using mdf for cabinets

[anthony wall]

although i was a cabinet maker i never actually used m d f now the wife wants a kitchen with painted doors so i have a couple of questions..is mdf a viable material to use for kitchen cabinet doors?is it viable for cabinet frames?what would be the best thing to seal the cut edges?any info on these points will be a great help in making up my mind weather to go this route..ps i am in thailand and most of the timber species here do not accept paint well .thanks for any help you can give on this subject

[glenn bradley]

I have MDF painted doors on the original hallway cabinet in my house. They look cheap but, are quite functional. I would not use MDF for frames. A seal coat of dewaxed shellac will allow primer and paint to be accepted on almost anything.

[Brian Peters]

MDF is great but should be used in great moderation. Build the cabinets out of a more reliable and stronger substrate such as birch cabinet grade plywood. I prefer pre-finished maple plywood but cost may prohibit it for you depending on your budget. For the doors it's best to make them out of solidwood and use MDF for the panels, whether they are flat panel or raised. If you're going to do raised panels you can use MDF, but it's best to use a double refined MDF such as Rangerboard, which machines and paints like real wood, it is very nice with a high solids primer. I have done cabinet doors from MDF before but it's best to edge band them with a veneer rather than filling the edges. MDF is not very durable so you will deal with damage as kitchen cabinet doors get the most abuse.

[Jim Matthews]

If it's reinforced at strike points, and has a soft close hinge - it may be adequate.

I wouldn't use it on moving parts myself.
For wainscoting, or other static panels - it's excellent.

Some of the most beautiful loudspeaker cabinets are veneer over MDF.

I wouldn't put MDF in contact with any floor that gets wet, either.

[Howard Pollack]

I have painted MDF cabinet doors in my kitchen. The paint job is very good with an industrial paint that is pretty tough. They look great, but the paint does chip a little bit and the mdf has chipped and needed to have the chip glued back in. I'd not do it again.

[Sam Murdoch]

MDF is too heavy and does not hold screws. There are fastening systems suitable for MDF but regular screws - no good.

Having said that, there are "light" MDFs TruPan or Ultralight (might be others) which are excellent for door panels.
If you make raised panels the hips will need special attention to finish properly. They porosity of the material interior
requires some fill with spackling or multi coats of primer, sanding between coats to look good, but it is manageable.

I don't know what the other comments above refer to in regards to the poor look of painted MDF. I have never had issues with it.
MDF panels properly finished (well primed and not too much paint thickness) can look as good as new car surfaces. That might be the problem - they can appear too perfect.

Anyway - YES to panels - absolutely NO to cabinet /door construction.

[anthony wall]

thanks for the useful input ,maybe i will try to talk the wife into solid wood doors( but dont hold out much hope as she can be pretty stubborn) so that they can be finished in a clear finish which would be my preference

[Robert Engel]

How about this: MDF is a toxic material, full of formaldehyde, urea and other bad chemicals.
It produces a dust so fine it will go everywhere in your shop and cover every surface the air will take it.
There is no dust collection that will get it all up and no filter that won't clog in 5 minutes.

Lets not even talk about what it will do to your lungs.

Tell her in order to use it you'll be risking your health - no lie.

If you do decide to use it, make sure you've got a full face respirator, goggles and some damn good exhaust fans in your shop.

If your shop is your garage, its a no brainer - DON'T USE IT if the stuff ever gets in your a/c system it will be everywhere in your house.

Vote YES to ban MDF .

[Art Mann]

A couple of years ago, I replaced all the cabinet doors in a kitchen/serving area that was part of a large church. The original doors were constructed of premium cabinet grade veneered MDF. All the ones near the sink were swelled and partially dissolved just by being splashed with water. Some of the door hinges were loose and unrepairable because the screws just wouldn't hold any more. Although the kitchen was used hard, I believe it would not have required all that work if they had used cabinet grade plywood.

On the other hand, I will say that the panels I salvaged from the project made excellent material for construction of jigs and fixtures. It was quality but it just wasn't appropriate for this high use application. If you decide to use MDF for your project, I would definitely buy the premium material from a cabinet shop supplier rather than the cheap and low quality stuff you can get at the big box home centers.

[Brian Peters]

How about this: MDF is a toxic material, full of formaldehyde, urea and other bad chemicals.
It produces a dust so fine it will go everywhere in your shop and cover every surface the air will take it.
There is no dust collection that will get it all up and no filter that won't clog in 5 minutes.

Lets not even talk about what it will do to your lungs.

Tell her in order to use it you'll be risking your health - no lie.

If you do decide to use it, make sure you've got a full face respirator, goggles and some damn good exhaust fans in your shop.

If your shop is your garage, its a no brainer - DON'T USE IT if the stuff ever gets in your a/c system it will be everywhere in your house.

Vote YES to ban MDF .

Robert I think your reply is a bit over the top. If he is concerned about health risks he can always purchase formaldehyde free MDF. One small project is not going to subject him to long term health risks because his exposure just isn't enough. Not to mention a lot of MDF and plywood from reputable dealers have much lower concentrations of formaldehyde than chinese/import counterparts.

[Art Mann]

Robert I think your reply is a bit over the top. If he is concerned about health risks he can always purchase formaldehyde free MDF. One small project is not going to subject him to long term health risks because his exposure just isn't enough. Not to mention a lot of MDF and plywood from reputable dealers have much lower concentrations of formaldehyde than chinese/import counterparts.

There must be hundreds of MDF manufacturers. I was just wondering how Robert was able to verify the chemistry used to manufacture all of them.

[Bob Grier]

Your selection of material might depend on how long you intend the doors to last or how long you intend to enjoy them. I recently purchased a house constructed in 1989 (25 years old) with mdf cabinets including doors covered with melamine. The cabinets are in kitchen, laundry and both bathrooms. The house has been well taken care of. Most but not all doors have slight to considerable bend in them. By that I mean that where 2 hinges were used, the portion of the door between the hinges is bowed in toward the cabinet and the top and bottom of the doors is pushed out from the cabinet relative to the area between the hinges. Most all shelves are mdf and sag. They have lasted a long time and look good but don't fit well. All edges and faces are covered with the laminate.

I replaced most of the hollow core doors with mdf doors and I replaced most of the trim with mdf trim. I have found the painted mdf doors and mdf trim is easy to dent or chip compared to wood doors and trim. This is the first house of 6 houses I have lived in in the past 50 years that has mdf cabinets, trim or doors. I may not have used mdf for doors and trim if I had past experience with it.

[mreza Salav]

If you want paint grade doors, why not use some inexpensive solid wood such as pine? it is very light too.
MDF is not good for boxes for reasons given above. It is too heavy for doors IMO especially bigger upper doors.
You can get the same look using better material. You would save a bundle doing thing yourself, so it's worth using better material.

[Michelle Rich]

How about this: MDF is a toxic material, full of formaldehyde, urea and other bad chemicals.
It produces a dust so fine it will go everywhere in your shop and cover every surface the air will take it.
There is no dust collection that will get it all up and no filter that won't clog in 5 minutes.

Lets not even talk about what it will do to your lungs.

Tell her in order to use it you'll be risking your health - no lie.

If you do decide to use it, make sure you've got a full face respirator, goggles and some damn good exhaust fans in your shop.

If your shop is your garage, its a no brainer - DON'T USE IT if the stuff ever gets in your a/c system it will be everywhere in your house.

Vote YES to ban MDF .

I'm glad someone brought up the toxicity of this stuff, and the billowing dust...use good quality plywood instead.

[Peter Quinn]

MDF is a pretty common material for low end and slab door construction these days. They have raised panel doors that are either routed post forming or pressed whole into doors to look like 5 piece frame and panel doors. They have the tell tale rounded corners that say to my eye "not real". For a painted slab door what are the options? It has a few issues. It disintegrates when wet. Thats a pretty serious down side in a kitchen. And it basically can barely support its own weight over any span, so its not a great choice for face frames etc. I don't like the way the edges crumble, to me thats the begging of the end for most MDf products.....well painted it stays dry, but an edge gets damaged, that exposes the core, lets in water, starts to bugle and fail. Most commercial MDF doors you see are overlay with very rounded edges meant too soften the impact of any blows the doors may take, they don't tolerated eased square edges very well. You will of course hear about somebody MDF doors that have lasted 20 years and are in great shape.....they must tread very lightly.

I don't know the Thai market at all, I would do a little more local investigation into finding a paint grade species, I know the Chinese have a few "white wood" species that paint well and may get exported to Thailand. When I've been forced to make MDF doors they were always slabs, no reason to make a 5 piece looking door with it here, and for the slabs we edge band the doors in a thin solid wood, not heat tape but at least 1/16" of solid material so that all contact edges are more durable, this seems to give the doors more life. For face frames and carcusses.....absolutely not using MDf here. I can't imagine it lasting in a humid climate for very long at all.