I finally went out and spent the money on the plywood for the lower cabinet carcasses. I got five sheets of red oak ply from my local hard woods supply store. The last time I had made some cabinets I had just finished watching Norm’s kitchen remodel on “The New Yankee Workshop.” On that show, he use prefinished ply to make the carcases. I did the same thing and it was fantastic. I didn’t have to work to get into the corners or the recesses of the cabinets to finish them. So I now have to get to work finishing five sheets of oak ply during the end of fall when its starting to get pretty cold. It might take me a while to finish them, but it is worth it to save me the trouble of getting into the corners especially since finishing a piece is the part I don’t look forward to in any project.
-- Do something nice for somebody
4 comments so far
John Gray
home | projects | blog
1722 posts in 764 days
posted 363 days ago
Pre-finishing is a great idea. Thanks.
-- Only the Shadow knows....................
lew
home | projects | blog
4411 posts in 634 days
posted 363 days ago
Looking forward to some pictures!
ajosephg
home | projects | blog
423 posts in 439 days
posted 363 days ago
This may be a dumb question.
If prefinishing includes varnish, will glue still bond to it?
-- Joe
Ben
home | projects | blog
72 posts in 592 days
posted 362 days ago
They will stick, but I don’t think it would last as long as it would if it weren’t finished. However, the only place where the glue really comes into play is on the faceframes. I put a groove in the middle of the frames to glue them on to the plywood. So the glue will have an open unfinished edge to hold onto. Otherwise, where the plywood to plywood joints occur i use rabbets and screws. So there will be some glue strengh, and pocket screws to hold them. Even if the glue does eventually fail the screws should still hold the joint fast. I’ll try to get some pictures going here in the next week or so.
-- Do something nice for somebody