Walnut cabinet - plywood

davee

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Jan 15, 2010
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I have been asked to make some cabinets out of walnut.  I plan to use walnut lumber for face frames, doors, drawer fronts, etc.  I am wondering what I might use for the box as I've not seen walnut plywood (probably very expensive?).  Any thoughts on what would look good - find and use walnut plywood, staining of maple/birch plywood?  Thanks for the input.
 
Will there be exposed sides on the outside of the cabinets? If not you might consider prefinished  maple plywood for the boxes and interior parts. Unless the customer (?) specifically wants the interior to be walnut. You could still do this and just use walnut plywood for the end panels that will show. You could even do all the boxes out of prefinished and  add a layer of 1/4" walnut plywood on end panels.  The end panels could be dressed up a little more with solid wood on top for a frame and panel appearance.

Seth
 
I am fortunate to have a really great lumber company in town.  They have a mill shop that has hundreds of trim and molding pieces in all the popular hardwoods.  In addition, they carry about 10 or so different plywoods with hardwood veneer.  Depending on where you live, I would think you should be able to find a store that has a good selection of hardwood ply.

This summer I built a maple cabinet for my shop.  I looked at birch, which was about $50 a sheet for 3/4" thickness.  The maple was within a dollar of the birch, so I got it.  The cabinet is open, so the face frame cost negligibly more than the poplar I was planning to use.

For walnut, cedar, mahoghany, and other more "exotics", the prices ranged from the $60 range up close to $100. 

BTW - my wife questioned why the shop cabinet is nicer than most of the other cabinetry in our house.  And that comment helped me justify getting a track saw last month, so I could build new cabinets in the rest of the house.  I think she bought the rationale ...  [wink]

Of course, I now need a Domino for the joinery, and of course a Festool sander, and ....
 
davee said:
I have been asked to make some cabinets out of walnut.  I plan to use walnut lumber for face frames, doors, drawer fronts, etc.  I am wondering what I might use for the box as I've not seen walnut plywood (probably very expensive?).  Any thoughts on what would look good - find and use walnut plywood, staining of maple/birch plywood?  Thanks for the input.

Does the client want "walnut" or the look (i.e. stained) of walnut?
Sometimes they just like the color of the wood vs. the actual wood so they ask for walnut.
If I am doing a clear coat over a dark or stained piece I like the interior to be the same unless the design calls for something else.
Like Seth said, you could use G1S walnut veneered panel and stain the inside for color.

Tim
 
SRSemenza said:
Will there be exposed sides on the outside of the cabinets? If not you might consider prefinished  maple plywood for the boxes and interior parts. Unless the customer (?) specifically wants the interior to be walnut. You could still do this and just use walnut plywood for the end panels that will show. You could even do all the boxes out of prefinished and  add a layer of 1/4" walnut plywood on end panels.  The end panels could be dressed up a little more with solid wood on top for a frame and panel appearance.

Seth
Yes using 1/4" veneer is the way to do it
 
Thanks for the replies, a combination of the various methods will definitely work.

Dave
 
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