Kitchen Cabinat Refinishing (Milspride junk)

[Tim Wagner]

Can these cabinets (partical board construction) have a wood veneer applied over the existing laminate?? just curious.

Me being a novice to woodworking, Mom says just refinish the cabinets and maybe make some new doors.

Now me thinking I can bite of more than I can chew says, Duplicate one cabinet at a time untill they are all done, using some oak, or birch, or if I can find some, Maple plywood.

Suggestions?

TIA,

[Jason Boushard]

partical board cabinets are poor quality and I would build new ones. I install cabinets and cant stand using the partical board cabinets but if its what you can afford I would just do what your mom asks and re surface them and make new doors. I think making the doors and the drawers would be where 80% of you time is going to be spent. most importantly whos footing the bill for this if its mom do what she wants if you make nice doors and drawer fronts you can always reuse them later if you need to redo the cabinets frame later on for whatever reason. another question are you putting a new counter top on or are you reusing the old one?

[Tim Wagner]

well the counter top is currently ok, but a new one like a Corrianne isn't out of the question. it too is laminated partical board

[Von Bickley]

Tim,

Are the cabinet boxes / frames particle board or just the doors?

If just the doors are particle board, you could reface the old cabinets and just build some new doors.

If everything is particle board, you may want to consider a complete cabinet job.:rolleyes:

[Jason Boushard]

look into soapstone for your counter tops it can be cut with woodworking tools and is cheaper than granite or corian in some places. can you take pictures of what your cabinets are like now that will help us tell you what your better options are. If you have a home emporium in your area you can get granite counter tops cheap but it has to be straight runs no 45 degree corners since they cant cut it.

[Jim Becker]

The cabinet boxes can be veneered once they are thoroughly cleaned. The challenge will be adhesives. You may need to use paper-backed veneers and some form of contact cement, but you'll need to do a little research. Recommend replacement of the doors and drawer fronts, however.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

If your looking for a new door style & finish, you may investigate getting new doors from Mills Pride. Their doors are normally sold separately from the carcass. Most likely, they use the same euro standard for the hinge location on all their carcasses. Mills Pride tells you what door packs go with what carcass, but I believe this is only for color matching.

I believe the style and rails of their wood doors is solid wood, but the center panel may be a laminated picture. So re-finishing is out of the questions, unless you're just painting them with a solid color.

Also, I don't think any of the Mills Pride cabinets have face frames. I believe they are all European style frameless. This makes refacing a lot easier and limited to just 3/4" veneer tape.

As Jim stated, you can also veneer the exposed sides of the carcass. Rockler sells some paper backed veneer in large sheets with or without pressure sensitive adhesive. I've used both, and they work well although a bit pricy. Mills Pride also sells stain to match their solid doors.

Also, don't put down Mills Pride stuff too much. You get a lot of bang for the buck. Besides, it's how you install the cabinets, with moldings, that will determine a nice job. Further, not all particle board is a like. As long as you don't get the board wet for long periods of time, it will stay straighter than plywood. But saying this is probably taboo. :)

Good Luck...Jeff :)

[Tim Wagner]

camera is in California right now w/my brother in law.

the boxes are made of partical board, and the doors are solid wood.

the counter top is in the shape of an L 20' down the long side and 8' down the short side. it has an opening for a 36" by 20" sink.

I have been meaning to get a panel bit for my router and start experimenting with door making.

The challange for me ofcourse is the Math. I am building a rolling cabinet now with three drawers, and it took a full day of planning on what the size of each peice would be prior to cutting. then I put a dado blade on the saw and it stopped working, so I have to figure that out now. :(

[Per Swenson]

What Jeffery said,

We get asked to do this a lot.

We won't. Because any thing more then a replacement

of just the doors and draw fronts on a mills pride kitchen,

is not cost effective for the home owner.

It is cheaper in labor to replace the kitchen.

Why? Because by the time the doors are garbage the appliances

are shot also, Same with the counter.

When you start looking at the whole picture, you have to ask

would you like us to polish the manure pile or move it.

You would be amazed how many 1/2 million $ homes and up

have mills pride cabs in them.

Per