Dental Cabinets

[Bill Kobie]

I need to build a few Cabinets for my best friends Dental Office,I built Cabinets years ago for a Dentist and used Fomica and it was a lot of work.

What would be a good product to make the casing out of that would not reqiure any painting or sealing,I know there is something that is pre finished but just can't think of the name of it.Old age I guess:D

I also have to make a few doors and I believe that they will be flat,I have not made up my mine if I want them to slide or swing,The girls tend to be very hard on the doors.
I don't want them to warp if I make them flat,But they have to with stand a lot of cleaning also.

I'm not against using Formica on the doors,I would just like to have the inside of the Case work to have a clean look and to be Strerile.

Thanks Guys;)

I'm trying to plan ahead because we have to be buils several more down the road

[Jamie Buxton]

Well, there is prefinished plywood. I get it from a hardwood dealer, not a Home Depot sort of store. In 3/4" maple, it is only $15 or so more than the unfinished stuff. The finish is quite tough. It is some sort of UV-cured stuff that is stronger than any varnish I can apply in the shop. There is a design challenge with prefinished, which is how to finish the edges. You can make face-frame cabinets, which takes care of most of the edges. For shelve front edges, many shops use vinyl veneer tape with pre-applied hot-melt glue. It looks okay, but not as nice as real wood. Real wood, however, gets you into finishing.

The other stuff is melamine-covered MDF. There's lots and lots of cabinets built with it. Again, the edge treatment is hot-melt vinyl veneer tape. It isn't as durable as formica, but is much less work to build.

[Steve Ryan]

Check your commercial plywood sources, Baer supply, etc. Many of them can source custom p-lam panels alread laid up on an 11/16 core for a finished thickness of 3/4. Iron on edging is available in many colors. White melamine interiors are the norm. A dental cabinet is a box with a door and or drawers. Cutting melamine and double sided p-lam requires the proper blade type. I would go with Forrest for those. Frameless construction is the norm for the dental cabinet industry.
Good luck.

[Kenneth Hertzog]

How about corian or other solid surface material
cleaning would not be near as bad and colors are available
ken