Wood Recommendation Request

Rick_B

Rick
Corporate Member
Good morning folks - I have a poroject coming up to build a dining room hutch (bottom cabinet and upper shelves). The designer (LOML) wants it mostly painted so I'm looking for suggestions for a wood species to use that would be good for painting. This will be brush painted as I have no equipment or experience with spraying.

Thanks
Rick
 

Rwe2156

DrBob
Senior User
Plywood for cabinet. Sandeply and birch paint well.
Soft maple for face frames, door frames, maybe shelves.

Define what "mostly painted" means, and maybe provide a sketch.
 

Rick_B

Rick
Corporate Member
Plywood for cabinet. Sandeply and birch paint well.
Soft maple for face frames, door frames, maybe shelves.

Define what "mostly painted" means, and maybe provide a sketch.
Thanks for the opinions so far. Sorry no sketch available - still in the "what does she want" stage. :) It will be fully painted except forthe lower cabinet top

Riock
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Soft maple or Poplar both paint nicely. You can seal it with thinned downed shellac (1lb cut) which will make the paint laydown nicely, or not depends on the quality/consistency of the wood you get.
 

wbarnes

Will
Corporate Member
I would use soft maple if able. Poplar would be a second option if you can’t find soft maple locally.

I would also consider investing in a cheap spray system. Even without any experience you would be able to apply a much nicer looking finish with a <$200 Wagner Flexio sprayer from a box store. No compressor required. Just my opinion.
 

Melinapex

Mark
Corporate Member
What Berta said. I always use poplar for painted projects.....plus I just cannot bring myself to put paint on maple.....
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
If you don’t take Phil’s kind offer, just a note.

The industry standard here in the US for painted cabinets is Soft Maple, which is harvested either from Red Maple or Big Leaf Maple trees. Hard Maple is from the Sugar Maple tree.

Following conventional wisdom, I have used Soft Maple for all my cabinetry work, however my last lumber purchase my supplier was out of stock. So I took Natural Hard Maple instead, the natural meaning it included some brown figure in the lumber. I found it works easier, much less prone to tear out on the jointer and shaper and paints just as well. The price difference was about 5% more expensive for the Hard Maple.

All that said, our imported lines of cabinets from Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia are all made from Birch and sadly I have to report that especially for painted cabinets right now, the quality of the imports far exceed what we get from the major US manufacturers.
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
If you don’t take Phil’s kind offer, just a note.

The industry standard here in the US for painted cabinets is Soft Maple, which is harvested either from Red Maple or Big Leaf Maple trees. Hard Maple is from the Sugar Maple tree.

Following conventional wisdom, I have used Soft Maple for all my cabinetry work, however my last lumber purchase my supplier was out of stock. So I took Natural Hard Maple instead, the natural meaning it included some brown figure in the lumber. I found it works easier, much less prone to tear out on the jointer and shaper and paints just as well. The price difference was about 5% more expensive for the Hard Maple.

All that said, our imported lines of cabinets from Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia are all made from Birch and sadly I have to report that especially for painted cabinets right now, the quality of the imports far exceed what we get from the major US manufacturers.
Willem, have you found the rock maple to be more prone to stability issues?
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Willem, have you found the rock maple to be more prone to stability issues?
No, I have done a lot of furniture building and wood turning with Hard Maple in the past, one of my favorites if it is natural, which includes the brown streaks with the white. Machines really well and is stable.

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chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
No, I have done a lot of furniture building and wood turning with Hard Maple in the past, one of my favorites if it is natural, which includes the brown streaks with the white. Machines really well and is stable.
I dont mean over time. I mean when initially working with it, it can be nightmarish to rip sometimes. I agree, there is no finer wood to turn!. Im in the process of building a dining room table out of it.
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
I dont mean over time. I mean when initially working with it, it can be nightmarish to rip sometimes. I agree, there is no finer wood to turn!. Im in the process of building a dining room table out of it.
No, I have not experienced any issues with Hard Maple. Ripping on a table saw it behaves pretty much the same as Cherry or Soft Maple. That said, my table saw has plenty hp, and my fence is always toed out a bit.
 

Bugle

Preston
Corporate Member
Good morning folks - I have a poroject coming up to build a dining room hutch (bottom cabinet and upper shelves). The designer (LOML) wants it mostly painted so I'm looking for suggestions for a wood species to use that would be good for painting. This will be brush painted as I have no equipment or experience with spraying.

Thanks
Rick

Good advice on wood choices. For painting, I would use a velour roller. I've refinished several bathroom cabinets and am very pleased with smooth finish. I used Benjamin Moore Advance paint.
 

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