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.

 

[grim_d]

Worth looking at the Stretek multiply from Falcon timber, very nice stuff, best birch alternative I've seen so far...watch out for bowed sheets though.

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

Is this the Garnica maple faced poplar? I wouldn't touch it if so.

Bought 3k worth of Garnica poplar ply just over a year ago, every single sheet was so bowed I couldn't use it.

I have seen more recently it tends to randomly delaminate itself too.

I reached out to Garnica but they didn't care, told me 25mm bow was "within tolerance"

 

[Daniel Fyfe Bespoke Carpe]

Worth looking at the Stretek multiply from Falcon timber, very nice stuff, best birch alternative I've seen so far...watch out for bowed sheets though.



Is this the Garnica maple faced poplar? I wouldn't touch it if so.

Bought 3k worth of Garnica poplar ply just over a year ago, every single sheet was so bowed I couldn't use it.

I have seen more recently it tends to randomly delaminate itself too.

I reached out to Garnica but they didn't care, told me 25mm bow was "within tolerance"

I will have to check this because they sent me 2 types one was a maple board and one was a poplar plywood.

 

[grim_d]

I will have to check this because they sent me 2 types one was a maple board and one was a poplar plywood.

They do a maple faced poplar and an "elegance" maple faced poplar/eucalyptus mix.

When I enquired about the elegance board it cost more than A/S grade birch and after my experience I'd be hesitant to buy Garnica again.