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Wrote off prefinished ply for 6 years, then a shop tour in Grand Rapids flipped me
I always figured prefinished maple ply was for guys cranking out cheap boxes, so I kept spraying my own lacquer on bare 3/4 stock even when a kitchen run hit 40 doors. Last month a guy in Grand Rapids walked me through his setup and showed me how he crosscuts a full sheet with blue tape on the cut line and gets zero chipout, plus no sanding, no booth time, no dry time, and he was finishing cabinets in half the days I was. Am I giving up too much on grain match and edge banding, or is it time to make the switch?
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the_sarah9h ago
Six years of spraying lacquer on bare stock and I'm over here still sanding between coats like a chump while this guy in Grand Rapids is done and drinking a beer by noon. The blue tape trick on the crosscut is the part that gets me, because I've wrecked more than a few sheets trying to beat chipout with a zero clearance insert and still got tearout on the good face. As for grain match, yeah you lose a little control on bookmatched doors, but how many kitchens actually get a close look at that once the boxes are hung and the doors are shut. Edge banding is the real tradeoff in my book, because iron on stuff still looks like iron on stuff if you get close, but a sharp flush trim and a light scrape hides most of it. Half the days is half the days, and I don't care how good your spray work is if the job ships three weeks late.
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