Anyone make their own furniture? MDF question.

[Greetings]

I need to make some furniture. Will be using MDF because it's cheap and strong.

My initial plan was to have white boards cut and edged before I start drilling and assembling the furniture but I'm worried that this will not result in an adequate finish. The boards tend to chip on the edges which doesn't look too good, obviously.

So after reading a bit I found that there could be another option but need confirmation. I could use plain MDF boards, assemble the furniture then impregnate and paint it. Will this give me tough, slightly textured finish comparable to a pre-painted board? I could then edge it if needed.

[AndrewEH1]

I can't really answer your question in regards to paint...but make sure you wear a suitable mask when cutting boards. MDF dust can be hazardous depending on what type of board you buy.

[forteh]

I'm presuming you mean melamine faced chip board (MFCB) rather than medium density fibre board (MDF)?

I've used both for a building bits and pieces around the house, desks, shelves, vivariums etc.

With MFCB when you cut the board you invariably end up splintering the melamine face but you can minimise the problem by using an upward cutting jigsaw blade and taping each cut with a good quality masking tape. You might find that a circular saw might give better results with the right sort of blade but in general it will splinter on one side only - you can design the piece around this in order to hide the splintered edge. Once you have finished the cut edge you then need to face it with a laminate strip to hide the chip board; it comes in a roll with heat activated adhesive, tape it into position, cover with a cloth and use an iron to get it hot and apply pressure. In my experience the rolls only come in 25mm wide so if you're using thinner material you then need to trim the excess with a sharp knife and sand a nice smooth chamfer. It also never looks quite as good as the original faced edge although with practise you can get pretty nice results.

MDF is a lot easier to work with, it's lighter, cuts better and is very easy to get a good final finish before painting. I have found when painting it you need to seal the cut edges otherwise it just absorps the paint and takes forever to get a decent covering.

My personal preference is to use neither and use proper wood, the texture of the finished item is much nicer and with reasonable tooling can get very nicely finished bits of furniture. Most of the furniture I have built has been in pine, the list to date is as follows: -

Built in floor to ceiling triple wardrobe in our bedroom.

Wardrobe/desk/cupboard/shelving unit Lilys room.

Clothes rail/dressing up/toy storage box and 12 linear foot bookcase in Reubens room.

24 and 18 linear foot bookcases on the landing.

I built all the wooden vivariums for the snakes (and have previously made 10+ gecko vivariums) from MFCB and whilst I'm reasonably proficient with it I still prefer proper wood.

Edited July 22, 2015 by forteh

[manuel]

Ply all the way over mdf or chipboard for furniture things.

[Greetings]

My bad, not MDF. It's similar to the stuff below but it's very fine throughout and about twice the price.

I don't like wooden furniture. It's too loud if that makes any sense. Feels hard. Will look into plywood, missed that !

Thanks for the info forteh, is there anything you haven't done?

[bing]

That looks like 28mm worktop chipboard, left side is moisture resistant, right is standard p2 chipboard

[jack1987]

Score the line you are going to cut with a stanly knife helps to stop the edge from chipping. I agree with Manuel about the plywood much stronger and will last longer than chipboard plus gives a much better finish.

Edited July 23, 2015 by jack1987

[forteh]

My bad, not MDF. It's similar to the stuff below but it's very fine throughout and about twice the price.

......

I don't like wooden furniture. It's too loud if that makes any sense. Feels hard. Will look into plywood, missed that !

Thanks for the info forteh, is there anything you haven't done?

I would go for mdf or ply over any chipboard, the only reason I've used MFCB in the past is because it works perfectly for vivariums - waterproof (assuming you seal the corners properly), easily cleaned and doesn't harbour moulds like real wood can.

Fair shout on the tactile feel of wooden furniture, it's all down to personal opinion at the end of the day.

There's lots I haven't done, learning to ride a trials bike with any sort of power is one of them

I do enjoy turning my hand to and learning anything though, for me a day when I haven't learned something new is a boring day