MDF Doors

[mikek]

Years ago at the Austin ShopBot Camp, I got a copy of a program called "FreeDoors". Using a v-bit it would cut five piece doors out of a single piece of MDF. My son has a customer in Houston that wants an entire house of cabinets using single piece MDF doors that will be painted. In Houston paint grade 5 piece doors of any kind don't last long because of the humidity. I only have a Benchtop which won't do 36" or 42" doors. Does anyone have a solution for this with a 4' x 8' machine? The Amish in Indiana will be finishing these doors so someone closer to Montgomery would be ideal....

Mike Kelly
mikekelly at austin.rr.com

[benchmench]

Mike,

You could probably come out ahead by using MDF thermofoil doors from a local door supplier. These hold up very well, even in humid climates, and...no painting needed!

[cip]

Mike
You can also order doors from a thermofoil door company without the thermofoil coating so they can be painted.

[dray]

Humidity is not a problem as long as the doors are sealed. I cut thousands of doors over a 7-8 year period and have never been recalled to a job. I dont know if it makes a difference but I never used anything but ultralite MDF

I have free doors, I don't do it anymore but I was cutting quite a bit of doors a few years ago. If you search through my posts or do a MDF door search you will find the program as well as many sample pics.

All of the cabinetry in here are all MDF with a faux or paint.

http://drayconstruction.com/html/gallery.html

http://drayconstruction.com/html/slides/Copy%20of%20IMAG0463.JPG

http://drayconstruction.com/html/slides/Copy%20of%20IMAG0455.JPG


squish your employees.
http://drayconstruction.com/html/slides/IMAG0575.JPG

[ken_rychlik]

Mike, I use solid wood doors all the time over here. They hold up better than mdf. Mdf is used when someone wants to get by on the cheap.
I don't quite understand getting the doors from so far away. It seems like shipping would negate any savings.

[myxpykalix]

Danny,
I miss seeing some of your beautiful cabinets but what you're doing now must be a whole lot less work. When is your next trip?

[dray]

I have not built any cabinetry or doors in about 6 years but when you can build a $4-5k quality MDF cabinet in 2 days with your cnc start to finish and the customer is happy, you are happy that is all that counts.

When you and the customer both walk away with a feeling of gain is the key to any successful business.

MDF is the way to go (for me anyways), it is more versatile than any natural woods. Higher profit margins allowing you to make much more detailed design work for the same amount of $$.

Customers are always more than ecstatic with the final results. Natural wood is nice and I swore I would never use MDF in the 90's, but once you learn how to use new products properly there really is no going back.

Jack, yeah when the economy took a dump it raised our sales by 40% at AmpedBikes. We just started up another company selling high end camera equipment, DSLR, pro cinema kits and a whole range of nice stuff which means more trips back and forth. To be honest I am starting to hate the trips. I was doing 4-5 trips per year but with the new line it will most likely double.

I just got back from my last trip to China on the 1st. There is a show going on right now in Shanghai but I did not want to set up our booth. We finally opened up a small mill west of Shanghai and we have more than we can handle at the moment.

[mikek]

Mike, I use solid wood doors all the time over here. They hold up better than mdf. Mdf is used when someone wants to get by on the cheap.
I don't quite understand getting the doors from so far away. It seems like shipping would negate any savings.


I understand Ken. I personally prefer real wood too. But paint grade in Houston has some longevity issues with movement. We get the Amish in Indiana to make the cabinets and we do the installation. We get a high end cabinet as a result at very competitive pricing. Shipping is not too bad, as we get about three to five or more kitchens in one truckload. They don't use MDF in anything, only real hardwoods and veneered ply. This one customer is wanting MDF doors from his past bad experience and is wanting it painted so we are trying to accomodate him.

[mikek]

Thanks Dan, Mike and Danny for your inputs. Danny your website is impressive.

[dray]

Thx Mike. BTW everything.. I mean everything is MDF on my site.
Free doors is easy to work with, you can set the width of the stiles and rails, you can change the details using different bits in design mode

The only thing you need to keep the same is the final inside edge needs to be a V-Bit in order to keep the corners square rather than round. Or you can make Shaker style as well.

All of the below are MDF, cabinet, doors etc. We never tried to emulate wood grain as that looks funky and cheap but we made hundreds of Faux cabinets and doors with wood tones, crackled antiqued, burnished edges, Old European, Tuscany style etc.

http://www.mdfworks.com/sitebuilder/images/shaker-150x259.jpg

http://www.mdfworks.com/sitebuilder/images/3124-143x97.jpg

http://drayconstruction.com/html/slides/070507_16481.jpg

http://drayconstruction.com/html/slides/070507_16473.jpg

[ken_rychlik]

Danny, That is some very nice finish work. How do you prime and prep that mdf before painting?

Most of the kitchen and baths I am replacing are mdf that has gotten wet. Those folks are wanting somthing that will outlast what they had. I am wondering if I can seal it well enough to not allow moisture to get to it, would it work out....

[cabnet636]

ken, i wash coat 1-2 times with a reduced mixture (25% laquer to thinner) or use a laquer sealer before color and finish coats, i have doors in place 12 + years w/o any problems.

now of coarse very little will protect against a constant introduction of moisture, i have seenn many a door fail where the counter at the sink did not have enough overhang to allow water to fall to the floor vs coating the front of the sink doors.

[dray]

1.fine sand edges and routed areas
2. Lacquer
3. fine sand
4. lacquer
5. Viola!

Bar-top lacquer in a can works just fine if you are doing your own doors or just 10-15.

When I was cutting doors for other contractors I always threw a paper in the packaging telling them how to seal it before painting.

I have never used reg MDF (too heavy) I only use Ultra-lite MDF so I don't know the properties of reg MDF.

After it is sealed 2x any moisture that would expand the MDF would do the same with wood.

Lacquer sealing is really the only way to go as it evaporates quickly and seals it air tight just like a surfboard. I have always approached it as building a surfboard for some reason.

A water based sealer/primer will cause small expansions allowing moisture to get in.

If your house gets flooded the wood would expand as well and have to be replaced. I can get some shots of my 10 year old bathroom cabinets if you want. All 3 bathrooms aren't very large so a lot of steam accumulates. Both of my sons shared one bathroom from splashing in the tub to now in college and showering one after the other, never had any expanded MDF.

It's lust a matter of getting used to it.