gary watson wrote in message ...
Evening folks,
I'm building some fitted wardrobes in some alcoves in a bedroom in my
house and having nearly finished the exterior carcasses and internal
shelves etc I can no longer ignore the perplexing question of making
the doors (perhaps I should have thought about this up front before I
started .... but anyway....)
I am considering using MDF for the doors since (a) it's cheap and (b)
it's easy to work with (allegedly).
Firstly, I have heard that there are available certain brands of MDF
that are free from urea formaldehyde - does anyone know of any brand
names and/or stockists of such MDF in the UK and how does its price
compare with ordinary MDF. Alternatively, I have "heard" that a good
few coats of oil based paint (on top of primer/base coats naturally)
will seal ordinary MDF to render it "safe(r)". Quite how much it
seals the wood is another question but I guess "common sense" would
suggest that it may arrest the rate at which any nasty gases leach
into the atmosphere - but by how much and how safe is probably
anyone's guess. Does anyone else have any suggestions and or advice
that I can add to my existing stock of conflicting opinions and
general confusion ?
Secondly, concerning the actual construction of the doors themselves,
the doors are to fit a gap approximately 60" wide and 70" high so I
was contemplating making a pair of bi-folding doors comprising four
"half" doors approx. 15" wide per half-door. I want to give them a
framed and panelled appearance - just simple square edged frames - no
fancy mouldings - so rather than buy square section wood mouldings I
was considering using 6mm MDF sawn into long strips say 2"-3" wide and
then gluing these to the main door panels which would themselves be
12mm MDF (Apologies for mixing metric and Imperial units). My
questions concerning the door construction are :-
(1) Gluing the false frames to the panels :- does MDF-MDF glue well
face side to face side ? Is ordinary wood glue suitable for this task
?
(2) Hinges:- I will be using ordinary hinges screwed into the edges of
the doors and to the wardrobe door frame. I have heard that MDF does
not take screws too well - does anyone have any advice for how to
obtain a good secure fixing ? Even 12mm MDF seems to be very heavy
stuff and I am concerned that the screw size permitted by the hole
size of the hinges may not be up to the job. I am precluded from using
"Blum" type hinges since the front of the wardrobe consists of a flat
outer frame of 3"x1" (nominal size) inside which the doors will be
hung - thus the door edges need to be hinged to the inside vertical
edges of this frame - as opposed to kitchen cupboard type construction
where the side of the carcass is at 90 degrees to the door face and
allows the "blum" type hinges to be used (I hope you see what I mean -
I guess a diagram would help - but an ASCII diagram would probably
just look incomprehensible).
(2a) Is 12mm MDF thick enough to take screws of a reasonable enough
size to support the weight of two 15" wide by 70" high doors.
I hope I have described my problem in a reasonably comprehensible
fashion. I would be grateful for any advice any uk-diy readers can
provide including alternative methods of constucting the doors (NB
simple/quick methods - i.e. mortice/tenoned frame and panel type
construction is out of the question).
Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice anyone can provide,
Gary
IMHO, MDF is not strong enough to support it's own weight and will not stay
flat when used as doors in this way.
I may be OK for a while but I fear it will end in tears.
Consider buying 'paint ply' doors from your timber merchant (not the sheds).
These are cheap and light and available in width steps of 3" x 78" tall.
With care, can be shortened if needed byy cutting and regluing the edge
timber back in between the skins and also the width can be reduced by about
3/4" on each edge by sawing and planing.
They can be painted as the name suggests or stained/varnished.
Using standard mouldings, these can be made to resemble panel doors.
HTH
Bob
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