Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am trying to find this particular cabinet door material. It is commonly found on older, plain style cabinets. The one pictured, I painted myself. I remember that it appeared to be a solid piece of wood, not laminated and not plywood-Although I could be wrong because it is very straight and doesn't warp. It is approx 3/8" thick.

Can I get this material anywhere?

The material is not MDF is it? We used to have some cabinet doors that were made from the stuff, heavy but smooth and "warpless" with a very fine grain. If so, Lowe's carries it.

If you are talking about the wood doors in really old houses, some of that was actual wood boards, joined, like a really good table top, not plywood or MDF or plywood veneer or whatever. They don't make 'em like that anymore. I would think that you could do something similar with dry, flat plywood. Once you get several layers of primer and glossy paint on them, I doubt most people would know the difference.

As a child, I lived in a house that was over 100 years old and, before my dad remodeled it, it still had the original cabinets in it. Also, my personal first home, which would now be about 90 years old, had cabinets like that. I sanded some of those cabinet doors down to the wood. (Until a splinter went into a joint in my finger so far that I had to have minor surgery to remove it!)

Maybe remove a screw? It could be made out of anything.

But MDF would work. Just don't chip it and get it wet or near humidity or it will swell up like crazy.

You would be better off with birch plywood, but probably not from Lowes. I just bought some from Home Depot and its crap luckily I could get it to work.

Seal the end grain and putty it like crazy and sand and sand some more. Prime and sand again.

For a final coats use a sponge roller and some floetrol mixed in if its latex. It will give you a very smooth finish.

S. Heisley wrote:If you are talking about the wood doors in really old houses, some of that was actual wood boards, joined, like a really good table top, not plywood or MDF or plywood veneer or whatever. They don't make 'em like that anymore. I would think that you could do something similar with dry, flat plywood. Once you get several layers of primer and glossy paint on them, I doubt most people would know the difference.

Thanks, I think you are right. They had a grain. Definitely not MDF. It wasn't around when these were made. I own a rental house that is 100 years old and it also has these style doors.

Lowes has a similar product made of joined solid wood pieces but it only comes in 3/4" thickness. A good quality birch plywood would probably work, It's just hard to get.

These doors are actually for a cabinet that I made for my bathroom. I wanted the older style to fit the decor.

Get some wood and find someone with a planer. A lot of home shops have them. It takes about 15 min to take it down to 3/8 inch from 3/4 and leaves a smooth finish. Most home shop planers though will only plane 12" wide so hopefully your door is that size or less.

I picked up several large doors just like that at the habitat restore.
Most of these are 3/8" glue joined poplar.

( Just a note old wood ironing boards are also thicker poplar.)

Many of the salvage building material stores get very nice old outdated cabinets and offer them for resale for very reasonable prices.

Many folks are looking for these treasures for garage storage. If you are needing smaller doors you should be able to remanafacture the sizes you want out of larger salvaged door panels.

deceiver wrote:Get some wood and find someone with a planer. A lot of home shops have them. It takes about 15 min to take it down to 3/8 inch from 3/4 and leaves a smooth finish. Most home shop planers though will only plane 12" wide so hopefully your door is that size or less.

My doors need to be about 14" x 20". I am thinking of hitting the local building supply reseller too see if they have some junk cabinets that I can salvage the doors from. Last time I was there they had several old ones with the same style doors.

Bob, looks like we posted at the same time. Great minds think alike.

Just made a trip to the local habitat restore and picked up 4 cabinet doors for $10.

As I mentioned they are going on a bathroom cabinet in my home but I will probably do the same thing for my tear galley cabinets. The overlay style doors seem to be a good choice for a novice like myself.

On close inspection they appear to be a high quality plywood. One of the employees told me these old cabinet doors are made of something called "sandlewood".

I'm not sure you're going to be happy using a door like that in a camper.
remember, temps and humidity are gonna fluctuate a LOT more in your camper than would ever occur in a house.

MDF would be my choice because of dimensional stability. A joined door like that is going to move and possibly warp over the first few years.

I did up all the doors/ drawers in the Nomad with 3/8" baltic birch. It takes paint great, stays flat, no voids. Usually you won't find it at the big box stores...more likely in a good lumber yard type setting. You will probably have a tough time finding solid materials that wide, but you could glue them up...more work however. Doug

You can find edge glued pine panels at jumber yards and box stores. Depending on what you want for doors, you might need to run them through a thickness planer. It would be cheaper to buy boards of the wood you want then glue up your own panels. If you plan on painting, The birch ply or MDF that others mentioned would be my choice.

Bill