Mr mdf face frame

[Monk]

Hey, just have a quick question on face frames for cabinets. Have always used pine for all my face frames, but the knots in the pine can cause problems with painting. I've just started making units from moisture resistant mdf. I know a hardwood is the best option for a face frame but it just costs too much. Has anyone had experience using mr mdf as a face frame. It would be more durable the pine but I can't fix in through the edge of the mdf without it splitting and that's with a pilot hole.
Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers

 

[chippy1970]

Hey, just have a quick question on face frames for cabinets. Have always used pine for all my face frames, but the knots in the pine can cause problems with painting. I've just started making units from moisture resistant mdf. I know a hardwood is the best option for a face frame but it just costs too much. Has anyone had experience using mr mdf as a face frame. It would be more durable the pine but I can't fix in through the edge of the mdf without it splitting and that's with a pilot hole.
Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers

I just did these all in MR MDF but if I had to hang doors using butt hinges on the face frames I'd definitely do them in timber

Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk

 

[adidat]

tulip wood or paint grade maple would be an improvement on pine, its relativity cheap? are you're clients all on extreme budgets?

adidat

 

[Monk]

Looks great very nice. I use a parting bead on the edge of my frames and use poplar for the door stile so all I use is butt hinges. No clients are not on a budget but I try to keep the cost down as much as possible and on certain projects my frames can be different sizes. Do you plane up your own frames or order it in??

 

[adidat]

bit of both really depends how much I'm making, I make a phone call pay the bill and fours days later it coming off the lorry and i haven't had to empty the dust extractor once! brucie bonus!

hardwood will take a lot more abuse than mdf.

adidat

 

[Monk]

Sounds nice alright. ill defiantly take your advice on board. Thanks for the reply

 

[RobinBHM]

Tulip wood, fine grained hardwood is the most common option.

Its about £600+vat per cubic metre, unsorted redwood is not that much cheaper really, if you factor in the additional cost of cleaning up the resin povkets, knots etc in softwood its probably no more expensive.

 

[MrYorke]

Can you use a pocket hole jig for attaching the face frames?

Building the whole lot out of MR MDF would be fine. Use concealed, soft-close hinges for the doors rather than butt hinges as well.

Take a look at my Facebook business page under the alcove album for cabinets I've made from MRMDF

www.facebook.com/mywooddesigns

 

[skipdiver]

A mate of mine manufactures bespoke kitchens and he uses Tulipwood for face frames.

 

[Graham Orm]

Why are you fixing through the edge of a face frame?

 

[Wuffles]

Why are you fixing through the edge of a face frame?

Assume it's hinges.

 

[Monk]

Decided to go with the poplar. Mr mdf cabinets with poplar face frame, parting bead , door stile and cornice. It's costing me a bit more but think it's be an overall better product. I won't have to worry about the knots in the pine bleeding through and the poplar frame should be strong enough to take the butt hinges. All of the shelfs are going to be adjustable . In the past I've just used battons for the shelfs, so I've ordered a kreg jig to drill all the holes. Starting on Saturday , I'll post pics once finished. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Wouldchuk]

You won't regret that - I used Poplar for my kitchen onboard our boat - it machined and painted up lovely, but I was worried as to how resilient it would be as it's such a small space it gets more abuse - and it's really held up well. five years on and I may finally need to give it a fresh coat of paint, and no problems with the simple butt hinges I used.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

We use tulip wood instead of softwood but I prefer something that is stable

 

[MrYorke]

Or for a bit more you could use accoya