3/4" Baltic Birch Plywood work for Stile and Rail Cabinet Doors?

[Barry Lawrensen]

Would it work to use 3/4" baltic birch to make the stiles and rails for cabinet doors (for painting white as a final finish), with inset 1/4" plywood panels?

[Frank Pratt]

Yes, but it will take some work to prep the edges for a good paint job.

[Mel Fulks]

Agree with Frank. I would use a light weight mdf like Trupan. Nothing is gained by extravagant materials for kitchen
cabinets. It's like making a fine dog house, the next dog thinks it smells funny and won't live in it.

[John TenEyck]

Yes, it will work, but it's more work to seal all the edges so the layers don't telegraph through the paint than it's worth IMO. Better to use soft maple or poplar for paint grade work. Kitchens get replaced every 20 years or so. That's still a long time.

John

[Barry Lawrensen]

Thank you, all, for your replies. John, I will look for some poplar or maple, as you suggest.

[Jamie Buxton]

If the solid lumber isn’t flat and straight, you can plane and thickness it to make right. If the 3/4 Baltic birch isn’t right, there’s little you can do to fix it.

[Peter Kelly]

Maybe if you could find the higher grade stuff from Finland, wouldn’t attempt it otherwise. Soft maple with an MDF panel would be a better choice.

[Barry Lawrensen]

Thank you, Peter, and others, for your suggestions. Maple is harder to find in this area, but alder and poplar are more readily available. I suppose these are OK for paint grade doors.

Barry

[jack duren]

Unless you can get a perfect fit with minimum top,bottom sanding I would not...

[Andrew Seemann]

Baltic birch plywood can and does warp, especially if it is unrestrained. Even though it has a lot of plys, they are still made of a relatively unstable wood, birch. Using it for rails and stiles may give you problems. It should be fine for the panel though. Solid poplar would be a better choice for the rails and stiles.

[Jim Becker]

There is no harm in considering material like BB for doors like this...as long as you actually desire to feature the look that the end grain of the materials shows, such as for a modernistic, industrial style that's clear coated. But for painted, I agree with the others that there are better choices for material because hiding the edges is a difficult chore.

[Frank Pratt]

I built some speakers out of BB & then painted them white with rattle cans. The primer was a high build sandable type. The edges were filled & sanded before priming, then spot putty used between each coat of paint. There are 4 coats, plus the primer, and still if the light is at just the right angle, I can make out the edge grain of the plywood. I called it good though, because they are ceiling mounted & the edge can't be seen without getting on a ladder.

[johnny means]

Baltic birch plywood can and does warp, especially if it is unrestrained. Even though it has a lot of plys, they are still made of a relatively unstable wood, birch. Using it for rails and stiles may give you problems. It should be fine for the panel though. Solid poplar would be a better choice for the rails and stiles.

Baltic birch plywood, by definition, is more stable than any poplar. I think plywood is, for other reasons, a poor choice here, but not for lack of stability.

[Mike Cutler]

Nothing is gained by extravagant materials for kitchen
cabinets. It's like making a fine dog house, the next dog thinks it smells funny and won't live in it.

So true, and so damn sad.
A friend had his kitchen remodeled many years ago and the cabinets he took out were solid, matched, q-sawn, cherry from the 50's. Just beautiful cabinets. Every door and drawer was a perfect color match in tone and grain.
The quality level between what he took out, and what he put in was dramatic.

To the OP

If you're making quick, knock together cabinets, for storage, 3/4" Ply will work, but the prep work on the edges to get them ready for painting is not insignificant if you're concerned about the visual.