I think I'll go Pro

That way I can build cabinets in the summer.....
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and sell firewood in the winter.

I built some cabinets for the laundry room last summer - poplar and lauan - and I thought I had selected some nice straight grain - but perhaps not - frustrating.

These were my first in-set doors and they came out pretty good until this warpage during the dry winter heating season - oh well, guess I'll build another - but not until after I finish the current project - raised panel MDF doors - yuck, that stuff is horrible - but at least there won't be any warps!

I'd be willing to wager that the lauan ply is the culprit. got it from a BORG?

Well be much better I am sure.

The main thing is you built them and they looked good for awhile.
I have tried to make doors like that but to date have never got it done. They just never come out right..... maybe one of these days.

Not a big fan of the MDF doors either, but when I worked at a cabinet factory in college, the Thermofoil MDF doors sold just as well as the real wood ones.

They're slippery and heavy - a lot of them got dropped when we tried to pick them up. The thermofoil on the backs of those doors (pick two big ones up with one hand, back to back, and you'd better have a good grip) was slick enough that it'd make a good router table top if you could apply it without having a seam at the edges. Don't know how it would wear compared to melamine, but it was slick!

I doubt most of our center panels were real wood, either - who knows.

Build them out of ebony next time, and they probably won't warp as much or as fast!

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Originally Posted by Andrew Williams

I'd be willing to wager that the lauan ply is the culprit. got it from a BORG?

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Perhaps you're right, Andrew. While it did not come from the Borg I have had it around for about 20 years. I had three sheets stored in my former home that I discovered when I moved and have been trying to find uses for them ever since - mostly for backs of cabinets - like the ones I am building now - it is almost gone and I won't repeat the mistake on the replacement door.

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Originally Posted by Bill Huber

The main thing is you built them and they looked good for awhile.I have tried to make doors like that but to date have never got it done. They just never come out right..... maybe one of these days.

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Bill, the most difficult part of that project was the paint. I had no idea how difficult it would be to fill that lauan so that I could get a smooth finish. After the filler was the sanding and then more coats of pain then I care to remember. One tends to go nuts on the finishing so as to not waste all the work of the building. I am going to build two replacement doors and use MDF for the panels. I used a simple tongue and groove system so the door frames are a snap, the efficient use of the "dead wood" technique ('nuff said - lest I start something) makes fitting the doors rather easy - try it some time.
Ray

Was there any curl to the ply before you fit it in to the door?

I always check out the "bargain bin at Menards for deals on the chipped plywood and stuff like that. Last trip they had two sheets of laun that had warped their way into a tube shape. I bet they were at least 340 degrees. I wonder how many other sheets off that stack are under expensive vinyl flooring working their "magic". The last time I used some the face veneer was thinner then paper. You could scratch thru it with your finger nail. The core was some kind of light colored wood like poplar and the glue was red.

Ray, I always appreciate posts like yours. They help the rest of us keep from making the same kind of mistakes. I have some ash panneling left over from a project I did at least twenty years ago. I think I'll cut it up for kindling before I use it in a project and save myself the trouble of doing that after I use it in a project.

Ray - More likely the Poplar did the warping. I've had this happen to me as well when using 1/4" plywood for the panels with Poplar door frames. For the last Poplar door frame project I did, I used 1/2" Baltic Birch with a rabbet edge for the panels which are more substantial and seem to keep the Poplar frames from doing their thing. I also added magnetic stops to keep the inset doors in place. So far, no warping.

Don't beat yourself up...this sort of thing comes with the territory.;)

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Originally Posted by Frank Snyder

Ray - More likely the Poplar did the warping. I've had this happen to me as well when using 1/4" plywood for the panels with Poplar door frames. For the last Poplar door frame project I did, I used 1/2" Baltic Birch with a rabbet edge for the panels which are more substantial and seem to keep the Poplar frames from doing their thing. I also added magnetic stops to keep the inset doors in place. So far, no warping.

Don't beat yourself up...this sort of thing comes with the territory.;)

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Yea, I am kinda resolved to the situation. There are two other cabinets in the laundry room and the doors fit so good that I did not even put catches on them. They moved a little over the winter but nothing to fret about. Perhaps the Baltic Birch is a better idea than MDF - good thought.

Andrew asked if the ply had a curl in it before I assembled the doors - say, at my age who can remember that far back - it was last July for heavens sakes. ;)

And Don, what makes you think that was a mistake?? I had in mind going into the firewood business all along (yep, that's it.....)
Ray