Best wood for building the cab?

[tallguy6819]

I've seen alot of things saying mdf is the way to go but is there any other choices that would work well cause mdf is pretty friggin expensive? have yall used anything else that has worked well for you? Thanks.

[rocktofakie]

Hi, where you from? MDF sounds german. I bought one big mdf-panel for something about 60 € and build my whole cab with it. Chipboard would be the cheaper wood, but I would prefer the MDF.


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[tallguy6819]

I'm in the US. MDF here ranges from $35 to $45 depending on where you go. I need about 3 sheets for my build so I was hoping some people had good results with different plywood. 

[rocktofakie]

Ah, okay but the price sounds okay for a cab. At first I thought about buying multiplex but that was to expensive. MDF is cheaper and easy to work with. What about chipwood, that'll be the cheapest you can get.


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[Snakerake]

 

 

MDF is probably the cheapest you can get that will be acceptable. Chipboard or OSB, which is what most people associate with chipboard is not meant to be load bearing. Its meant to sheath homes in low stress applications. Screws will eventually rip out of it, and you wont have much luck with glue.  

 

 

 

There is a product I've used before that resembles a cross between OSB and MDF that you will see as the core of prefab shelving.  I think it may be LDF technically, You could use it, but its very unforgiving when cutting shapes in. the edges can crumble easily if your tools aren't sharp or you drop a piece while assembling.  Alot of old cabs were built from it, but in a factory environment.

 

 

 

You could try a low grade pine plywood, but its gonna have a rough surface that I doubt you will be happy with the finished look after all the work you put into it.

 

 

 

You are gonna spend alot of time to put the cabinet together, I wouldn't cheap out on the materials.  Alternately, watch craigslist for a month or two,  (use a saved search to email you results daily) you'll be surprised how many cheap cabinets you could come across on there that could be converted for cheaper than building.