Solid Oak or Maple Laminate for kitchen cabinet doors

[Roger Redford]

Dear experts,

My latest project is refinishing the kitchen.

I've decided to keep the existing cabinets, and have painted them. But I'm thinking of changing the doors.

At Home Depot, I saw, in the same section as the melamine, what they called a pine laminate.

This are long pieces of pine, edge glued together to form a flat board. The same effect is seen in a solid wood table top.

I like this idea, of using real wood laminate for the cabinet doors. But but I'm not fond of pine. I could make them myself, but I would have to buy the tools, and take the time to build the boards, before finally getting to making the doors.

Does anyone know where I could buy a similar, solid wood, edge glued laminate? But, made out of oak or maple? I live in the Boston area.

Also, do I have the right term? Does this product go by another name? (not oak/maple laminate?)

Thanks a lot

[mp]

You could try a kitchen countertop place. They'll probably have the laminate, but be prepared to pay a lot more for the wood.

I've actually refurbished a kitchen using pine laminate shelving for the doors and drawer fronts. With a dark red-brown dye stain and semi-gloss clear it looked great.

All of the prospective buyers who went through the house oohed and aahed at the wood, and it definitely helped sell the house. The lesson to me was that even the cheapest materials can be made to look good, and the quality of the finish is just as important as the quality of construction.

[dadiOH]

All you'd need is a saw and a plane. Plus clamps. Lots of clamps.

If you have a router you could use it instead of the plane to edge the = boards by running along a straight edge. Obviously, you could also use = a joiner.

Once you have your boards glued up it is duck soup to make the doors. = Note that they should be full overlay doors, not inset.

--=20 dadiOH _____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[loutent]

As another option, you could use the pine glue-ups as a substrate on which you could apply a veneer in the wood of your choice. You would only need a simple laminate trim tool for the edges.

If it were me, I think I would buy a few hundred dollars of tools (router, plane, etc) and glue up some solid material. It would probably be much cheaper & after its finished, you still have the tools.

My 2ç.

Lou

[Gary Heston]

In article , Roger Redford wrote: [ ... ]

[ ... ]

Sure. Look in the flooring section. They should have a variety of hardwood veneered producs you can use.

Veneer. That's the term for applying a thin layer of real wood over a base material.

You're welcome.

Of course, you could just ask at Home Depot to see if they can order oak or maple laminate where they get the pine.

Gary

[<tock]

I saw something similar there too, called "Thermofoil." I passed on that after some checking on the net showed there was some concern over the stuff changing color and coming unglued. This did happen most frequently over stoves/ovens, but I can't imagine how hot a stove would have to get to make the laminate start to peel and discolor.

Instead, I ordered up some cabinets with solid birch doors (stained and varnished) with a laminate countertop. Cost a little more, but it looks better . . .

-Tock

[Luigi Zanasi]

Bad idea. There is a very good reason why frame and panel construction is used (and had been used for centuries) for doors and other flat surfaces. That is to prevent warping. Your laminated panels are extremely likely to warp in no time, especially as you are in Boston with large humidity swings.

Note that laminated panels are a lot easier to make than frame and panel doors, and the old timers did not go to the trouble of making mortised frames and panels just because they were prettier. As you rightly note, flat panels can be very attractive.

Flat kitchen cabinet doors only started being used when stable products such as plywood, particle board and MDF became available. So if you want flat doors, I would suggest going for plywood with an attractive figure.

I have used the laminated pine panels and they have, without exception, all warped. I would not use them for doors.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

[mp]

I haven't had any warps from pine laminate doors, not even after two years on the soggy west coast.

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 23:58:44 -0700, "mp" scribbled:

Interesting, but can't argue with experience, as Swingman says. What kind of pine? Finish? Do you heat in winter -- and dry out your house? Where did you get them?

My experience with pine panels is like I said. But then I live in a very dry climate and the panels are probably manufactured somewhere much wetter.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

[Roger Redford]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

However, I already knew about using the roll on laminate. And, how to make them myself. And edge veneer.

But I still have my heart set on oak or maple laminate.

Does anyone know if it exists? Where could I buy it?

[Ned Flanders]

Telephone book => lumber yard => call...

Cheers,

Ned

[mp]

Nothing fancy, just the plain HD & Rona shrinkwrapped pine laminate shelving. The doors were dyed and sprayed with lacquer. The doors are in the kitchen, and subject to the occasional bit of humidity and kitchen heat. The weather on the west coast doesn't really get all that dry in the winter. Perhaps these conditions help to limit warping.

[mp]

As mentioned earlier, it's available as kitchen countertop material. You might even be able to buy slabs of it at Ikea in their kitchen department.

[Robert Bonomi]

If all else fails, go to an 'art supply' store. One that sells artists paints, brushes, etc. Look at 'wooden drawing boards'. Usually solid, P laminated up, maple.

Sit down before looking at the price tags, however.