Help me choose a finish

[Steven J Corpstein]

I am building a router cabinet with some drawers, etc. and need some advice on a finish. This will sit in a garage that is subject to the environment in Iowa, so hot/cold, dry/humid.

Construction materials will include Baltic birch plywood for the carcass and hard maple for the rails and stiles.

I was thinking Watco oil finish, but am open to suggestions. I'm fairly new at this so I have no idea what I'm doing. Thanks.

[Greg Scott]

Slap on some poly and call it good. After all it's a shop project right?

[Richard Wolf]

I find for projects like that the wipe on ploy goes on as easy as watco oil, but is more protective.

Richard

[Steven J Corpstein]

I had a guy at work, who is quite accomplished at his cabinetry skills, tell me to wind the saw blade up about 1/64" - 1/32", then run the plywood (such as oak ply) through the saw as if cutting it to size, but to run it through backward still using the fence set to the correct dimension. He claims it scores the sheet where it's going to get cut enough so that it doesn't splinter at all when the actual cut is made. Have any of you guys heard or done this? Seems kind of scary to me, I'd be afraid the blade would grab the sheet and launch it out the front of the saw.

[John Hart]

To avoid splintering, I set my saw height very shallow like that but run it through forward with good results. The idea being to score the surface prior to going deep. Another method is to place masking tape on the cut line.

[chris toomey]

shellac and wax

[Richard Wolf]

Sure it will work, it acts like a poor man scoring blade. Maybe I would try it if I was building cabinets out of cherry ply, but for a router table for you shop it is an unreasonibly risk.

Richard