Plywood vs MDF decision last week really made me think

I had to pick between birch plywood and MDF for a set of kitchen cabinet doors last Thursday. The customer wanted painted finish so I almost went with MDF because it's smoother, but the quote came in close enough that I went with the plywood instead. After three coats of primer and sanding, the plywood edges still showed a bit of grain that I had to fill twice. Has anyone else dealt with this choice for painted cabinets?

2 comments

2 Comments

wood.noah10d ago

three coats of primer and sanding" - man that's rough but honestly you coulda saved yourself some trouble with a good coat of shellac based primer first. Those seal the grain way better than regular stuff.

william8169d ago

Whoa, I gotta say I used to be all about MDF for painted stuff because I figured it was the easy way. Thought plywood was just for stained work or rough projects. But after reading your post and wood.noah's tip about shellac primer, I'm actually rethinking that. I tried that shellac trick on a recent job with some cheap pine ply and it made a huge difference, grain didn't pop through like before. You probably wouldn't have needed all those extra fills if you'd started with that. Makes me wonder if the plywood was just a better long term bet for durability compared to MDF.