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Rant: I gave up on prefinished ply for shop cabinets and went back to sanding bare wood
I built maybe 30 shop cabinets over the past 3 years using prefinished birch ply, mostly for my own shop and a few for a guy in Toledo who wanted cheap storage. The draw was obvious, no finishing, just cut and screw. But I kept running into the same junk, chipped edges at every crosscut, that waxy coating that glue won't bite on, and shelf pin holes that looked like a dog chewed them. Last spring I got tired of it and switched to plain 3/4 birch and MDF core, and now I sand to 180, hit the edges with a 1/4 inch roundover, and roll on two coats of oil based poly. It adds maybe 6 hours of work per run of cabinets but the finish is tougher and I can touch up a scratch with a rag instead of replacing a whole panel. The prefinished stuff also dulled my blades way faster, I sent two Freud blades out for sharpening in one season. Anyone else here bailed on prefinished for shop or utility stuff, or am I just making extra work for myself?
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gibson.avery27d ago
Switched to plain ply and MDF core about two years ago for the same reasons. The waxy coating drove me nuts, nothing stuck to it without scuffing first, and by then you've already lost the time you saved. I do a 1/4 roundover on edges and two coats of wipe on poly, takes me about 4 hours a run but touching up a scratch is a 30 second job now. Blade life alone made it worth it for me.
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