w00d

[Railrocker 10+ year member]

paper mache or however you spell it

Only if you put candy inside of it....

 

[bdawson72 5,000+ posts]

Kinda, yea. To be quite honest, if you want to stain it, you're better off building it from MDF and then applying your veneer of choice afterwards.

reason being?

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

I think he means because of the end grain. But just use the iron on veneer tape. Its works awesome.

 

[PV Audio 5,000+ posts]

reason being?

Because if you want a veneered finish that you can stain, it is usually easier to build the enclosure then use some wood veneer and stain that instead. You're doing the same thing when you stain run of the mill ply from lowes. It has a core with a veneer top on it. Fishface is right though, you can use the strips, but it's time consuming and it looks cleaner IMO to just veneer it at the end.

 

[tEh koRnDog 5,000+ posts]

Because if you want a veneered finish that you can stain, it is usually easier to build the enclosure then use some wood veneer and stain that instead. You're doing the same thing when you stain run of the mill ply from lowes. It has a core with a veneer top on it. Fishface is right though, you can use the strips, but it's time consuming and it looks cleaner IMO to just veneer it at the end.

so the veneer isnt already stained?

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

so the veneer isnt already stained?

No, you just apply the veneer, and stain it your self.

 

[tEh koRnDog 5,000+ posts]

No, you just apply the veneer, and stain it your self.

oh awsome, i was thinking it was that stuff you can buy on partsexpress that you just stick on and it already looks stained in the color you want.

using the veneer your talking about, does it look good after its applied and staind?

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

oh awsome, i was thinking it was that stuff you can buy on partsexpress that you just stick on and it already looks stained in the color you want.
using the veneer your talking about, does it look good after its applied and staind?

You could use that too, but would look better if you stained it yourself. IMO

 

[PV Audio 5,000+ posts]

No, you just apply the veneer, and stain it your self.

Beengo. And yes, it looks good if you get REAL WOOD veneer, not the plastic shit you put on particle board.

 

[baseballer1100 5,000+ posts]

I like formica covering. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[tEh koRnDog 5,000+ posts]

Beengo. And yes, it looks good if you get REAL WOOD veneer, not the plastic shit you put on particle board.

you can get the real wood veneer at home depot?

 

[btlking 10+ year member]

how much more is birch than mdf?

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

Well over double the price.

 

[jaco 10+ year member]

i have a local farm supply store here called buchiett and they have HDF

thats great but HEAVY and $39.99 a sheet

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

So you buy the MDF and then the veneer to cover it and with that price, you could have just bought some Baltic Birch and had a lighter enclosure that was easier to build.

Birch has it's place and MDF has it's place. Some people enjoy the end grain on Birch and some people do not. Birch is much easier to work with and is much less messy than MDF. Also, if you're worried about end grain and you're serious about your builds, there are more than a few ways around that and some of them are not very difficult or expensive.

If I'm building anything for a home, I'm going to use birch. If I'm building for a car, I'll use MDF.