Visited a custom shop in Portland and changed my mind about using prefinished plywood

I walked into Anderson Custom Cabinets last Tuesday to pick up hardware and saw their finishing room. They had a spray booth setup and the guy showed me how they sand and seal every face frame by hand. The finished pieces had zero edge banding issues and the color match was perfect across all panels. I always thought prefinished was faster and good enough but seeing that $60 per sheet premium for raw plywood actually pays off if you know what you're doing. Has anyone else had a moment where seeing a pro's process made you switch materials?

2 comments

2 Comments

tara6421mo ago

Pulled me right out of my comfort zone too. I used to swear by prefinished plywood for everything because it saved time and looked clean off the rack. But watching a pro spray a conversion varnish in a proper booth changed my mind completely. The depth of the finish and how it held up to a quick scratch test was night and day compared to that melamine like coating on prefinished stuff. Now I still use prefinished for quick jobs where the client doesn't care, but for anything custom I pay the extra for raw and let a finisher do their thing. That $60 a sheet stings at first, but it beats having to redo a whole kitchen because the edge banding peeled or the color didn't match.

jade5171mo ago

Drove past Anderson's last month and honestly thought they were just upcharging for the name. Saw a video they posted of a guy leveling a full pantry cabinet in a spray booth and it clicked for me too. @tara642 is spot on about the edge banding thing. I had a whole job where prefinished maple panels had a quarter inch color shift between two batches and I had to scrap it. Watching a pro sand and seal raw plywood makes you realize that $60 extra is insurance against that nightmare.