Cabinet doors/drawer - baltic birch?

[jeff easter]

Hi all, I'm building cabinets for my kitchen and am having trouble figuring out what to use for the door/drawer face material. I like the idea of baltic birch with either paint or laminate on both the inside and outside. I would like the face to be a color with the edges wood. I don't want to edgeband all the doors/drawer faces because I might route a detail into the edge and I don't have space/time for all the glue ups. Baltic birch, 13-ply, would provide an edge I find reasonable to sand and finish. I am worried that the door will warp. My experience is with Blum and Hetich hinges so that is what I would like to use. I don't want the faces to be a mess in a year because they all moved a bit more than the hinges could handle.

What thoughts and recommendations do you folks have? Are there other plywoods that would be more stable with edges that look presentable? My local lumber yard seems pretty good (Allegheny Plywood).

Thanks for your time!

-Jeff

[bf]

You aren't going to like this answer, but if you're going through all the time, trouble and expense to make your own kitchen cabinents, I don't think you should use plywood doors and drawer fronts, especially if they are unbanded. Or perhaps I'm reading it wrong. Even if you paint the edges, I don't think it will look very good.

It's not that big of a deal to edgeband plywood with solid wood. Every night before you go to bed, just glue up a few pieces (if that's all you have clamps/time/space) for.

[Hambone Slim]

IMO, baltic birch is not dimensionally stable, and will warp if used as doors or laminate door substrate. It's often warped right off the truck.

Years ago, everybody carried lumber core. Funiture shops used it all the time for tops and doors. Super stable, and was basically a 4x8 of edge-glued boards with crossbanding & veneer on both sides. Made my saw sled from oak lumber core and it's still going strong.

Go down to the yard and tell em you want lumber core, and you ain't leaving till they order it for you. Plenty of mills still producing it.

-- Timothy Juvenal

[Pat Barber]

I would not do the doors at all. YOu can order almost any door known to man for a fairly reasonable price from any number of sources.

There are many shops set up to nothing but doors and do it well and fast.

You can spend your time on the finish and end up with a decent looking kitchen.

The style cabinet you describing was last built about

1961.

If you want cheap(frugal) order some of the very pretty CNC done mdf doors.

there are about a million more folks who do the same thing.

jeff easter wrote:

[dgadams]

I've used baltic birch for some shop cabinet doors. It warped about 3/16 inch. Not enough to make me replace the doors (yet!) but enough that it would seriously mess up a set of kitchen cabinets. Thank goodness they were utility cabinets. I'd suggest another approach. Other posters have had some good ideas.

D. G. Adams

[purduephotog]

Our local farmer's market has a Surplus Building Supply store- run by Habitat for Humanity. They have doors for 3-5$ each that cost 70$ at other locations- cherry, oak, hickory. You might have to see which ones they have coming in more often than not but you might be able to pick up a near complete set, depending on how many you need, for a song.

In Rochester there were about 6 of the type I use in my kitchen. Had I known that when I built it...

jeff easter wrote: