slab cabinents walnut....

[chris fox]

We will be redoing our bathroom in the spring, I contimplating to do the double vanity myself worst case refacing and doing the cab. doors.
We tend to favor the Metropolitan style vs traditional and leaning toward slab walnut cab. doors.

Being a fairly new WW'er I see this being in my favor(time/labor) as far as work and detail. There are 4 doors and 7 drawer fronts. So basically buy high grade walnut veneer plywood and solid veneering the edges(grain running vertical). I am thinking there would be very little hardwood?

This will be a good test to see if I have the ability/time to tackle the kitchen cabs next year.

Any input to add to my thinking.

[Mike Parzych]

You look too young for this complex a project.

[chris fox]

haha! this little guy is making me get old real fast!

[Scott Vigder]

Like Mike said, you seem pretty bright for a , er, toddler.

I just finished (read: brought the finished product home from the shop today:D) a bookshelf using plywood and hardwood facing. It's the same case found on the cover of Woodsmith a few issues back. The wife marvels at how you can't tell the difference betwen the birch ply and the cherry face unless you carefully studying the grain patterns. The colors matched perfectly after staining and varnishing. And the total cost is less thean $100. I easily would have shelled out $250+ had I used hardwood throughout.

I was skeptical about using ply, but now I'm ready to tackle a series of bookcases designed for a particular need, and I am not at all hesitant to recommend this technique.

[Rob Blaustein]

Sounds like a reasonable plan. I did something similar--I completed the first part--the carcass--of our new built in double sink bathroom vanity using walnut veneered ply. I've cut the face frame pieces out of solid 3/4" walnut but haven't assembled it yet. I will then make doors and drawers with a mix of 1/2" veneer ply along with the 3/4" solid walnut. So in my case there will be no need to edge band since all ply edges on the carcass will be covered with the face frame, and the doors will be rail/stile, drawer faces likely solid walnut. I used dewaxed shellac f/b water-based poly (General Finishes) on the ply and it came out great.

BTW, the walnut veneered ply cost around $125 a 4x8 sheet if I recall, so it's not cheap.

Something to consider about your edge treatment plan. Depending on the type of solid walnut you have and how you finish your veneered ply and your solid walnut edging, you may find that the solid walnut edge stands out because it 'takes' the finish differently from the veneer. You should just do some testing to see if it's a problem. Another option would be to just edgeband it using iron-on walnut edgebanding. But if your'e wedded to using a solid piece of edgebanding and need to match the finish of the woods, Jeff Jewett has an excellent article in FWW about that.

Good luck!

[chris fox]

Thanks for the input. I used 3/4 white oak ply at 72 bucks a sheet, it matched up pretty well to the hardwood. My concern was the durability of edgebanding the edges being in high traffic bathroom. Good point about the hardwood edgebanding, if it were .25' it would look odd to the plywood fronts. SO mayeb framingthe doors and adding a v groove is the way to go.

Chris

[chris fox]

I need to tidy up on my last reply. I used WO on a offcie project and used BLO and wax looks great.
My followup up was, how much hardwood edge banding wood could I get away with .25" thick. I guess it depends on how thin I can resaw, so answering my own question it would be more like .10"-.13".

[Rob Blaustein]

Chris--I'm no plywood expert so I'm confused about the white oak ply mentioned in your recent post and your mention of walnut veneered ply and solid walnut in your first post. Does white oak refer to the core or the veneer?

I've never made my own edgebanding--is bandsaw the common way it's done? I would think you'd need to plane or drum sand the pieces to uniform thickness.

[chris fox]

After reading it is a little confusing, sneaking in post while at work:D
I used .75" WO plywood(7 ply I believe it was S2 grade?) thats pertaining to a previous project where i had good success with finishing and matching it to plainsawn WO hardwood for casing.
I have heard that you can strip cut from the TS with a zero clearance insert to get consistant veneer, then smooth it out with a finsihing sander.
But based on a earlier reply I think the blending of veneer and plywood wont give me the effect i want, thus going with edge banding or rail/stile frame may be the way to go.

thanks

Chris