Another Job

[Leon]

So far this year a kitchen remodel in the winter and early spring. A Murphy bed and twin tower storage cabinets to match the bed and not a Pantry Hutch.

This is the drawing.

This will be constructed of 3/4" MDO for the cabinet carcasses and adjustable shelves.

Poplar for all of the solid wood, except for Maple of the tops of the bottom and top cabinets.

Drawers will have HD full extension drawer slides, 8 adjustable feet for leveling, and 6 Blum Euro hinges for the doors.

Door and drawer outer center panels will be 1/2" Baltic birch and the drawers will be 1/2" Baltic birch for the all 4 sides and the bottoms. Rabbets for the drawer corner joints reinforced by Domino tenons.

The customer will retrieve and take back to San Antonio, TX, spray paint the poplar and MOD parts. Clear coat the maple sections and reassemble. The customer was a long time participant in this group. He often passed along very detailed directions of how to spray paint.

Since I am not painting, staining, or applying a finishing for any part of this job, the job should be fun.

I paid close attention when cutting up the $420 worth of MDO. That part is done. I just finished printing optomized layouts for cutting up the

120 linear feet of 1x8 poplar and hard maple.

Thoughts?

[DerbyDad03]

Thoughts?

My thought is that you should make two. The first one can be for practice. When it's done, give it to me at no charge since it's just a prototype.

Thoughts?

[russellseaton1]

True!!!!!! I like the mechanical constructing part. Not the finishing part.

[krw]

Thoughts? Where do you find MDO?

Oh, and it's going to be another Leon special, no doubt.

[Leon]

Naaa.

I hate doing prototypes. Its like cutting a board 3" shorter. I know how to do this! ;~)

Last prototype I build was in the early 80's.

Last Christmas I was going to build boxes with 1/4" box joints with 1/2" thick material. The box joints were 1/4" square, not 1/4" by 1/2".

And I wanted to use my new Origin to do this.

Long story short, I practiced the cut on scraps and they came out perfect. I turned the scraps into 2 of the 12 boxes.

[Leon]

Finishing does not bother me so much except for the time it adds to complete a project. I almost always prefinish inside edges and closed in panels prior to glue up. 3 coats of a gel varnish. Then after the glue up 3 coats after sanding. That can easily add 2~8 days to the process depending on the humidity.

And gel varnishes do not build quickly so they are thin. Not for children's furniture.

Because this finish basically helps to prevent discoloration of the wood and that is about it I am considering switching to Rubio Monocoat finish. It too is a thin finish but it is 1 coat, fast dry, and applied with either a white Scotch Brite pad or poured on a tiny bit at a time and spread with a card scraper. Comes in about 40~50 shades including pure/natural. And it is pricey. But when time is money I think it is a wash.

Apparently a scratch is easily repaired, sand, and reapply 1 coat. No lap marks.

[Leon]

I get it in Houston at either Clark's Hardwood Lumber or Hardwood Products. At the moment Hardwood Products is out of stock and has no idea when that will change. I suspect it may be available form any of the local materials suppliers for the trades. A local lumber yard may have it. The big box store "might" be able to order it for you.

Not totally my design, Nailshooter and his wife had a lot of input as to sizing. They have stayed with us on numerous occasions and she wanted a custom built piece. It has some of my unique features but no curves... Hummm.

[DerbyDad03]

But who will repair the scratch 3 years after delivery? Are you the service department also or will you hand the customer whatever finish is left over, assuming there is some?

(I had a guy repair some rusty gussets, etc. on my trailer. Small job, but I don't weld. Some welding, some priming, some painting. He billed me for quart of black paint, the remainder of which he gave to me when I picked up the the trailer. Now I have about 85% of a quart of flat black oil based paint that will probably never get used. I should have given it to him as a tip.)

[krw]

The BORG doesn't even recognize its existence and blue knows that it exists but will never stock it. We have no "lumber yards", as we know them, around. I'll have to get to one of the hardwood dealers but they seem to have normal business hours.

[DerbyDad03]

Lowes carries 1/2 MDO. At least 50 sheets available locally.

I bought some a few weeks ago. I really only needed sanded ply but the nice flat and slightly thicker MDO was a few bucks *cheaper* per sheet than the ugly twisted sanded ply.

Can't find 3/4" though. Will try a lumber yard if I ever need any.

[krw]

Not here, in any stores in the metro area, or at least their web site doesn't point to any.

The BORG did have some decent looking sanded ply. I just looked at the Lowes site and it appears plywood prices have come down. $40 for

3/4" sanded SYP and $60 for sanded poplar.

I'd love to find some. I've been using MDF or melamine (same thing) where flat mattered.

[DerbyDad03]

In what world is MDF and melamine the same thing?

[Leon]

AND the surface likes any kind of paint. Some wood veneer plywoods tend to de laminate with some water based finishes. And that is the primary reason that I use MDO over wood veneer if I am going to paint.

[Leon]

Wondering the same. ;~) Maybe just for the flatness comparison.

[Leon]

Good question. But ask your self this question, with "ANY" other finish, who will repair the scratch 3 years after delivery?

The customer can buy $10 sample bottles of the product and do the repair himself. With most any other finish that repair will be much more detailed, even with shellac.

And until I have tested this product more I don't know if it will be good for everything or just certain projects. Like any other finish.

[DerbyDad03]

Depends on the terms of the warranty/protection plan. At this very moment I am looking at a brochure for the Platinum Protection Plan offered by the Raymour & Flanigan furniture chain. That's their 5 year protection plan.

The column for Wood and Other Hard Surface Furniture has a checkbox next to "Gouges or chips that penetrate the finish exposing the substrate." That box is checked.

So, what I am hearing is that you aren't offering a 5 year Platinum Protection Plan. ;-)

[DerbyDad03]

That's good to know. I used 3/4 Poplar veneered plywood for my last big project. It took the Benjamin Moore Advance primer and paint really well. I like that paint a lot, especially since I seriously hate to paint. It lays down nice and smooth.

The ultra smooth surface of the MDO isn't a problem? What kind of primer & paint do you use?

When I used the 1/2" MDO, I hid the surface. It was for that platform project in my Honda Odyssey, so it got covered with carpet. As I mentioned, I never would have considered using MDO, but it was cheaper than the sanded ply and flat, unlike the sanded ply.

It was a good introduction to MDO, even though I didn't actually "finish" it. I will consider using it in the future.

[krw]

Yes, worded poorly. I use MDF with melamine on top for light-duty work surfaces. Keeps it nice and flat.

[Leon]

No, I do not. And FWIW I have bought my last furniture warranty protection plan. I have been stung for the last time.

So our plan covered just about everything. Pets knawing on the wooden parts. And doing their thing on the leather, #1 and #2. I can throw up on the leather. Stab a hole in the leather.

We later found out the hard way that sweat is not covered.

[Leon]

No Primer. So far I have painted all of my MDO pieces with General Finishes Milk Paint. The recently finished Murphy bed was painted with a Basil green milk paint.

I did scuff the surface with 180 grit paper.

When I was painting paint grade wood veneer I used a water based Sherwin Williams primer and saw the veneer de laminate almost immediately. I was able to get glue back under the veneer and all worked out OK. I topped with Sherwin Williams best oil based enamel. This was for my wife's sewing studio furniture.