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MDF cabinet advice

Rezi

Rezi

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I'm going to be making a bathroom storage unit and my wife wants it painted rather than natural wood. MDF seems to be the logical choice but I've never used it before so I would like some pointers on the best choices for fixing it all together and putting the paint on.

It will look something like this but about twice the width and I'll use unpainted Oak for the top and handles and I'll put some Oak strips along the bottom to keep the MDF off the floor.

Bathroom Cabinet.jpg

Pocket hole screws seem to be the popular choice for fixings on this type of furniture but I don't have one of those jigs so I think glue and screw and then use wood filler to hide the evidence. Is that a sound idea?
I'd like to get a nice smooth finish but I don't own any spray painting gear but I might invest in some if it's easy enough. What's the best way to go with this?

Thanks in advance.

Steve
 
If you can get Moisture Resistant MDF it is worth the extra cost. Not just because it is a bathroom and damp air - MRMDF is easier to work with. The cut edges are not as fluffy and require less sealing to be able to sand them smooth.

You can make grooves in the panels and glue a shelf or whatever into the rebate. just need to give a tiny bit extra clearance and work quickly as edges wetted with adhesive will expand making the board thicker at the edges. Again much less a problem with MRMDF. I'd avoid screwing into panel edges if you can as MDF is like a stack of paper layers and likes to split if you screw into an edge.

When it comes to painting pay extra attention to cut edges. Paint/ primer will soak in to edges and you want it to - so it makes the edges solid. Main faces don't absorb so much. I have spray kit so I'd spray. I never like brush finishes but that is probably my skill with a brush. if I have to paint by hand I use a mini roller wherever I can as I get more even results.
 
I used biscuits for both a toy box and a shoe stand with multiple pigeon holes.

There are MDF primers that seal the surface before finish painting. I finished using a foam roller.
 
If you've not found Peter Millard's really useful YouTube channel yet, this would be a good time to have a look. Peter has years of experience building bespoke cabinets mostly in MDF for his West London customers and has shared loads of hints and tips in clear, well-made videos. He's a member here but probably too modest to say this himself.

https://www.youtube.com/c/PeterMillard
 
I agree with what’s been said about going for moisture resistant, dominos, dowels & biscuits work really well also consider iron on paintable edge banding it gives an easy excellent finished edge.
I don’t do a lot of painting most of the stuff I do being oiled but a foam roller does give an excellent finish with gloss type paints if you’ve not got spraying equipment, I recently did these with a foam roller to match an existing kitchen & the customer was extremely pleased

C7296A5A-E9DD-4E8F-B075-A89BCC7DBF62.jpeg
 
Robert":14ads6w0 said:
If you can get Moisture Resistant MDF it is worth the extra cost. Not just because it is a bathroom and damp air - MRMDF is easier to work with. The cut edges are not as fluffy and require less sealing to be able to sand them smooth.

You can make grooves in the panels and glue a shelf or whatever into the rebate. just need to give a tiny bit extra clearance and work quickly as edges wetted with adhesive will expand making the board thicker at the edges. Again much less a problem with MRMDF. I'd avoid screwing into panel edges if you can as MDF is like a stack of paper layers and likes to split if you screw into an edge.

When it comes to painting pay extra attention to cut edges. Paint/ primer will soak in to edges and you want it to - so it makes the edges solid. Main faces don't absorb so much. I have spray kit so I'd spray. I never like brush finishes but that is probably my skill with a brush. if I have to paint by hand I use a mini roller wherever I can as I get more even results.
Click to expand...

Not used a great deal of it and I agree with everything you say but I did experiment, and successfully screwed into the edges, a narrow gauge screw, longer ones will give more grip as you need to clearance drill each hole so that just the threads grip, I was really quite surprised at how much torque I could use, way more than was required to build with. Ian
 
Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely look for the moisture resistant MDF. I don't have a biscuit or domino maker but I can go with dowels for alignment.
I have watched a few of Pete Millards videos and he uses glue and screws into the ends of the panels and he also paints with a foam roller which looks like the way to go for me.
 
Have you considered making it in tulip wood with MRMDF panels.
Tulip wood is nice to work with and gives as flat a finish as MDF.

If you do go the MRMDF route, pre drill end grain before screwing, and use the type of screw that cuts its way in.

Sent from my Redmi Note 9S using Tapatalk
 
I bought the cheapest kreg pocket hole jig and a load of washers to go on normal wood screws for just this sort of project. it was cheaper than the MDF sheet, it meant there were no holes on the outside to have to fill (I did fill the pockets with dowels and sweep of filler, but they were already hidden so it didn't really matter).
I also got 50m of iron on paintable edge banding for a different project but it's great for this, perfect square edges that paint with easy and no rolled over edges from sanding.
 
OK, here's a different slant. Last Friday evening on our "date night" my wife made me go to IKEA at Lakeside. For much of the basic cabinet stuff they sell (ie if I ignore proper joinery and solid woods) I doubt I could even buy the sheet materials of decent quality for what they charge for a complete, fully finished drawer unit.

Take a look. You may be surprised.
 
AJB Temple":ikkzulba said:
OK, here's a different slant. Last Friday evening on our "date night" my wife made me go to IKEA at Lakeside. For much of the basic cabinet stuff they sell (ie if I ignore proper joinery and solid woods) I doubt I could even buy the sheet materials of decent quality for what they charge for a complete, fully finished drawer unit.

Take a look. You may be surprised.
Click to expand...

Actually, the picture I nicked off the internet is from an Amazon listing which I could buy for less than 70 euros! Unfortunately, it was also Amazon in Germany and the postage was almost the same amount and I would need 2 of them but I take your point. There's an IKEA in Budapest so I'll have a look on their website and see if they have something similar that I could adapt.

Edit: I just had a look on the IKEA website and I found 2 units around the right size, one was over £100 and looked very cheap and nasty and the other was £175 and looked OK but I think I can build it myself for less than that.
 
There's a whole world of "Ikea hacks" by people who have discovered that you can indeed get a good start on all sorts of projects by buying one of their products as a source.

https://ikeahackers.net/
 
I suggest building it of a softwood panelled construction, with the MDF forming the panelling. That way you don't have to worry about painting the edges of the MDF, nor jointing the stuff. You can make a nice strong solid piece of furniture in the traditional way, but keep the cost down with some cheap panels.
 
AndyT":nblpd12i said:
https://www.youtube.com/c/PeterMillard
Click to expand...

Absolutely this ^^^^ Peter has some excellent videos covering this sort of thing that he did fro his own one man band business. He's also had a ver nice poor man's domino jig cnc'd up to join panels like the ones in your picture, using dominos. You could use dowels I suppose, but the jig seems to make the process idiot proof - Although I haven't got one, so we can't really prove that point.
 
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