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Hot take: I was wrong about prefinished plywood, and it cost me a job to learn it
I used to swear by raw birch because I thought prefinished stuff felt cheap and limited my color options. Then last fall I had a kitchen in Portland where the homeowner wanted a quick turnaround, and I finally tried a maple prefinished panel from a local supplier. The finish held up through assembly with zero sanding touch-ups, and the edge banding matched better than I expected. Anyone else change their mind on this after a specific project or are you still team raw stock?
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jade321mo ago
You can keep your prefinished panels, but I'm still on team raw stock after getting burned last spring. That "zero sanding touch-ups" thing sounds nice until you realize the factory finish is already scratched up by the time the panel hits your truck. I had a similar quick turnaround job and went with prefinished maple, then the client wanted a small change to one cabinet face. I couldn't match the sheen with any touch-up kit, so I had to reorder a whole panel and wait three days. Raw birch lets me sand out my own mistakes and hit the exact color the homeowner wants, even if it costs me an extra afternoon. If you're doing production work and never make errors, sure, go prefinished, but for custom stuff I'll take the extra work every time.
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