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Particle board for a castle loft bed?

Submitted by CandiceM on Wed, 02/29/2012 - 07:51

I am planning to make a castle loft bed based on the plans on this site, modified somewhat based on my room and my abilities and limitations with building things lol. I am unsure what to use for materials. I saw 3 options, particle board, mdf, and pine plywood. Naturally I'd love to use the particle board if possible (cheapest lol) and I'll be using the kreg jig for joining. My question is whether or not particle board will be strong enough, or if its going to break up when cutting and screwing it. It "looks" pretty strong? I know the plywood would be best, but almost double the price means sacrificing other things I wanted to get for my son's room. Is it worth it? This is my first project, so odds are if it will crack or break rather easily it's gonna happen. Also I'm a little nervous about cutting the plywood with a jigsaw, is 3/4 plywood a lot more difficult to cut through? From looking at it, it seems like it would be?
TIA

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claydowling

Wed, 02/29/2012 - 08:25

Of those three, I would only consider the plywood, and I'd by A1, which is expensive but worth it. Particle board has many wonderful properties, but it's ridiculously heavy and not particularly strong for a structural material. You'll find it frustrating, because you must use special screws, and you absolutely can't use any kind of pocket hole with it (kreg or otherwise).

Plywood, on the other hand, was designed especially for this use case. It's comparatively light, it's strong, and it holds screws very well.

You can pay less money for your plywood and get better material by going to a lumber yard. They'll also help you load it into your truck, which is important, because a sheet of plywood is awkward. If you don't have a truck, borrow one for the trip. There is no substitute for a truck when it comes to hauling sheet goods.

As for difficulty cutting, I haven't found 3/4" material to be significantly more trouble than thinner wood. You have to go slightly slower, but it will make the structure much more stable.

mickeybuff2015

Sun, 06/28/2015 - 23:10

We are attempting to build a reach in closet in our son's bedroom, and we are unsure of what type of wood to use. MDF or Plywood? We are building the closet and mounting it on the wall (on a metal bar attached to the wall). I have heard from a lot of people that MDF is to heavy, however is a great option to get a smooth painting. Thoughts?

Lady Goats

Mon, 06/29/2015 - 11:09

I would personally use a cabinet-grade plywood. Everyone here has heard of (and I love) Purebond, but there are definitely other options available. In my area, a 3/4" sheet of MDF is $35, and cabinet-grade ply is $45, so it's not a [i]huge[/i] difference in price. However, handling ply is significantly easier because of it's weight, and I haven't had luck easily applying edge banding to MDF (applying it is easy, but trimming it can take chunks out of MDF with little effort). With that being said, MDF takes paint really well (after using primer - IMPORTANT!!! Paint + Primer on MDF still gets sucked in like plain paint, causing you to have to apply additional coats, so it may be cheaper to buy a primer instead of using more paint).
If you're okay with the weight and plan to add face frames, there's really no significant difference in the finished product when painting. Neither is the "wrong" option.