Cabinet design question

[belfert]

I'm thinking of doing my interior in pine T&G mostly because it is cheaper.  Red oak seems to be as two to three times more.

What is the best way to do the exposed ends of the cabinets?  More T&G pine?  There is knotty pine plywood, but it is as costly as red oak.

[cody]

As a thought check out T&G knotty pine wainscotting, it's got a little fancier cut to it and isn't too bad cost wise. Remember that pine is a relatively soft wood and can be dented or gouged easily.

[luvrbus]

Use a plwood and veneer the ends they have the product now where you peel and stick not real expensive, another way but not my choice would be the notty pine laminate but the notty pine Tand G would look better I think 


good luck

[belfert]

I really didn't like the look of the wainscotting at the store.  It seemed too fancy to use in basically the whole bus.

I'm going to see if I can't find another source besides Menards that might be cheaper for a harder wood than pine.  There is a lumberyard locally that might have something.

[cody]

Local lumber yards or mills will be able to beat menards prices, at least in this area they do but ask if the wood is either air dryed at least 2 years or kiln dryed, your looking for a moisture content of no greater than roughly 10% depending on the wood, a soft wood can maintain it's integrety with a higher moisture content than a hard wood like maple, hard woods are prone to warping with the higher moisture contents, but I've seen red oak at mills for less than pine at menards, be careful of what they call white wood, it's a generic term that could mean anything from spruce to aspen, basically pallet stock to me.  If your going to veneer the end grains of plywood then make sure the plywood is a lumber core, if the inner plys are a bark core the peal and stick veneers won't hold, they go on easily with a regular steam iron but tend to come off as easily over time wth the lesser grades of plywood.  When the mill tells you the wood was kiln dryed ask how long it's been out of the kiln, wood is kiln dryed to around 4% moisture but will start gaining moisture as soon as it hits the outside air and will generally stablize at around 9% to 12% depending on the wood.

[Dreamscape]

Pine has a lot of character, but like has been said it's a soft wood. In doing the plywood ends you could use a Kreg tool and attach some pine 1x2's for the edging.

We did ours in red oak because it's durable, a little more money but I only wanted to do this one time.

Have fun!

Paul

[DaveG]

Cody, thanks for the expert advise. Always a pleasure to read a response from someone "in the know".

[Tenor]

I'm almost done using knotty pine t&g for the walls, ceiling, door panels and cabinet sides.  I've built my kitchen cabinet with 3/4 inch pine using a Kreg jig to attach the pieces and then for the end of the cabinet, i'll use my table saw to put a 1/4 inch groove into the rails and stiles and insert the t&g, just like a door.  It works great!  I put on 2 coats of satin finish poly to seal it up.  I can post pictures in a while if you like.

Glenn

[TomC]

I had the overhead cabinets and kitchen cabinets framed with 1x2 red Oak cut to 3/4" thick and actual 2" width.  All cabinets are mechanically held together with 90 degree brackets and hex screws (have to drill pilot hole with Oak).  This facilitates bending and twisting without popping any joints.  The only glue I used was the 90 joints of the bathroom and cabinet walls.  In 15 years and about 30,000 miles of driving, no problems.  Good Luck, TomC

[jmblake]

I'am with Cody, go to a local mill shop or cabinet shop and you can get oak for the same price as pine at the big box store's plus you can mostly specify your lenghs to cut down on waste. Jason