Wood for cope and stick cupboard door.

[promhandicam]

Hi. Not being used to British timbers I'd be interested to know what you'd recommend to use for the rails and stiles of some cupboard doors that I intend making. They will be painted, and the centre panel will be MR MDF. Someone I met a couple of weeks ago recommended Tulip wood but Champions which are the closest timber merchants to me don't stock it.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[engineerone]

why not use mr mdf for the rails steve, that is if you are going to paint them.

paul

[jfc]

As you are around my neck of the woods our local timber yards stock red and white wood . I would go for the redwood but if you want best red wood then you will have to order it . Most if not all of champions timber comes from timbmet and they have been sending out some real crap redwood lately if alsfords stock is anything to go by . Alsfords also buy from timbmet . Hansons near me also buy there so i guess i have looked through 3/4 of a arctic load of redwood thats crap . Lets hope this weeks stock is better

[mrgrimsdale]

I wouldn't buy from Hansons because jfc will have been there before you and taken the best bits
It's a serious point - I don't buy from yards where they let you sort as you don't know who has been there before - you are sorting through their rejects. Instead I order by phone (saves days of work) and order by grade.
If it's for painted internal joinery almost anything will do. I'd go for unsorted redwood ("unsorted" is the best grade, followed by 4ths, 5 ths etc) because although a bit more expensive it's nicer to use and there is less wastage. I wouldn't use mdf for the panels, or anything for that matter.

cheers
Jacob

[jfc]

I must say that Hansons dont let everyone sort through the timber .


Oh and i would use MDF for the whole thing ;D

[promhandicam]

So in the red corner we have:

Sept 3, 2008 6:10:52 GMT mrgrimsdale said:

I wouldn't use mdf for the panels, or anything for that matter.

and in the blue corner:

Sept 3, 2008 6:20:06 GMT jfc said:

Oh and i would use MDF for the whole thing ;D

Thanks guys!

As SL Hardwoods isn't too far - from what I have heard are fairly good - I'll maybe have a look at what they have next time I'm over in that direction. I'll also have a play with making a whole door out of MDF - sorry Jacob .

Steve

[jasonb]

SLH don't keep much tulip in stock, maybe a bit of 25mm PAR and a few rocking horse blanks.

I get a fair bit of hardwood from them but always get them to order it in for me as I'm not too keen on their storage conditions.

Jason

Another vote for all in MDF, 18mm if they are lay-on doors 22mm for inset with butt hinges and 9mm panels with the 22mm. maybe JFC & Me could be a tag team

[jfc]

I found this page about curved cope and stick work for anyone interested .



www.jeffgreefwoodworking.com/pnc/curvecope/index.html