Joining bamboo plywood for cabinet carcases

[Jim Barstow]

I'm building a bunch of cabinets for a new shop and I thought that bamboo might be an interesting material. Can I use screws like with normal 3/4" plywood or do I have to do something more exotic? (I used MDF for the cabinets in my old shop and I'll never do that again.)

[David DeCristoforo]

Bamboo ply is not a whole lot different to work with than any other sheet material. But it is typically 3 ply with an 1/8" thick "face" on both sides and a core made up of laminated strips of bamboo. So it has a tendency to split if the screw holes are not pre-drilled and countersunk. Also, I have found it better to use longer screws than one might normally use. Typically, when I screw plywood casework together, I use 1 1/2" screws. With bamboo ply I use 2 or 2 1/2". Oh, and one other thing... this stuff seems to have a mind of it's own when it comes to laying flat. It seems to be much more reactive to small changes in temperature and humidity than one would expect with plywood or MDF. So a door may lay flat on the cabinet face on Monday, be off the face at the top on Tuesday, off the face on the bottom on Wednesday, bowed in at the center on Thursday, bowed out in the center on Friday, Flat and true again on Saturday and god knows what on Sunday. Very weird....

[M A McDowell]

What was your negative experience with MDF cabinets?