ollie78]

You can get pre coated or melamine faced MDF but it still needs edging/ lipping. Also it can be tricky to cut cleanly without chipping out, same with MFC.
I agree with Kayen the getting it pre cut can be a good idea.

If its for kitchen carcasses then you can`t beat buying them from DIY kitchens or somewhere, its economy of scale.

 

[Diver Fred]

I'm inclined to say B&Q also. They do (normally) stock 'Shuttering" ply and a better quality stuff - the pricing of both is very similar (in fact the last I bought from the the quality stuff was cheaper than the shuttering ply).

 

[Ross Buchanan]

Poplar ply is a reasonable alternative to birch, which is now eye-wateringly expensive. Its about 3/4 the density of birch, and generally has fewer, thicker plies than good birch. A similar appearance, finishes quite pretty, and costs about 2/3 as much.
You won't find it in the sheds, but your local sheet material stockist will have it.
Moisture resistant mdf finishes ok, but takes a lot of paint. We use a paint-grade edge band if we can't hide the edges and it ends up pretty acceptable. Reasonable price, about 1/3 the price of birch.

 

[Daniel Fyfe Bespoke Carpe]

You can buy a maple ply from lathams for a reasonable price

 

[Ollie78]

You can buy a maple ply from lathams for a reasonable price

Interesting, is it equal thickness veneers like birch ply ? And by reasonable price is that cheapr than the birch ?

 

[Daniel Fyfe Bespoke Carpe]

For memory the veneer is equal thickness and in regards
To price it is cheaper than birch 100% but I couldn’t tell you by how much.

Call James Latham and ask for them to send you an A4 sample of it.

 

[Spectric]

Also it can be tricky to cut cleanly without chipping out,

There was a post around tracksaws a while back and someone in the trade said that to get a clean cut on faced materials you set a very shallow cut and draw the saw backwards across the board before setting to full depth and making the final cut in the forward direction, I believe it might have been @JobandKnock. I believe they were using a Makita tracksaw which has the scoring setting.

 

[Daniel Fyfe Bespoke Carpe]

There was a post around tracksaws a while back and someone in the trade said that to get a clean cut on faced materials you set a very shallow cut and draw the saw backwards across the board before setting to full depth and making the final cut in the forward direction, I believe it might have been @JobandKnock. I believe they were using a Makita tracksaw which has the scoring setting.

Yes this is correct I do this on veneers and melamine’s do an 1mm back pass and then go through with a full depth cut.