Birch Plywood vs Hardwood for Drawer Boxes?

[Bugsysiegals]

I bought several sheets of Birch plywood to make drawer boxes for several shop cabinets.  I'll eventually move onto kitchen cabinets and wonder whether you all use plywood with edge banding or hardwood for your cabinet drawer boxes?  If plywood, what edge banding do you recommend?

 

[rjboch]

I think it may be a preference/design thing, but I like using a high quality 1/2" (9 ply) baltic birch for drawer sides and I leave the plies exposed on most cabinets. This is more of a design preference since I like that style. However, if I was building what some would define as 'fine woodworking' (whatever that means), I may consider hardwood. Its really up to you and/or client (if applicable). Included a photo of an in-progress closet built-in (drawer faces have not been installed yet)...1/2" BB sides and 1/4" bottom. 

 

[rmhinden]

Plywood can be a design feature on high end cabinets.  We had cabinets made for our kitchen remodel by a company called Henrybuilt in Seattle.  They made the plies on the wood a design feature.

[attachimg=1]

We love them.  Wish I had a source for this quality of plywood.  We visited their manufacturing facility one, it was very impressive. 

Bob

 

[afish]

Count me as a exposed ply drawer box guy also.  Not so much for the face but my drawer boxes are Russian birch (cant find baltic birch by me) and I join the boxes with "exposed" Dominos.  I feel they give a clean modern look to the drawer without the complexity of dovetails with rock solid results.   

 

[Bugsysiegals]

Count me as a exposed ply drawer box guy also.  Not so much for the face but my drawer boxes are Russian birch (cant find baltic birch by me) and I join the boxes with "exposed" Dominos.  I feel they give a clean modern look to the drawer without the complexity of dovetails with rock solid results. 

I had the chance to get Russian Birch for $35 per sheet or Baltic Birch from a buddy who owns a cabinet shop for ~$30.  I opted for the Russian Birch as I don't want anybody feeling I'm using them.  That said, besides some initial rough edges, it seems like decent plywood ... how would you know the difference between the two?

 

[kevinculle]

I also use high quality prefinished maple ply for my drawer boxes and leave the edges visible.

 

[afish]

"Typically" the baltic birch comes in 5x5 sheets I think you can get it pre finished too However since I cant seem to find any Baltic birch in my area I cant really say.  The russian I get does have some face patches I usually try to work around. 

 

[blaszcsj]

Unless I am making furniture I’d go 9 ply Baltic/Russian birch ply. It is consistent, looks good, no voids/cracks and I don’t have to dimension it to thickness. Just cut to width and length and get the drawer done. I like to do the concealed dominos and nice clean sides. Quick and easy.

 

[Bugsysiegals]

The Birch I bought is 9 ply and did come in 5x5. I will say it has football looking piece in it which I’m not sure if is the case on Baltic Birch. Also, I do remember now that there are some bad areas with cracks that I either avoided or will make the back side of the drawer box.

 

[Bugsysiegals]

I do like the 9 ply appearance, at least for shop cabinets, but will likely not leave them exposed for kitchen drawer boxes. That said, is the iron on edge banding strong enough to hold up for kitchen, dining, bathroom, laundry room cabinets or do you guys rip thin strips of hardwood, glue, and trim it instead?

 

[jcrowe1950]

I do like the 9 ply appearance, at least for shop cabinets, but will likely not leave them exposed for kitchen drawer boxes. That said, is the iron on edge banding strong enough to hold up for kitchen, dining, bathroom, laundry room cabinets or do you guys rip thin strips of hardwood, glue, and trim it instead?

There are two kinds of "easy to use" edge banding. The iron on edge banding can be good if correctly applied. In my experience, you want to buy fresh product and store it properly. When it gets old, the glue does not seem to melt and adhere as well. You will also want to sand the surface to be edged and then clean up the dust really well. When you heat up the glue start at one end, and get a steady pressure and rate of  movement on the iron.....then use a block of flat wood to burnish it (or perhaps a J roller). Burnish the edges as well at say a 30˚ angle. Another challenge is trimming it. The two-edge simultaneous trimmers have never worked well for me and many of our customers agree with that experience. I am lucky in that I can use the MFK 700 which excels at that task. The Conturo works well but that is, for me, a real stretch. I know the store has sold one or two in the past because we order supplies for them periodically. I got to use one in a class and it's sweet....just not justifiable for me. One other approach if you want to leave your plies showing is to put a slight bullnose profile on the top edge with a router.

 

[afish]

Ahh, iron on edge banding is like torture for me.  I hate doing it and why I spent the money for the conturo.  There is no way I would put it on drawers.  The fastcap edge banding has a flaw too.  The adhesive edge tends to stay sticky ( yes its only a couple thousands) but tends to create a black line since it attracts dirt.  This was white on white project so it was the worst possible scenario.  It might be better if it was real wood edge banding that was going to be finished and would seal the edge of the tape.  I do hit the drawer with a small round over just to soften the edges. 

 

[Rick Herrick]

I am lucky in that I can use the MFK 700 which excels at that task.

[member=39505]jcrowe1950[/member] Thank you.  I am interested in this information.  I have been doing a lot of edge banding on birch for garage cabinets.  How does the MFK as a trim router do the edge banding better than your basic trim router?  Does it fare well out of the box or do I have to buy a few accessories to get the most out of it?

 

[Bugsysiegals]

Ahh, iron on edge banding is like torture for me.  I hate doing it and why I spent the money for the conturo.  There is no way I would put it on drawers.  The fastcap edge banding has a flaw too.  The adhesive edge tends to stay sticky ( yes its only a couple thousands) but tends to create a black line since it attracts dirt.  This was white on white project so it was the worst possible scenario.  It might be better if it was real wood edge banding that was going to be finished and would seal the edge of the tape.  I do hit the drawer with a small round over just to soften the edges.

It seems better to buy the Birch hardwood in the case of the cabinets which I will not want ply's exposed.  Thanks, I've never edge banded and am not familiar with the effort.

 

[afish]

Ahh, iron on edge banding is like torture for me.  I hate doing it and why I spent the money for the conturo.  There is no way I would put it on drawers.  The fastcap edge banding has a flaw too.  The adhesive edge tends to stay sticky ( yes its only a couple thousands) but tends to create a black line since it attracts dirt.  This was white on white project so it was the worst possible scenario.  It might be better if it was real wood edge banding that was going to be finished and would seal the edge of the tape.  I do hit the drawer with a small round over just to soften the edges.

It seems better to buy the Birch hardwood in the case of the cabinets which I will not want ply's exposed.  Thanks, I've never edge banded and am not familiar with the effort.

Its not that its laborious but its slow going and if your not careful or try to rush it and dont heat the glue good enough you can get spots that dont fully adhere and bubble or the edge lifts.  This of course typically isnt noticed until you spray a coat or two of finish.  It happens more with a MDF core and the very porous edges.   

 

[kevinculle]

It's also an option to edgeband plywood with solid stock but it adds considerably to the effort.  I find the iron-on edgebanding to be dodgy at best.

 

[jcrowe1950]

I am lucky in that I can use the MFK 700 which excels at that task.

[member=39505]jcrowe1950[/member] Thank you.  I am interested in this information.  I have been doing a lot of edge banding on birch for garage cabinets.  How does the MFK as a trim router do the edge banding better than your basic trim router?  Does it fare well out of the box or do I have to buy a few accessories to get the most out of it?

    The MFK 700 kit comes with a base that is used specifically to do edge banding trimming. Hard to describe how it works but you take the motor off the default base and mount a horizontal base which allows you to route a 1.5˚ bevel on your edge banding and with .1mm adjustability in depth of cut, it's pretty easy to dial the trim in. The only caveat is that if you have two cabinet edges adjacent to each other the 1.5˚ bevel becomes visible between cabinets, but Festool, of course has an answer..the 0˚ bevel base. I'm fairly certain that Sedge covers it briefly in one of the Festool Friday videos. Suffice it to say, my description is inadequate but if you are ever in Chattanooga I can demo it for you... 8)

 

[jcrowe1950]

It's also an option to edgeband plywood with solid stock but it adds considerably to the effort.  I find the iron-on edgebanding to be dodgy at best.

  In my opinion, I like solid edge banding a lot more than veneer edge banding. This is especially true if you are making a "better than Ikea" class of furniture. I have used tongue and groove for solid edge banding and there are also router bit sets that cut a V in the sheet goods and the matching profile for the actual edge banding....if you trim it really carefully to the hardwood plywood...it can appear to be solid wood.....tricky but doable. 8)

 

[afish]

I am lucky in that I can use the MFK 700 which excels at that task.

[member=39505]jcrowe1950[/member] Thank you.  I am interested in this information.  I have been doing a lot of edge banding on birch for garage cabinets.  How does the MFK as a trim router do the edge banding better than your basic trim router?  Does it fare well out of the box or do I have to buy a few accessories to get the most out of it?

With a typical trim router when you trim the edge banding you have to balance the trimmer on the narrow edge of the stock.  The main benefit of the MFK is the horizontal base allows the tool to register off the side and provides a much more stable platform.  It also has special bits for for perfect round-overs on 1mm, 1.5mm or 2mm edge banding.  If you are just looking for a quick (cheaper) alternative fastcap has the lil'lipper that attaches to a standard trimmer.  It wont give you all the bells and whistles of the MFK but will provide 90 degree edge banding trimming without having to try and balance the trimmer on the 3/4" edge.

 

[Rick Herrick]

The MFK 700 kit comes with a base that is used specifically to do edge banding trimming. Hard to describe how it works but you take the motor off the default base and mount a horizontal base which allows you to route a 1.5˚ bevel on your edge banding and with .1mm adjustability in depth of cut, it's pretty easy to dial the trim in. The only caveat is that if you have two cabinet edges adjacent to each other the 1.5˚ bevel becomes visible between cabinets, but Festool, of course has an answer..the 0˚ bevel base. I'm fairly certain that Sedge covers it briefly in one of the Festool Friday videos. Suffice it to say, my description is inadequate but if you are ever in Chattanooga I can demo it for you...

Thanks for the description, I appreciate it.  I actually grew up in Chattanooga but don't get back there much.