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Thread: Talk to me about non-wood kitchen cabinets

  1. #16
    Malcolm, I used to rep for a dealer of these types of products. "Starboard" is one brand, "Designboard" is another. They are all HDPE plastic, which machines easily but as you noted, is soft and needs to be at least 3/4" thick in order to have any sort of structural rigidity. Also, HDPE distorts and gets soft in the sun. Typically, you clad something with it. There is a rubberized acrylic made by Chemcast of Mexico that is actually designed to be drilled for Blum-type hinges and grabs screws but it is quite expensive. You might also check out Corian or one of the other acrylicized solid surface materials. I had several clients who used them for outdoor kitchens. Good luck in your search.

    Erik

  2. #17
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    Marble or granite slabs held together with silicone and wood biscuits to make the cabinets. Not sure how they would be for doors. might be too heavy and crack easy.

  3. #18
    The chem cast stuff that drill for Blum hinges and takes screws is what I was speaking of.

    Not much any experience with it but I caught my eye and I have fancy taste motivated by high quality.


    Quote Originally Posted by Erik Loza View Post
    Malcolm, I used to rep for a dealer of these types of products. "Starboard" is one brand, "Designboard" is another. They are all HDPE plastic, which machines easily but as you noted, is soft and needs to be at least 3/4" thick in order to have any sort of structural rigidity. Also, HDPE distorts and gets soft in the sun. Typically, you clad something with it. There is a rubberized acrylic made by Chemcast of Mexico that is actually designed to be drilled for Blum-type hinges and grabs screws but it is quite expensive. You might also check out Corian or one of the other acrylicized solid surface materials. I had several clients who used them for outdoor kitchens. Good luck in your search.

    Erik

  4. #19

  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bradley Gray View Post
    Those at least look less like garage storage and more like kitchen cabinets, but it still seems a little industrial. It's an option. I don't really like the feel of metal cabinets. That may sound silly.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dufour View Post
    Marble or granite slabs held together with silicone and wood biscuits to make the cabinets. Not sure how they would be for doors. might be too heavy and crack easy.
    That sounds expensive and kind of "iffy".

    Quote Originally Posted by Erik Loza View Post
    Malcolm, I used to rep for a dealer of these types of products. "Starboard" is one brand, "Designboard" is another. They are all HDPE plastic, which machines easily but as you noted, is soft and needs to be at least 3/4" thick in order to have any sort of structural rigidity. Also, HDPE distorts and gets soft in the sun. Typically, you clad something with it. There is a rubberized acrylic made by Chemcast of Mexico that is actually designed to be drilled for Blum-type hinges and grabs screws but it is quite expensive. You might also check out Corian or one of the other acrylicized solid surface materials. I had several clients who used them for outdoor kitchens. Good luck in your search.

    Erik
    I helped a friend repair a Jenneau sailboat with some termite damage to the bulkhead. (a problem caused by keeping it in the yard with hatches open and on the tree line) He wanted to use Starboard. I wasn't impressed at all with the stuff. I agree it needs to have some sort of rigid layer on either side to really work as a structural material. The cabinets that I saw that caused me to start this thread were a wee bit flimsy, but were on the cheaper end of the spectrum. I was hoping someone had a better built version out there.

    Corian is great for counter tops, but I would hate to see the cost for building a whole cabinet. Also, in the past I tried to get Corian and similar materials and it seems you have to be a vendor to even get the stuff.

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malcolm Schweizer View Post
    Those at least look less like garage storage and more like kitchen cabinets, but it still seems a little industrial. It's an option. I don't really like the feel of metal cabinets. That may sound silly.
    You could take something like that an apply veneer after painting any door edges to match the color of the veneer you choose.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malcolm Schweizer View Post
    .................................................. .......
    Corian is great for counter tops, but I would hate to see the cost for building a whole cabinet. Also, in the past I tried to get Corian and similar materials and it seems you have to be a vendor to even get the stuff.
    Not just cost but weight as well. That stuff ain't light and it wouldn't be quick or simple to mount (heavy duty) hinges and such. You can get 1/4" which would be lighter but would be even trickier to mount hardware. DuPont does have a Corian fabrication manual online here:

    http://www2.dupont.com/Surfaces/en_U..._contents.html

  8. #23
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    I use the 1/4" Corian for some sign thing and yes, it's major heavy even in the thin material and can also be "brittle" when it's not supported well. The material is also only available in limited widths, depending on the color, which may not work out economically for cabinet work.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  9. #24
    Im guessing the Starboard cabs you saw were either trying to cut costs with thin material or were poorly constructed. We had a rep coming through pushing the Starboard and I have seen a few outdoor kitchens that put Starboard in the category of Jims Corian option. Thick material, extremely heavy, and when assembled very rugged but of course not the best in a dark color (or perhaps any color) exposed to direct sunlight. I would never want to handle a 3/4" thick fully assembled Starboard cabinet. It will weigh a TON.

    Im not a fan of plastics for the normal reasons but its an interesting material. A very small percentage of people in my area would ever be willing to pay for something that used Starboard. We were looking at some of their tricolor material for a couple projects and the pricing is way up there.

    An interesting option might be a job with a combination of something like Starboard and AlumaCorr for panels though I think most shops that are building starboard cabinets are just CNC routing doors like MDF. I dont know how they deal with the cleanup of the profiles.

  10. #25
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    Have you considered using a termite resistant timber? Australian white cypress is one of these but there are others as well. The last house I built was in northern Australia which also has voracious termites. The house was built with pressure treated timber but white cypress was equally acceptable. It was a metre above ground level on masonry stumps with steel ant caps and you had to do 3 monthly inspections to scrape off the covered tracks. All the cabinets and trim lasted as you would expect in normal service. Cheers

  11. #26
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    Hmm....here's a thought...how about a 1/4" thick layer of a composite like Corian on the wall and then traditional cabinets. The plastic would isolate the wood products and make it really difficult for any creatures to invade them. (And just for the record, I had an upper cabinet in our kitchen taken out by termites a little more than a year ago and it was not a fun thing to discover, nor a cheap thing to remediate so I can appreciate your situation there on the island!)
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  12. #27
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    Teak....jk

  13. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Hmm....here's a thought...how about a 1/4" thick layer of a composite like Corian on the wall and then traditional cabinets. The plastic would isolate the wood products and make it really difficult for any creatures to invade them. (And just for the record, I had an upper cabinet in our kitchen taken out by termites a little more than a year ago and it was not a fun thing to discover, nor a cheap thing to remediate so I can appreciate your situation there on the island!)
    We have flying termites. They come from all angles. The walls are solid concrete in the kitchen.

  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wayne Lomman View Post
    Have you considered using a termite resistant timber? Australian white cypress is one of these but there are others as well. The last house I built was in northern Australia which also has voracious termites. The house was built with pressure treated timber but white cypress was equally acceptable. It was a metre above ground level on masonry stumps with steel ant caps and you had to do 3 monthly inspections to scrape off the covered tracks. All the cabinets and trim lasted as you would expect in normal service. Cheers
    I am really looking for semi-custom, i.e. Ready- made that you can order in various sizes to fit your space. I could build them, but really don't want to spend that much time.

  15. #30
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    Make them from clear plexiglass and paste photos of wood on the inside.
    Bil lD

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