Cabnets made from African Mahogany questions/help

[William C Rogers]

I am getting ready to start a big project making kitchen cabinets for a house I am going to build. I have never worked with African Mahogany before and was wondering if any one has used this material. What i have is S3S about .840 thick now. I was going to plane it down to about .800 and then run the doors and face frames through a drum sander when assembled. Is that about the right thickness to sand? Does this material burn like cherry? Other problems working with it? I am also going to "try" to make flat panel inset doors. For the panels I can get Lauan for about $11 a sheet or real Mahogany for $60 a sheet. Has anyone tried to match stain Lauan with African Mahogany? I figured I would make them the exact size and then sand or run in the jointer to fit. If running in the jointer does the material have a tendency to chip? The weak length in my equipment are the jointer which is an old craftsman given to me, but never used and I only have 36 belt sander for this. I am going to use the Sommerfeld tongue and groove system to build these cabinets. A lot of questions and appreciate any and all help/tips for this project.

Bill

[Gary Max]

"I can get Lauan for about $11 a sheet or real Mahogany for $60 a sheet."
You won't get Lauan to stain to match----at least not to the quality level you are looking for.
Don't forget the post some pics as you go along with this project.

[Jay Jolliffe]

What Gary said....Go with the Mahogany plywood. Less hassle trying to match the dimensional wood

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, lauan is a bad choice. Actually, real Mahogany isn't a great match with African Mahogany. I'd use African Mahogany plywood, to go with the African Mahogany lumber. As a bonus, it should cost you less than genuine Mahogany plywood.

[Paul Symchych]

You will like working with african mahogany. I have had no problems with burning or anything else. If it has a pronounced ribbon pattern you may have minor problems with planing it. It sands beautifully.
Forget the luan ply though. Garbage.
I suppose mahogany ply is OK but why not make the flat panels by resawing your lumber? Plywood will not have the luminous grain patterns or depth of color of the lumber. I recently made a mahogany and lacewood cabinet with frame and panel doors and side panels. Resawing the mahogany to about 3/8" allowed me to glue up bookmatched flat panels which were then planed and sanded to fit. It resaws easily.
The only small glitch you may face is in finishing. Some wood is a bit open pored and may need a tad of grain filling if you want a mirror smooth finish. For a cabinet you may not need to fill grain like you might for a table top.

[Jeff Duncan]

As mentioned if your going to go through the trouble to do it....might as well try to get it right. Get yourself some African Mahogany plywood or even better mdf, to match the solid wood. As for the doors if your wood is already surfaced I wouldn't bother planing it down unless you need to. Fabricate your doors as thick as your stock will allow and then sand as little as possible to get flat. I try to keep my doors in the 13/16" - 7/8" range as I prefer thicker.

good luck,
jeffD

[J.R. Rutter]

What i have is S3S about .840 thick now. I was going to plane it down to about .800 and then run the doors and face frames through a drum sander when assembled. Is that about the right thickness to sand?

That is about right if you want to finish out at 3/4". I sand 0.025 off of each face in my shop to level the joints and get a uniform surface.

Does this material burn like cherry?

If the abrasive is dull and loaded up, it will definitely burn. But if you are using 36 grit(?) then there should not be a problem other than a lot of hand sanding with ROS afterwards.

Other problems working with it?

It is pretty sensitive to moisture content changes: it moves around and can easily bow and twist. So try to control humidity, avoid leaving stacks of parts for too long (the top pieces will start to bow), and get finish on them as soon as possible after they are built and sanded. Depending on the exact species, the interlocked grain can tear out when planing and jointing, so use sharp blades.

Has anyone tried to match stain Lauan with African Mahogany?

Stick with the same species. I get mdf core for stability. It is tough to get true 1/4" so hopefully the groove is adjustable to more like 5mm in that bit set.

I think that this wood can be quite attractive. I can specify quartersawn lumber when I buy it, which has a nice ribbon grain but is also more prone to chipping. It is more stable than the flatsawn. Of the 3 different subspecies of A.M that I have tried, my favorite is sapele for color (more reddish), hardness, stability, and good smell.

[Kent Chasson]

It depends which "African Mahogany" you are talking about. I've seen Khaya and Sapele and a few other things sold as "African Mahogany" and about the only thing in common between the species is the interlocking grain which can make it difficult to plane. Some of it is quite dense, some like stringy cardboard. The dense stuff (rarer) can be oily and clog paper but not too bad. The soft stuff is less stable like J.R. mentions. None that I've seen is too hard to sand but, again, 36 grit is more coarse than I would ever use.

[Jim Rimmer]

Yeah, lauan is a bad choice. Actually, real Mahogany isn't a great match with African Mahogany. I'd use African Mahogany plywood, to go with the African Mahogany lumber. As a bonus, it should cost you less than genuine Mahogany plywood.

+1 on that. I have used both African and Honduran (also called genuine) and I wouldn't try to match them up/

[Paul Johnstone]

If you are going through all this trouble, I would also recommend making raised panel doors out of the matching species.
The doors and drawer fronts are what's going to be noticed more than anything.
If you want to cut costs, you can make the carcasses out of a different species of plywood, since it is mostly hidden when the doors are closed.
I still think that you should minimize substitutions.. this is going to be a huge project, taking a long time.
You don't want to be looking at them in 5 years and kicking yourself for making the door panels out of luan (It will not look nearly as nice).

[Sam Murdoch]

... and one other caution, mahogany like cherry is very light sensitive - before and after finishing. If you have a well day lit shop be careful to cover your stock between shop sessions. At the very least leave your good faces down or stacked face to face. You's be amazed that an hour of sunlight from a window will leave a light shadow that is nearly impossible to sand out, especially if you are already at your finished thickness.

Having said that, I love working with mahogany and cherry, though I prefer the now hard to get Honduras mahogany over "African".

[Peter Quinn]

Problems? It can be difficult to split the ribbony stuff for narrower parts as there is lots of tension in the interlocked grain. Be selective, go for the straight neutral grain for stiles and rails, save the other stuff for panels or wider parts, or at least beware and leave extra room for jointing. Yes it does tear out on a jointer, take light slow passes with very sharp knives for best results. Laun? No dice. Save that for floor underlayment. Even African mahogany plywood won't match your solid stock well IME. The plywood factory seems to get perfect logs that look almost fake for tthe veneer process, then they steam the life out of it so it looks dull and boring compared to the solid stock. Finishing can help if you add a bit of color or toner to even things out and brighten it up. Don't go cheap on the greates amount of show face by the square foot, get the best looking plywood you can for the panels. The panels make or break a stain grade kitchen. Better you save money else where IMO.

[William C Rogers]

OK, NO LUAN. It was just a thought anyway. I can get the African Mahogany veneer paper back .025 thick for the panels. This way I can have both sides in the same material. I was thinking of using 1/4 baltic birch as ply and sanded to account for the veneer thickness gluing the veneer to this. Unless there is a better way or ply that is used. I don't understand how to make flat panels by resawing. I don't know how to glue up 1/4 panels. We definitely want the look of flat panel vs raised panel. We are building a new house, but won't start for another year or so, but hope to have most done in the next 3 months to beat the hudmidity in Indiana. I appreciate all the suggestions and help.

[Peter Quinn]

OK, NO LUAN. It was just a thought anyway. I can get the African Mahogany veneer paper back .025 thick for the panels. This way I can have both sides in the same material. I was thinking of using 1/4 baltic birch as ply and sanded to account for the veneer thickness gluing the veneer to this. Unless there is a better way or ply that is used. I don't understand how to make flat panels by resawing. I don't know how to glue up 1/4 panels. We definitely want the look of flat panel vs raised panel. We are building a new house, but won't start for another year or so, but hope to have most done in the next 3 months to beat the hudmidity in Indiana. I appreciate all the suggestions and help.

Dont make 1/4" solid panels, they almost always crack. I make 1/2" to 5/8 panels, raise them with a simple cove, put the raised field to the inside. Voila, flat panels. I like he idea of laying up your own panels if you have that capacity. You can edge 3/8 plywood with 3/4" wide solids, veneer both sides, cove the edges to produce a 1/4" tongue, run the cove to the inside, very stron panel that way.

[J.R. Rutter]

Similar to Peter's suggestion, you could just veneer MDF on both sides and rabbet the back side to fit the groove. Plywood can be a little squirrely sometimes as far as flatness goes.