I sold the garage storage cabinet jobs. A few days back I mention this and inquired about soft close hinges and such.
Originally my bid was to use paint quality birch plywood for the bodies of the cabinets and MDF for the doors. That has changed. The customer opted for the more expensive frame and panel doors and MDO for the body of the cabinets.
I have never used MDO but felt that this wes the best option for my customer AND me since I will not be painting, he will do this. I certainly did not want to address any veneer on the surface of the plywood in the event the customer used a water based product. The doors will be 1/4" birch plywood panels, not that big of a deal if there is a problem with one and I have to rebuild it. At least not as big as replacing a cabinet.
Anyway the MDO was $64.95 per sheet. Inspecting it before buying it looked fine for this purpose, smooth enough for garage cabinets, and absolutely smoother than birch plywood if it bubbled up. I was surprised that the MDO has a distinct "plastic laminate" odor. So now I know how this stuff is resistant to water.
One rack lower was ProBond plywood. It looked similar to the MDO however the owner explained that the MDO has a paper resin surface that is water resistant as opposed to ProBond. IMHO the ProBond appeared to be a superior product as the outer veneer layer was 3 times thicker than the outer layer of the MDO. BUT that outer layer is MDF so that pretty much defeats the idea of having a water resistant surface. FWIW the MDO outer veneer surface is twice as thick as the birch veneer surface and is an actual 97/128" thick and or 1/128" thicker than 3/4" thick. I suppose if the wood veneers were as thick, today's plywoods would be
3/4" thick to, come to think about it on numerous occasions the import plywoods are closer to 3/4" if not exactly 3/4" than domestic plywoods. It's a crap shoot as to what you will get so I always plan for this and don't cut anything until I know what thickness I will end up with.Strange enough the Probond was less expensively priced by $20 per sheet. More food for thought in the future if I build and paint myself.
Anyway..... this should be a quick job, no painting or finishing, so there will be no delay between stages waiting for stain, varnish, or paint to dry.