Just wanted to see what most here thought of using solid lumber for doing doors and drawer faces slab style. I have a customer who hired us on a frameless full overlay with slab doors. I had them sold on a Echowood laminate very very stable plywood edgebanded door style. It would have been beautiful actually.
Their builder convinced them to go with solid maple. The wife wants slab and nothing else. I tried to talk to her about going shaker, but no going. So it appears we will be glueing up blanks, running a small 1/16 radius, sanding them flat, etc… We actually do not stain Maple that much , but we do an excellent job at staining Alder so hopefully our Alder process will translate well with Maple.
My biggest concern is wood expansion and contraction. Since there is only 1/8" reveals without any face frames, if a pair of doors has a 1/16" expansion in 6 months, then it will be "ooooops". Or if they have a 1/16 contraction, all of a sudden we have 1/4" gaps, what then?
The builder, whom I do not even know, has his own cabinet guys, who I understand he would prefer to work with. His cabinet guys have advised him there will be no issues with going with slab solid lumber doors/drawer faces. He has passed this information on to the customer. I have only advised the customer as to what my research tells me because we rarely ever get into any type of slab door.
Of course there is also the potential for the maple to cup or warp over time, or is this all overly exaggerated concerns on my part. I estimate there are probably 200 doors on this job, it is a large job. Any "ooops" will be large.
I am thinking about having the builder sign a document that he personally warrants the doors against expansion/contraction issues and cupping/warping issues for 20 years.
I have done slab doors on frameless cabinets in the past but always with a ply or melamine or some other stable core that remains flat.
Their builder convinced them to go with solid maple. The wife wants slab and nothing else. I tried to talk to her about going shaker, but no going. So it appears we will be glueing up blanks, running a small 1/16 radius, sanding them flat, etc… We actually do not stain Maple that much , but we do an excellent job at staining Alder so hopefully our Alder process will translate well with Maple.
My biggest concern is wood expansion and contraction. Since there is only 1/8" reveals without any face frames, if a pair of doors has a 1/16" expansion in 6 months, then it will be "ooooops". Or if they have a 1/16 contraction, all of a sudden we have 1/4" gaps, what then?
?
The builder, whom I do not even know, has his own cabinet guys, who I understand he would prefer to work with. His cabinet guys have advised him there will be no issues with going with slab solid lumber doors/drawer faces. He has passed this information on to the customer. I have only advised the customer as to what my research tells me because we rarely ever get into any type of slab door.
Of course there is also the potential for the maple to cup or warp over time, or is this all overly exaggerated concerns on my part. I estimate there are probably 200 doors on this job, it is a large job. Any "ooops" will be large.
I am thinking about having the builder sign a document that he personally warrants the doors against expansion/contraction issues and cupping/warping issues for 20 years.
I have done slab doors on frameless cabinets in the past but always with a ply or melamine or some other stable core that remains flat.