artificial wood laminate vs. real wood

[Keith O]

I'm considering building a new cab and I like the look of the natural wood cabinets that some are building. Should I build the cab out of cheap particle board and then use artificial wood laminate to cover the thing or should I use plywood (or something similar) and stain/finish it. I'm leaning more towards the laminate because there are more choices as far as the types of wood simulated in addition to it's toughness, but I'm curious to hear what you all would recommend.

[Wienerdog]

IMHO, wood laminate would look cheap, while an oak or birch plywood would look well crafted.  Well, it depends on what kind of wood laminate you use.  There is real wood laminate, but I think that would be more expensive and more trouble, and it would essentially give you the same thing that hardwood plywood does.

[Keith O]

Here's one of the samples I got at Home Depot. It's special order stuff but they had quite a selection of wood types. What do you think?

[SNAAAKE]

I honesty like wood laminate..looks VERY nice easy solution..take a look.

[Brax]

IMO Snaakes doesn't look any different than that stick on woodgrain shelf paper junk. Only his was expensive laminate. That said, I think there are some really nice laminates out there though.

Your sample looks quite nice. You could even try plywood with a nice real wood veneer. Some people are intimidated by finishing the wood but it's really foolproof. You can do the whole finish with a rag. Wipe on the stain with a rag. Let it dry, then get an antique oil finish (or any oil finish) and just rub it on with a rag as well... no streaks, no brush marks and a really professional finish.

[rhd]

Is it really cheaper to go with the laminate? I used a combination of 3/4" oak plywood for the sides and black laminated 1/2" plywood for the cross pieces. The black formica laminate was around $40 for a 4' by 8' sheet and the oak plywood was about the same price.

The other factor to consider is weight. MDF is a lot heavier than plywood and can also absorb moisture.  On the flip side, MDF is easier to work with than plywood.

Rob

[ItzMR2u]

I had a regular partical board cab, but I also wanted the real wood look of oak so instead of building an all oak machine or using laminate which I also think looks cheap I covered the machine with a 1/8" think real oak veneer that Home Depot sells.  They use this type of stuff on kitchen remodels, it's easy to work with and when stained you can't tell it's not solid oak.

[Wienerdog]

I had a regular partical board cab, but I also wanted the real wood look of oak so instead of building an all oak machine or using laminate which I also think looks cheap I covered the machine with a 1/8" think real oak veneer that Home Depot sells.  They use this type of stuff on kitchen remodels, it's easy to work with and when stained you can't tell it's not solid oak.

That was a good solution.  What you really did was made your own oak plywood (your's was a little better than the 3/4" 4x8 sheets you can buy at HD).  That is what I was getting at in my earlier post.  Ultimately, this is a more expensive solution and more work than using oak plywood in the beginning, but your cab was already built so you didn't really have a choice..  With the right T-Molding, there would be no way to tell that you did this.  

[ItzMR2u]

Yeah the t-molding was the only difficult part if you want to call it that.  Since the groove for the molding was already cut in the 3/4 in PB, when I added the 1/8" veneer the t-molding didn't cover it.  What I did was buy 1.50" molding and a 2-sided t-molding cutter.  I installed the t-molding, used the 2-sided cutter to trim it to an exact fit and presto perfect 7/8" inch molding!  

[neuromancer]

Fake anything sucks.

If you're going to do laminate, then laminate it with something that takes advantage of the properties of laminate and screams "I am laminate". *RED* or *GREEN* or something.

If you want wood, then get wood.

Woode. There is no substitute.

;-)

Bob