Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | Sep 27, 2007 12:42am | #1

   Lostraider,

   Conventional MDF doesn't do well in moist conditions but moisture resistant MDF is available. As long as it wasn't getting directly rained on, any plywood wood hold up well for cabinets and would be stronger than MDF unless you carefully engineered the MDF cabinets.

   French cleats work well and make it easy to get a cabinet hung on the wall, a major advantage when working alone.

   If you make the back of the cabinet out of a solidly attached (to the cabinet's sides), sheet of 12mm or thicker plywood you can simply screw through the back into the wall studs.

   Another common approach is to attach a wood strip, something like 18mm by 60mm, inside the cabinet along the back edge of the top panel, in basically the same area as a French cleat and to screw through the wood strip into the wall studs.

   Building a cabinet to the floor solves the hanging problem, gives you more storage space, and makes it easier to move the unit to a new location.

   John White

1. 
   lostraider | Sep 27, 2007 01:03am | #2

   Thanks for the quick response, I will try exterior grade plywood although it's expensive in Peru, it's the price one pays for living abroad.

   By the way, I have to hang the cabinets because I'm sharing the space with my kid's bicycles, I'm reserving the only other open space in my garage for my modified fww essential workbench.

   Thanks again, I'll be sure to use this forum again in the future.

   Lostraider

    

    

    

1. 
   JohnWW | Sep 27, 2007 01:48pm | #3

   You don't have to use a plywood with exterior grade glue unless the cabinets are actually going to get rained on. John W.

1. 
   lostraider | Sep 27, 2007 06:54pm | #4

   John W.

   The humiidity in Lima, Peru reaches up to 98% at times during the winter months that's why even though the cabinets will be in my open garage under roof  I am concerned about the effects of moisture on the materials used.

   Lost raider