kitchen

[cerbie]

At last I have started on the new kitchen units.

This has not been the easiest of tasks - being August and being France, the place is closed, so getting materials has been a nightmare, but ..

I have ripped down 18mm CTBX ply for the panels and have found the quality to be rather dubious. I have used the same supplier before for the ply, which at that time was beautiful stuff to work with, but this lot.......
Just looking at the exterior veneer had question marks over me and after a cut a fair amount of gaps appears in the middle.
Has anyone else used CTBX and found similar problems.
Is there a better quality ply to be had, and if so, what?

For the face frames and doors I am using 19mm MDF.
I am now wondering if I should be using the MDF for the panels as well.

What are your thoughts on this? MDF or stick to the ply?

regards

steve

 

[jasonB]

The best ply for carcases is birch throughout plywood, typically a 18mm sheet will have 13-15 layers with no voids and any surface defects patched and filled.

Finish birch ply is now hard to find, it will more likely be latvian or from one of the eastern block countries, avoid the Chinese as it can be a bit iffy and also stear away from the birch FACED ply which has an inferior timber for the core layers.

For the doors I would go with MDF panels, there are also variances in the quality of MDF, You will find MR (Moisture resistant) MDF far superior to standard or contract grade MDF.

Jason

 

[JFC]

MDF all the time for me .

 

[DomValente]

MDF and as Jason said use MR.

Dom

 

[engineer one]

whilst i agree about mr mdf, i would caution about making the long doors in one piece of solid 18/19mm mdf, they really are very heavy.

certainly a 600 wide by 1800 high one is surprisingly heavy, and may well bend too much very quickly. frame and panel is i think the way to go for tall doors, even if the panels are flush.

paul :wink:

 

[cerbie]

thanks for the replies.

For the doors on this build I am using the 19mm MDF as I said, but the door panels will be 6mm, so the weight aspect is reduced.

I think that for future builds it will be the MDF, for both the carcase and the door.

again, thanks for the advice.

steve