
Stain grade plywood. If you select to paint your cabinets they will be made with paint grade wood which is a wood that offers a flat surface and is free of knots and heavy grain patterns. It can be hard or softwood and has been planed and sanded in preparation for finishing. Cdx is the most common exterior plywood grade. Hardwood plywood is always of a high grade and it is relatively easy to stain and finish.
Exterior plywood carries an x stamp which identifies it as suitable for use outdoors. In addition to being a lower grade the face veneer on inexpensive types of plywood can be as thin as 1100 compared to about 140 on better material. Actually it is not a type of wood. When wood is.
To find quality hardwood ply in a variety of different species you typically need to go to a specialty lumber yard. Smooth plywood is made with a more natural looking wood veneer disguising what the plywood really is namely a heavily processed laminate made from glue and wood. Because it is made of thin strips of wood glued together with adhesive it is a very efficient product to produce and is thus inexpensive. However if staining i would suggest caution as the quality is c3 which is about mid grade cabinet plywood.
Beside cdx you can also find better grades such as abx acx and even bcx. However it is much more expensive and sometimes defeats the purpose of using plywood as the wood of choice. It comes in 34 58 and 12 inch thicknesses. Types of stain grade wood.
Appearance stamps on plywood range from cabinet grade a to construction grade c and d. The quality of the outside veneers are graded with a letter on one side and number on the other. The wood may be poplar or a veneered plywood or even a non wood called mdf. Mdf is an acronym for medium density fiberboard.
How to stain and finish plywood. A1 meaning best quality so if it is a1 meaning one side is a and the other is 1 it is the best plywood veneer quality you can get. Plywood is an amazingly versatile building material. When building with plywood you will often want to stain and finish the surface to enhance your projects beauty.