Birch or MDF?

[Ledoux289 10+ year member]

HD has 11ply for around $48 a sheet if that's where you're looking...

I'll have to check into that. I was at their competitor's place.

 

[Racerx250 10+ year member]

I believe fisher uses trupan....I believe I read that on his site. Don't know if it means anything to you but i'm just throwing it out there.

 

[ughhibye 10+ year member]

Birch is better for some reasons, its lighter, looks better and doesnt contain formaldehyde. I have used Birch in many boxes, and if you are worried about strength use fiberglass resin to coat inside of box and seals.

resin by itself does not add strength

 

[gunz4me 10+ year member]

13 Ply Baltic! Just wait until you see the price though

I am actually planning on building my dd1508 enclosure out of 13 Ply Baltic, but first I am going to build one out of MDF, just to make sure it sounds OK. I would hate to carve up a $65 sheet of Baltic only to find that my wild idea sounds like complete garbage!

 

[Ledoux289 10+ year member]

I didn't get it done today. Big fail for me. I finished getting my supplies together and went to Lowe's to buy some birch. I don't have a truck so I needed them 2 make 2 cuts for me. He started the first cut and it was like snaggle teeth going through that wood. I'm not buying wood that is torn up like that. He said to come back tomorrow when someone in the lumber dept has had a chance to change out the blade. I'll probably wait till next Saturday now to get started on it. Lame!

 

[nathanh 10+ year member]

birch will be stronger and lighter, but are you really looking for either of those features? the amount of pressure needed to break a 2 foot section of medium density is way more than your going to give it. exspecially reinforced on all 4 sides. plus a mid spanner (port). lighter yes. if you want to make the lightest box possible... 1/4 birch and fiberglass.

paintablilty, mdf. you can't argue with that. mdf is 1000 times better for paint quality. 45 the joints, sand it down with some 100 grit random orbital... it will be glossy like a mirror.

birch has hard spots and soft spots like any wood. where there will be ridges from the soft spots compressing and the wood grain portruding. when you go to paint that your going to see the grain through the paint. there is no way to get rid of that, unless you run poppler... which you cant.

so you want a lighter box?

or a better painted box?

 

[nathanh 10+ year member]

birch will be stronger and lighter, but are you really looking for either of those features? the amount of pressure needed to break a 2 foot section of medium density is way more than your going to give it. exspecially reinforced on all 4 sides. plus a mid spanner (port). lighter yes. if you want to make the lightest box possible... 1/4 birch and fiberglass.

paintablilty, mdf. you can't argue with that. mdf is 1000 times better for paint quality. 45 the joints, sand it down with some 100 grit random orbital... it will be glossy like a mirror.

birch has hard spots and soft spots like any wood. where there will be ridges from the soft spots compressing and the wood grain portruding. when you go to paint that your going to see the grain through the paint. there is no way to get rid of that, unless you run poppler... which you cant.

so you want a lighter box?

or a better painted box?

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

If its not 13 ply, dont use it. Baltic Birch is what you want to use. Regular birch plywood is nothing more than a soft void filled core with Birch veneer on it. Baltic Birch is solid and void free. Its very pricey though.

 

[Ledoux289 10+ year member]

If its not 13 ply, dont use it. Baltic Birch is what you want to use. Regular birch plywood is nothing more than a soft void filled core with Birch veneer on it. Baltic Birch is solid and void free. Its very pricey though.

After hearing alot of these ideas I think I'm sticking with MDF. $25.00 should take care of me. Spending 3 times that for nothing more than to say it's birch and not MDF isn't worth it to me on my budget. Maybe down the road on my next box I'll do something a little more pretty. But for now I'm just going MDF. I'll be at the store Friday night picking up my wood and ready to go first thing Saturday morning. I'm hoping to do the complete build over the x-mas holiday. Thanks for everyone's input!

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

lmao."Most people" would be ignorant and band-wagoners.

As opposed to you who is only one of those...

Birch is lighter, just as dense, but harder to work with and thus more expensive.

Does that sentence make a bit of sense to you? Really?

People use MDF because it's medium weight (it's actually pretty heavy. But, not terribly heavy), it's dense,a nd it's cheap. ***** is dense, light, but expensive.

People use MDF because it's cheap and non resonant. That's it. The fact that it's easy to shape and finish is secondary.