MDF utility cabinets

Give them a good coat of paint and they should be alright.

I would just worry about where the hinges attach. MDF doesn’t hold screws well.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

mdf is fine when it is dry.. paint all surfaces. Also, gary is right about hinges. be careful

-- making sawdust....

A trick my father-in-law taught me. Layout where your screws go then bore them out with a 1/4” bit and make the holes a bit deep than the screws you are using then glue in a dowel and let dry. Trim and sand flush and you now have wood to screw into.

The other thing is that MDF is very thirsty and a lot of paint will get soaked up. You can use glue sizing after you have completed sanding. You can make glue sizing by using standard carpenters glue and mixing in water about 2 parts glue and 1 part water, it should very fluid (and a little goes a go distance) and be brushed on and let dry. A lite sanding should be done once dry, two coats should do. Hope this helps.

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

Should be OK. Pre-drill all your holes.

-- Dave Herron, Boise, ID -- How hard can it be? It's only wood!

Sorry I missed the point that these were prefabbed. They should work fine, and just be heavy.

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

I’d just buy the sheets of MDF and build my own. I know those will hold up!

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

What I did with my MDF cabinets…...I built treated 2×4 bases that the MDF cabinets set on. That way any moisture, or any thing else doesn’t get into the MDF. Plus I sprayed mine with poly before painting. Plus they are a little higher up so I don’t have to bend over quite as far to work off of. Damn my eyesight is getting bad!

Couple of comments on MDF

-I live in Chicago and have kept MDF panels in my garage, unpainted, waiting for projects, for 2-3yrs. No problems.
-If you are going to be building cabinets for your shop (heated in winter, AC in summer) you only need to paint them to look nice-they don’t need to be painted and unless they’ll be soaked by water. Otherwise they will stay in good shap indefinitely. I have jigs and fixtures for my router table and table saw unpainted, have lasted for years
-For outdoor use, look for MDO, essentially MDF with a waterproof paper layer on both sides-it’s what expressway signs are made of
-Comments about weight are correct. 3/4” sheet of MDF weighs close to 100lbs. If you have a hardwood lumber supplier nearby, they may carry lightweight MDF. 3/4” sheet of this weighs about 40lbs less.
-I also use the technique recommended by TopE5, building 2×4 bases for the cabinets first, leveling them, then fastening the cabinets to the bases.

-- Gerry

If I’m not mistaken, I think I’ve seen screws for sale made specifically for MDF. They have a wide thread pattern and require predrilling with the appropriately-sized drill. I’ll try to see if I can figure out where I saw them and post the location. I’m thinking McFeeley’s.

-- Earle Wright, Lenoir City, Tennessee

Found it. It was McFeeley’s. There’s a whole page of fasteners and inserts on the following link for products to be used with MDF.

http://www.mcfeelys.com/search/MDF

Hope this helps!

-- Earle Wright, Lenoir City, Tennessee

Oops! I also missed the point that these were prefabbed cabinets. And, here I thought I’d found a really neat solution to your problem !

Oh, well, if you want to build some more yourself, that link I just posted should help.

-- Earle Wright, Lenoir City, Tennessee

I had 2 of the large cabinets you are talking about. They served me well until I got about a foot or so of water during Katrina. They are useless once soaked, but otherwise they were fine.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

i built my kitchen cabinet doors out of mdf. you can see my pics under my projects. i’ve never had a problem with screws coming out. i used 35 millimeter cupped hinges. And they are painted.
Also intead of painting mdf you can put on a couple of coats of polyeurathane. It will seal the mdf. I did this with a work bench.

-- Joey, Magee, Ms http://woodnwaresms.com