Stainable MDF? The Customer of the Day [View All]

[jmowreader]

Oh god. Not another one.

Yes, my DU friends, I bring to you another candidate for retail immortality.

This particular troubled soul presented with a need for "A-C" plywood to make a cabinet. If you want the whole Softwood Plywood Veneer Grade five-minute block of instruction, please reply...all ye really need to know is that A-C is very nice, and it's very nonexistent in the South because Georgia-Pacific plays games with the APA ratings. (G-P uses veneer that rightly should be called A on their B-C plywood, and just doesn't sand it quite so smooth. You can get them to make you A-C plywood, but it's special order, minimum 10 bunks of any one thickness.)

Naturally, I told the guy we didn't have any A-C but I had all the B-C he wanted. "Well, then I guess I'll just have to settle for MDF." Medium-density fiberboard is made from sawdust and glue pressed together under tremendous force--enough force to squeeze a foot-deep pile of sawdust into a quarter-inch sheet. MDF has the fine grain and beauty of a cardboard box.

I showed him a sheet of B-C, he liked it, he decided to get it. I picked up a sheet that had a repaired knot in it and the guy kicked it. "That won't stain very well, will it?"

I asked the man if he was planning on staining the MDF. "Yes, of course. Why couldn't I?"

Did you know you can bend the cantilever racking in a Home Depot by beating your head against it?