Kitchen cabinet case materials

[Bob Johnson2]

Looking to make the cases out of 3/4" ply, question is what type of ply to use. The face frames and doors are cherry, close to a natural color. I'm leaning towards BB as I can get it for a decent price $62 for a 5x5, think the light interior will be nice, and it's darn nice to work with a good material.

Has anyone used BB for kitchens? if so did you stain it as opposed to leaving it natural? if you did not use BB what did you you use? I can get maple for a decent price at HD but then it's from HD so I know what to expect as far as quality goes. Or I can spend double the $ and get cherry.

This is my first kitchen so I really don't know how the light interior will work out till I get finished... no pun intended.

[Karl Brogger]

Baltic birch is good, but overkill. I use 4x8 birch plywood that has really good color for about that same price. 5x5 create alot of waste for standard cabinet hieghts. You can get two partitions at 30", and one side at 34-1/2" out of a rip for base cabinets, where as the numbers are hard to work with if its 60"

I use 1/4" Baltic birch for backs in base cabinets because of the size though, that extra 1 foot of width really helps alot of times. Plus it usually works out fairly well for drawer bottoms with that size, but a 4x8 would probably be better for just drawer bottoms.

You can buy 3/4" baltic birch in 4x8's too.

[frank shic]

get it prefinished. it'll save you an immense amount of time later!

[David DeCristoforo]

Our main local supplier has a shop grade maple plywood that we have used for cabinet casework for years. We make everything from 3/4" ply. I used to use 1/4" for backs but it was too flimsy so now we use 1/2". We use this for everything except the few jobs we have done with walnut faces for which we used "shop grade" mahogany sheet stock for interiors. Now with mahogany scarce and very expensive, I might rethink that one...

[Bob Johnson2]

Our main local supplier has a shop grade maple plywood that we have used for cabinet casework for years. We make everything from 3/4" ply. I used to use 1/4" for backs but it was too flimsy so now we use 1/2". We use this for everything except the few jobs we have done with walnut faces for which we used "shop grade" mahogany sheet stock for interiors. Now with mahogany scarce and very expensive, I might rethink that one...

What constitues "shop grade"? I see a big difference in price and quality when I go to a real lumber yard as opposed to the HD type of places and took this as being furniture grade vs HD grade...

[Steve Roxberg]

get it prefinished. it'll save you an immense amount of time later!

+1

I am planning a kitchen project and the thing I fear most is all the finishing. Prefinished ply will save me a ton of time, and frustration.

[frank shic]

another tip: don't tear out the kitchen UNTIL you have the kitchen cabinets ready to install. DAMHIKT :eek:

[Leo Graywacz]

You can use a natural Birch. It is usually pretty cheap and comes in an A1 and a B2 grade. The B2 is very good quality and is about $67 a sheet where I get it.

[Rich Enders]

Columbia Forest products makes (prefinished on both sides) "UV" plywood in several hardwoods. They referred me to their local distributor in Phoenix (Superior Hardwoods), and I went there today. The computer showed 14 sheets of downgraded (for blems) Cherry at $50 per sheet. Turns out the blemished material was already sold so they extended the $50 price to their prime stock also.

The sheets are 48 1/2, by 96 1/2 and they have a very hard finish which was difficult to scratch. The face side is A1, and looked like just finished fresh cut cherry. I am not sure of the rating on the back face, but it was a boring 8 inch repeat pattern which looked like cherry, but I am not certain.

This is about $15 per sheet more than unfinished hardwood plywood locally, and sure seems worth it.

[David DeCristoforo]

"...I see a big difference in price and quality when I go to a real lumber yard as opposed to the HD..."

"Shop grade" is typically downgraded "A" face sheets that are flawed in some way. A slightly short face veneer, a torn corner, a bad seam or a face that the grader simply feels is unacceptable for an "A" face. We have seen units of "shop grade" sheets that were virtually indistinguishable from A face sheets. The stuff they sell at most of the "HD type of places" is, for the most part, simply poor quality material.

[Larry Fox]

+1 on Franc Shic's advise both on the pre-finished and the tearout of the existing kitchen. I did my kitchen pretty much as you describe (3/4 material, cherry with finish close to natural) and it worked out great. If you are not convinced on the pre-finished, imagine either 1) finishing all that flat panel surface area and finding a place to dry it or 2) pick an average sized base cabinet and imagine contorting yourself around inside of it with a spray gun for multiple coats on each one you build. :)

[William OConnell]

Looking to make the cases out of 3/4" ply, question is what type of ply to use. The face frames and doors are cherry, close to a natural color. I'm leaning towards BB as I can get it for a decent price $62 for a 5x5, think the light interior will be nice, and it's darn nice to work with a good material.

Has anyone used BB for kitchens? if so did you stain it as opposed to leaving it natural? if you did not use BB what did you you use? I can get maple for a decent price at HD but then it's from HD so I know what to expect as far as quality goes. Or I can spend double the $ and get cherry.

This is my first kitchen so I really don't know how the light interior will work out till I get finished... no pun intended.
I use 3/4" prefinished maple for carcasses and would laminate 1/4" cherry on the exposed ends or just buy some 3/4" cherry and use it on exposed areas like the ends.
Don't start gettin involved in 5 by 5 sheets for case work, to much waste any way you cut it. The math works out with 4 by 8 sheets much better with very little waste if planned right

[Steve Griffin]

get it prefinished. it'll save you an immense amount of time later!

Depends on your finishing methods and method of construction.

Since I spray my faceframe cabinets, it adds about 15 minutes per kitchen to hit the insides.

Even in my bad old days of brushing on Poly, the time to brush the inside of cabinets with finish is hardly significant. And if you are staining them, you can skip the masking off step and actually save time.

So as usual, there isn't one right answer for everyone....

-Steve

[Steve Griffin]

Looking to make the cases out of 3/4" ply, question is what type of ply to use. The face frames and doors are cherry, close to a natural color. I'm leaning towards BB as I can get it for a decent price $62 for a 5x5, think the light interior will be nice, and it's darn nice to work with a good material.

Has anyone used BB for kitchens? if so did you stain it as opposed to leaving it natural? if you did not use BB what did you you use? I can get maple for a decent price at HD but then it's from HD so I know what to expect as far as quality goes. Or I can spend double the $ and get cherry.

This is my first kitchen so I really don't know how the light interior will work out till I get finished... no pun intended.

The light interiors are really nice IMO.

There is no rule saying you have to use a single material either. Often on a cherry kitchen I use cherry ply for the uppers and maple melamine or ply for the bases. ( a well designed kitchen is mostly drawers for bases anyway, but thats just opinion...)

I've used miles of imported birch for interiors, but now stay away from it. Too often it it warps and twists worse than any other ply product I have seen. Maybe it doesn't like our dry idaho air or something...

-Steve

[Bob Johnson2]

Thanks all, I'll stick with 4x8's and see if I can dig up any prefinished. Looked for it last year and would have to drive 2 hours to get it. I like the idea of real light interiors and as no one has mentioned it not working out I'm going to go that route.
Seeing as how this could take from 3 months to 3 years, I have no intention on demo'ing the existing cabinets till I'm done.

[Fred Hargis]

Bob, when LOML was looking for new cabinets (we bought ours, long, sad story) all the samples we looked at came with light interiors. Take a trip to what ever borg is nearby and peruse the stock cabinets they have on display. I think you'll get a good feel for what the lighter interiors look like. They interiors usually look like a maple grain, and the ply seems to be the prefinished stuff...but they look pretty nice.

[Jeff Duncan]

How far west are you? I have 3 suppliers within an hour of me. I pay roughly $68 for a 3/4" sheet of Norbond pre-finished ply. It's a little cheaper if I buy a full lift, but I don't usually need that much and don't have the space to store it. Norbond is the best made ply I've used yet, Columbia is pretty good too. I wouldn't touch the box store stuff unless it was for shop cabinets. Call around a couple local cab shops and see if they'll sell you what you need. Your probably not close enough to me, but I wouldn't mind adding a couple sheets to one of my orders.
JeffD

[Joe Chritz]

The local Menard's here has B2 graded maple that is US produced. It is only 5 ply, but the plys are solid, consistent and the product stays flat.

I have used about 30 sheets of so now and am still happy with it. It is my go to plywood for any case work.

It must take a good eye to tell the difference between A grade and B. The face isn't bad to look at.

Joe

[Bob Johnson2]

How far west are you? I have 3 suppliers within an hour of me. I pay roughly $68 for a 3/4" sheet of Norbond pre-finished ply. It's a little cheaper if I buy a full lift, but I don't usually need that much and don't have the space to store it. Norbond is the best made ply I've used yet, Columbia is pretty good too. I wouldn't touch the box store stuff unless it was for shop cabinets. Call around a couple local cab shops and see if they'll sell you what you need. Your probably not close enough to me, but I wouldn't mind adding a couple sheets to one of my orders.
JeffD

I'm 20 W of Springfield, I did find Norbord on the internet last night as a manufacturer and they have a distributor just N of Hartford. I'll give em a yell tomorrow and see if they have a local retailer I can order from. There's also a cabinet shop in town, I'll stop by and see what they use and if they'd mind getting some extra.

Thanks

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Bob, great avatar!

Maple is the only prefinished ply my supplier carries, What else is out there?

[Bob Johnson2]

http://www.norbord.com/HP_PrefinishedPlywood_species.htm

Available species, if you can find it...