maple or poplar for office cabinet face frames/doors?

[scott vroom]

I'm getting ready to build some home office painted cabinets and am deciding between hard maple and poplar for the FF and raised panel doors/drawer fronts. The poplar is much cheaper, but it's also considerably softer than the maple. I want the cabinets to still look good after several years of use. Any thoughts on this?

[Jim Becker]

Well maple ("soft" or "hard") will certainly be more physically durable than yellow/tulip poplar, but the latter is still pretty tough stuff...I have used a ton of it for projects over the years and have another 1500 bd ft drying and almost ready to come inside for new projects.

You do have the option of using both, too...taking the maple for areas where the chance of the most physical abuse might occur and using the poplar for areas that are more out of the way. But soft maple is pretty economical and you might just go with it to satisfy your need to be sure about how it will hold up under abuse. I wouldn't pay the premium for hard maple for something like this...

[Don Alexander]

try soft maple

cheaper than hard maple , still quite hard and more durable than poplar, machines and paints quite well kinda the best of all worlds :)

[Frank Drew]

When I think of soft, I think of woods like basswood or white pine; poplar really isn't so soft that it wouldn't be entirely suitable for painted cabinetry.

Just don't play baseball or hockey inside the house!

[Don Alexander]

no baseball or hockey in the house?

there ya go taking all the fun out of it :D:D:D:D:D

[scott vroom]

Here's current local pricing for 4/4 select and better, Un-Figured maple:

Eastern Hard: $3.20 b/f
Eastern Soft: $3.65

For Figured maple, hard is more costly than soft.


Yellow Poplar is $1.80

Supplier is Macbeths in San Francisco.

Project requires ~120 b/f. That poplar price is tempting.

Thanks for the inputs, guys.

[Aaron Hastings]

I made a poplar toy chest for one of my children. I didn't paint it so it took a fair amount of lumbar to get the color right. That said, that chest has endured an absolute beating and look great. I wouldn't worry too much about its durability.

[scott vroom]

You do have the option of using both, too...taking the maple for areas where the chance of the most physical abuse might occur and using the poplar for areas that are more out of the way.

Jim, good point. I could use poplar for all the uppers and maple for the lowers where the majority of dings would occur.

Thanks

[Joe Chritz]

I use poplar for painted projects regularly. I am finishing one right now with poplar rail/stiles and 3/8 MDF panels.

While it doesn't have the raw toughness of maple it is plenty hard and chances are pretty high any impact that will damage the poplar will do some to the maple as well.

I would say that maple (hard or soft) is better but poplar is way more than sufficient.

On a related note the 3/8 panels are a pain to back cut and fill the profile (I just shot a heavy coat of BIN and sanded back) but they make for a much more robust and solid feeling door.

Joe

[scott vroom]

On a related note the 3/8 panels are a pain to back cut and fill the profile (I just shot a heavy coat of BIN and sanded back) but they make for a much more robust and solid feeling door.

Joe

Joe, I'm a bit new to this. Could you describe what "back cut to fill the profile" means? Are you referring to tearout?

Thanks

[Jon van der Linden]

Poplar is very common for "paint grade" cabinets. I wouldn't worry much at all about it unless it's going into an abusive environment, in which case it probably won't matter either.

[Van Huskey]

If you are painting I wouldn't think twice about using poplar, if your staining its a different story but just because I have more trouble getting a nice even finish on poplar unless its a really dark stain.

[Jim Becker]

Van I have used hundreds of board feet of poplar for non-painted pieces. I don't use stain. I use dye. No regrets whatsoever.

[Joe Chritz]

I like to use MDF for panels of painted 5 piece doors. Any profile cut into the MDF exposes the fiber core and doesn't paint well so you need to fill it with something and then sand it smooth before paint.

Glue sizing, Spackle, wall compound, bondo or any other number of stuff is used. I like to brush or spray on a heavy coat of BIN primer (since I use it as primer anyway) and then sand back.

You could source some 1/4 MDF and use that for a panel and not need to do anything but by using 3/8" and using a raised panel back cutter to make it 1/4" it makes for a more substantial feeling door.

Joe