Workshop cabinets

[whit richardson]

I'm making some cabinets for the shop using 3/4" plywood (sanded pine) which I'm going to paint. I'm making face frames and wondered if there's any good reason not to use pine since they'll be painted. I don't care to work with MDF because of the dust (I don't have great dust control yet) and the weight. Opinions?

[Prashun Patel]

You can certainly do it. Poplar's another fine choice since it's clearer and more stable.

With pine, you might take care to seal knots with shellac before painting, else they can bleed sap over time.

I used BORG pine 1x4's, and 1x2's for all my utility shelving in the garage and basement. Has worked fine.

[Bob Wingard]

Pine will work, but it's nearly impossible to completely hide it's grain with paint.

For that reason, Poplar or Soft Maple is a better choice, but Pine will certainly work if the grain issue isn't objectionable to you.


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[Matt Tawes]

My first choice would be poplar as well. Unless for looks and you prefer face frames you could just do frameless cabinets with cup hinges. More useable space and no FF lip to catch sliding stuff in in out. Certainly simple and quick to make for shop use.

[David Hostetler]

My first choice would be poplar as well. Unless for looks and you prefer face frames you could just do frameless cabinets with cup hinges. More useable space and no FF lip to catch sliding stuff in in out. Certainly simple and quick to make for shop use.

Exactly. Unless you are going for looks, I would say don't worry about the grain too much on shop cabinets, unless of course you just want pretty cabinets in the shop... Of course they use an oil and wax or something like that... If I were to build pine ply cabinets for my shop (and the plywood is sitting there taunting me right now...) for paint, I would go frameless, with a fairly simple panel door, or maybe a rail & stile door with peg board panels for added storage. Throw some primer and paint on it and call it good...Completely hiding pine grain is going to be REAL tough, even with the sanded stuff. Primer will help a LOT but won't totally solve the problem.

[whit richardson]

Thanks. Sounds like poplar may be a better choice. I'm only doing the face frames because a) I'm really building a work area/miter saw station and it's only a few cabinets and b) to practice before building the cabinets for my built-in's inside the house. Rather do the learning curve on the shop stuff first.

As for the pine ply I could switch to birch for a few dollars more but not sure I want to part with the $'s. A 4'x8' Araucoply (pine product from Chile) is about $25 but birch is a little over $40.

[Rod Sheridan]

Whit, you may be unhappy with the $25 ply. There's a thread open now about that plywood, doesn't sound good......Rod.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=114575

[whit richardson]

Hmmmm.... I'll have to factor that into my decision. I have used this stuff for a clamp cart, sawhorses and a few other things in the shop and haven't had those issues (yet). The attraction is how nice the finished surface is for painting, etc. for the price. I may trying building the cases and let them sit for a week or two to see if anything goes strange on me before finishing the cabinets. I'd think if it was going to have issues it would show up fairly soon after taking home into your own environment and not being stacked anymore.

[Anthony Anderson]

Whit, Menards, a big box store in the midwest, and quickly expanding, has maple ply and birch ply that sells for arounds $45 a sheet. I have used quite a lot of this ply with great results. I use maple if clear finish, and birch if it is going to be painted. Both take finish very nicely. As for the face frames, I would use either poplar, or soft maple, again depending on the finish that was going to be applied. If painting, I use poplar, if clear finish I use hard or soft maple (clear wood/no stains).

Good Luck, Bill

[whit richardson]

Yes we have Menards nearby and that's actually who carries the Araucoply. My Lowes doesn't have a very good selection of various quality 4'x8' plywood sheets I think because they mostly sell to contractors. So I usually go to Menards which actually has a lot more lumber. I hear you folks about the birch but these are hard times fellas and a buck saved is big in my house these days. Tool buying is close to nothing or I get used so I need to $'s to streeeeeeeetch!

[Prashun Patel]

Dude, I've built all the garage/utility/shop shelves and cabinets in my house with BORGish ply. Some of it had a lot of voids. It works fine. I vote for using the cheapest material that'll hold a screw.

[whit richardson]

Agree Shawn... this is a glue and screw ready project can I get some gov't funding for my work? ;-)