Testing MDF vs Plywood - What to Buy?

Can you use MDF and save money vs plywood? I put MDF and plywood through 10 tests to find out!
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0:00 The Contenders
0:30 Weigh In
2:00 Strength Test
3:50 Make MDF Shelves 2X Stronger
4:22 Finishing Test
6:21 Wetability Test
8:59 Workability Test
11:08 Why I Hate MDF
12:55 Stability & Flatness
13:57 How to Store Sheet Goods
14:41 Fastener Friendliness Test
17:00 Robustness Test
18:40 Joint Strength Test
22:16 The Results

[richpeggyfranks]

Six years ago I redid the kitchen, building 42 cabinets (uppers and lowers) from MDF. Part of the remodel was creating a 12' by 8' "L-shaped" island. Joinery consisted of many hundreds of 2" long 1/4" dowels and glue. Face frames were made from poplar. The cabinets were all sprayed with white oil based primer and enamel on all sides and edges. I pre-built the kick/bases from pressure treated plywood, sealed with shellac and painted. I mounted and leveled the bases to the floor and then set the cabinets onto them. Then we had a 1-1/4" solid granite top installed with a 1" over hang in the front and sealed along the back edge. The island has a 12" overhang along two sides. So far so good. Still square and solid. Thanks for sharing.

[colossalbreacker]

Based on my experiences with wet wood, the plywood will dry and keep a similar shape and strength whereas the mdf will bulge and stay bulged with significantly weakened strength.

[John_Malecki]

This is some great stuff brother. Would love to see testing pine vs oak vs poplar in 3/4" material ! Some common stuff that we all use! Curious about pocket hole joinery strength in basically anything too!

[timothymbess]

One thing to remember about MDF soaking up water - it will swell and disfigure itself much more than typical plywood. Natural wood expands and contracts along the grain, but the alternating orientation of each ply helps minimize the amount that a finished product will swell. MDF has no such constraint, so while it may soak up water more slowly, it will eventually warp much more noticeably. This is especially apparent in bathrooms around baseboards. I've had to replace several MDF baseboards in bathrooms because they will soak up the ambient moisture in the room. Worse, once MDF is supersaturated, the excess moisture will leach into your drywall and you may wind up having to replace a portion of the wall, too.

If you have kids who splash in the tub, or anyone who regularly forgets to turn on the bathroom fan to vent excess moisture, I would heavily recommend finger jointed pine or even upgrading to a tile/stone baseboard that compliments your flooring. If you have to spot repair and must use replacement MDF, I'd recommend sealing the backside and the bottom of the molding with a thin layer of caulk so that if you ever have to replace it again, the moisture does not wick into your drywall.

[yoelai]

I think your moisture test is not very good. The point is not to see how much water each product absorbs, but how much said water affects the strength of the product. In that respect, the pine and maple will be just fine with the water they absorbed. They'll dry and everything will be fine and dandy. The MDF however is compromised now, and you can't rely on it for anything.

[BlacktailStudio]

MDF is the original epoxy-table. Just with more pieces. Probably why I gravitate towards it.

[lawrenceking]

I believe your choice in wood depends on your skill level and your variety of tools. Your projects are always showroom quality in construction and appearance, so the more expensive maple is suited to your abilities. For those without a full workshop and basic tools in the around $250 or below range cheaper wood may be a preferred option. I'll be bummed making a mistake on MDF sheets but I'd continue on. Messing up a $90 sheet would be so discouraging I'd probably give up completely to cut my losses. If the project is for your own use, durability for intended purpose and cost are more important. I've made things out of MDF that are still holding up after 10 years and the only reason to consider re-doing them is because I believe I can now do it better. But not so much better that I take the chance of buying wood that cost 3 times as much.

[bernieparent]

Great information. One thing you did not consider in your testing is the cost of each sheet. Depending on the project, that would be an important factor. Just food for thought! Love your channel.

[arilooucks]

Hard to do but sagging over time is one of my biggest concerns for MDF. One thing to add about its workability/strength is that small details have none.

[cidercreekranch]

For MDF or particle board you can use Confirmat screws, To drill the hole you use a stepped bit specifically designed for these screws. I built all the kitchen cabinet in our first house, 30 years ago, using these screws and had no issues with splitting.

[GeoffreyCraig]

I really enjoyed this video. Maybe you could do a second part that factors in types of projects (shelves, cabinets, etc.) and cost-to-performance?

[oldguysrock]

Just had the windows in my home replaced. Pulled off all the wood stained window casing and replaced the casing with 4” (actually 3.5”) MDF with 6” bottom horizontal pieces. It took one coat of primer and two coats of white Valspar semigloss. After install, I gave one more coat of paint with a brush to cover 18 gauge nail holes. Very pleased with the ease MDF was to work with. The wife like the brush stokes on the finish and it looks great.

[Flyinghook]

The end screwing and joint strength can be easily overcome by assembly technique. I know a cabinet maker who uses mdf on any non visible side and it holds up great. You use a dado blade, glue the mdf into that, then screw it into small pine blocks through the face of each piece to hold until it dries/ to slightly reinforce it

[username]

For staining pine I learned that if you use a "black tea stain" first, the color comes out a lot more evenly. Boil 1.5 cups of water, put 10 bags of Black Tea in it and let it steep for 30 minutes. Move to a container of your choice (mason jar in my case)and let sit for 12 hours. Apply with a foam brush, let dry, sand back down to 180nor whatever, then apply your stain if choice

[chuckwhite]

At 2:25 “Voilà!” 😂. I saw it coming and still laughed. Well done Sir!

[ninjarobotmonky]

great video! everything is a compromise!
apart from the dust, my only grumble with MDF is how squishy it gets if it gets damp!
Thanks for taking the time to create, edit, and share! :)

[sapelesteve]

Very interesting video Brad & I am with you on the MDF! I have watched so many videos where wood joints are tested. However, if you want to do more of these types of videos, you could test the strength of joinery suck as dowels, biscuits, dovetails, etc.... Anyway, Happy Holidays to you and your family!

[MMWoodworking]

My rule of thumb... MDF for jigs in the shop... Plywood for high use furniture projects. MDF can work really well as a veneer base for larger box lids that may have cupping if you use real wood or plywood.

I've never had an issue making all of my sleds and jigs from MDF, and it saves a ton of money, and I often like the extra heft to dampen vibrations.

[howardpettigrew]

Fantastic video and really interesting from a New Zealand point of view. As an avid home handyman building Youtube watcher, I have always laughed at the price you pay for maple and birch ply and the fact mdf seems to be poorly regarded in the US / Canada. For the average home handyman, mdf is all we can afford in New Zealand. I have just done a price check on maple plywood in NZ. An 18 mm sheet was $US208 from one place that actually gave the price. Most places, you had to ʻAsk for a quote" as they didnʻt want to be responsible for heart attacks if people saw the price on line. Same 18mm sheet in mdf is $US47!!! I actually live about 5 miles from the first MDF factory built in the Southern Hemisphere and it was interesting to visit on an open day one Sunday a long time back. The radiata pine is chipped up into real fluffy stuff about a foot high which is then compressed down into 1 inch approximate board with glue injected, and then cut and sanded on large wide flat belt sanders to the required size. As others have said, mdf is no good outside long term, even if painted well. One other thing Iʻm not sure if anyone has mentioned but Iʻve never been able to pocket hole screw into mdf successfully. What is very disturbing here in NZ is that where once upon a time joinery factories were making tables, pantries, etc using melamine covered mdf sheeting (hope you know what this is?) most have now replaced this with melamine covered low quality chipboard, I guess for price reasons... Absolute rubbish build quality. Love to know where the radiata plywood came from? Iʻm looking our my window at some radiata pines and it is all you see on our logging trucks these days. Heaps is exported from NZ. I had to get some plywood a while back to build a big outdoor storage unit for childrenʻs bags at my wifeʻs school. Despite all the timber milling in NZ, it came from Chile!!!
Thanks again for a great video from way down in NZ!

[bbertram]

I have found if you use Shellac on MDF, it makes for a very nice surface. Worked well on my workbench and made it heavy!