Who's using pre finished ply for kitchen boxes?

[tyler mckenzie]

Just wondering who has used pre finished plywood for their kitchen boxes. Your likes and dislikes would be appreciated.

thanks
tyler


(http://tealandgold.blogspot.com/)

[jud dinsmore]

i have. i try to do this stuff for a living and finishing is required, but time-consuming and not much fun. i specify pre-finished or melamine for box and drawer interiors.

pros - no finish work required

cons - none. it does cost more but given the amount of time saved by not having to do any finish work - this amount is easily recovered/justified.

i would try to get the "good stuff" and not import knock-off material. some imports don't seem to have a good track record with not accidently (or intentionally) trying to poison their state-side customers.

good luck.

[tyler mckenzie]

are you finding it in 5x5 sheets of 4x8? Also are you rabbiting you boxes??

[Peter Quinn]

We use it where I work almost exclusively. The pros? Great finish you don't have to apply. Cons? You have to cut it in a manner that doesn't scratch it seriously, and you can't glue scraps together easily to make built up parts or cleats and such. Not a big deal. We use an over arm router for dados so the A face never touches the table. Some of the guys at work will dado on the TS and it does cause scratches, but nothing drastic. Hard to beat honestly. I use a router with a dado jig in my home shop so the router isn't dragged over the ply repeatedly.

I had to sand out a box that was supposed to be unfinished for a painted interior and was inadvertently made with prefinished then built into an island and installed. Man, that finish didn't give up easy! Tough stuff.

[Jamie Buxton]

It is great stuff. The one part I haven't found a solution for is how to edgeband shelves. The easy way is PVC tape with hotmelt glue on the back. But even the best stuff looks ugly next to real wood, IMHO. I'd prefer lumber edgebanding, but I'd need to trim it without scarring the plywood, and finish it with a sheen matching the plywood.

[Robert Reece]

I don't see the downside. Last time I bought it (two weeks ago), it was $3 more per sheet than the unfinished. You will scratch it a little while processing it, but for cabinets sides, I'm not too worried about it.

[Paul Girouard]

The only down side I have with it is when I use solid wood edge banding, it's a issue cutting off the over hanging EB. I mill the EB 1/16" over sized and glue it on splitting the difference. I then flush trim that difference off.

I generally do Euro style cabinets , if you do Face Frame you'd avoid this issue.

If I use iron on EB-ing pre-finish is fine. That can be skived off with a planer knife , hit the edges with sand paper to ease them , assemble box , apply finish of choice to EB-ing.

[Thomas Bennett]

I always avoid it as I could not find out exactly what the finish is...to match up with the hardwood, either frames or doors. I just can't guarantee a finish I'm not certain of. I appreciate so many responders like and use it. It makes me think I need to "revisit" the prefinished plywood.
Currently, I buy a bunk of birch or maple (domestic, of course), shop or B-2 and sand and use a paint pump to prefinish. It is the exact finish I use on the rest of the project. Certainly a lot of extra work... Am I on the wrong track?

[Jim Becker]

I use pre-finished in the sense that I pre-finish the components before assembly, masking off for gluing areas. While that takes some, it sure beats spraying into boxes and getting it back in the face!

[Karl Brogger]

Wow.

So instead of just spraying the interiors of the cabinets, everyone takes time to tape everything off? Spraying interiors is pretty simple. Spray it on, hit it with some 400g and call it good. The headache of dealing with prefinished material would drive me to drink, heavily, when compared to how easy it really is to take care of.

Simpler is better.

[Matt Meiser]

I got some scratching but its pretty invisible on cabinet interiors. I can't imagine its any more expensive in the long run when you consider the savings on finishing (especially if paying for labor.)

Another pro is that glue squeezout cleans up very easily.

[Blake Holton]

I always avoid it as I could not find out exactly what the finish is...to match up with the hardwood, either frames or doors. I just can't guarantee a finish I'm not certain of. I appreciate so many responders like and use it. It makes me think I need to "revisit" the prefinished plywood.
Currently, I buy a bunk of birch or maple (domestic, of course), shop or B-2 and sand and use a paint pump to prefinish. It is the exact finish I use on the rest of the project. Certainly a lot of extra work... Am I on the wrong track?

Thomas:

Finish systems come in many different forms. One major producer uses 100% solids epoxy acrylate that is cured with UV light (liquid becomes solid nearly instantly with no VOCs released). Very tough and chemical resistant these UV cured finishes are more durable than anything I can spray. That is why I use them for my cabinet boxes.

Blake

[Phil Thien]

I was in a cabinet shop some time ago and noticed that they had taken 2" or 3" wide masking tape and run strips front to back on the table saw and outfeed table, leaving about 2" or 3" between each strip.

I asked the guy if they were going to paint the top with fancy racing stripes, and he chuckled and said, "no, we're using some prefinished plywood and the tape prevents scratching the finish."

[Thomas S Stockton]

You can buy wood edgebanding that is pre finished and it applies just fine with an iron. Try www.edgecoinc.com I get it from my regular hardware supplier it is a pretty common item. As for scratching I just hit it with a little wax and it disappears the scratches usually are not that deep but more on the surface.
Tom

[Thomas S Stockton]

Thomas,
you should revisit the stuff. It works great for things like kitchen cabinets and is available in shop grade or better. When I used to do more cabinets it was what i used most for interiors. I wouldn't use it for exposed ends or things that are not behind doors and drawers just doesn't look good enough. The finish on the ply I use(nova Ply) is uv cured and is probably tougher that anything you could apply under normal shop conditions.
Tom

[tyler mckenzie]

thanks everyone, solid advice!

[John Orr]

Interesting, do you have the link of the manufacturer. Thanks........John

[Dave Tinley]

I like the 1/2" prefinished stuff for drawer boxes. Its a great selling point to the clients I meet with.


Dave

[Rob Sack]

I use it too. With face frame construction, making the transition from the exterior finish (stained or painted) is quite easy. As far as exposed end panels are concerned, I just screw the exterior panel onto the prefinished interior panel, screwing from inside the cabinet. The challenge seems to be using prefinished material for the cabinet interiors with a painted finish on the exterior on frameless cabinets. In order to get a full overlay on the outside panel, pockets for the concealed door hinges have to be cut into the prefinished interior panels. It is somewhat labor intensive but getting the durability of the prefinished wood interiors, not to mention the appearance of real wood inside the cabinets, combined with not having to do any finishing inside the cabinets, justifies the extra effort. Plus, I hate melamine interiors. To me, it cheapens the cabinetry. When new, the fresh white (or almond, faux woodgrain, etc.) interiors look great. But melamine is not particularly durable. The surface can stain, and once the surface is damaged, such as by dropping something on it or scratching it, any contact between the now exposed particle board substrate and moisture can cause the particle board to swell like water to a brand new sponge.

[Paul Girouard]

Couldn't you just leave the backs off Jim , spray the cabinet assembled , do the back separately then install the back?

Or do you build a trapped back cabinet?

There's ways around just about every thing, and theres also some things that just can't be avoided.