Faceframe material for paint-grade project

tim Rowledge

Member
Messages
103
Location
Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island
I usually use Fir or Maple for stain finished pieces but I need to make a bunch of paint-finish kitchen cabinets for our new house. I find myself wondering what wood is a sensible option for the face frame and other places. I know that on the east coast you'd likely go for Poplar but I live on the west and don't see a lot of it about here on Vancouver Island.

What do you west coast folks use?
 
Cherry, soft maple, maple, birch, alder.

Basically anything with a closed grain. Oak or hickory don't paint up so well, unless thats the look you're going for.

I kind preffer birch because it machines so easily, but I've been using mostly soft maple on paintgrade stuff just because of cost. I just had 517bd/ft delivered today at $1.60 bd/ft. Its cheap enough you can cut around just about anything and not have too many worries about the cost of waste.

I've been told that something in birch will leach through the paint. I've never seen it though, and it could all be heresy and lies. Or perhaps dependent on the type of paint used.
 
If you can find a local sawmill, Soft (or Big Leaf) Maple would be a good choice considering workability, cost and ability to take a finish. That said, I'm also sure any decent lumber yard/hardwood dealer will carry poplar as well. It does grow it on the west coast. However, it's usually in a plantation rather than growing wild.
 
I usually use Fir or Maple for stain finished pieces but I need to make a bunch of paint-finish kitchen cabinets for our new house. I find myself wondering what wood is a sensible option for the face frame and other places. I know that on the east coast you'd likely go for Poplar but I live on the west and don't see a lot of it about here on Vancouver Island.

What do you west coast folks use?

Basically your in the Pacific North West & we have Alder growing like weeds around here it's local & works fine.
 
Hmm, Alder eh? I may even have a few bits of that in my rack to play with and see if I like it.

The only place I've seen Poplar recently was in "The Finishing Store" in Nanaimo and it was a touch expensive seeming (around $6-7/bd.ft) Maple seems to run around double that! Err, this is all S4S stuff unfortunately since I'm without my Minimax CU300 for now because, well, we're building the house and there isn't a workshop yet.
 
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