Talk:Kitchen cabinet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kitchen cabinets are useful to store things such as tuperware and etc. Also they can be used as storage for pots and pans

[edit] deletion of promotional edit

Deleted a promotional edit from pinnaclecabinets Eileivgyrt (talk) 23:30, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] POV tag

Though much useful material has recently been added to this article, much of it is highly opinionated, and sounds more like a sales brochure from a maker of American-style cabinets competing with European-style cabinets than it does like an encyclopedia article. It also includes advice on how-to-buy (e.g. always pay with a credit card) which again is not encyclopedic and is POV. --Macrakis (talk) 22:25, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sections on "engineered wood"

Notwithstanding, deletion of essentially every detail regarding the difference between engineered, as opposed to natural, wood leaves the reader with an insufficient understanding of the subject of kitchen cabinetry. It's a classic trade-off between price and quality. Every expert I've seen published eschews particle board (the usual term for engineered wood). The engineered vs natural wood decision is one of the most difficult decisions to make. This kind of information ought to be supplied by a well-constructed Wikipedia article.Eileivgyrt (talk) 22:16, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

There should definitely be a discussion of engineered vs. natural wood. But it should be sourced and NPOV. --Macrakis (talk) 23:36, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

PS Plywood is just as "engineered" as particleboard.

You are correct. Unfortunately for particle board mechanical integrity depends to a greater degree (than for plywood) on the resin. Although most of the particle board by volume is sawdust, it acts more as a spacer for the resin matrix than as a structural component. (By analogy an inflated tire carries the weight of a car in its sidewall; the air within is a filler that stiffens the sidewall.) Should the resin structure be damaged, it is difficult to recover the original functionality of the wood. Particleboard or MDF cannot be repaired. That is not so much of an issue for the carcase (though the carcase can become damaged during installation), but it is for doors, drawer fronts, side panels, etc. Furniture refinishers are able to restore damaged areas in solid wood. No it seems that particle board and MDF furniture are not intended for long service life and are not destined to become antiques. This is perfectly acceptable for buyers who intend to update their kitchens regularly to keep them in style but it is a choice that should be made consciously. It is a legitimate function of an encyclopedia article to provide that kind of information. Eileivgyrt (talk) 22:50, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Several issues here:

• WP is explicitly not a how-to or consumer's guide -- see WP:NOT. We are not here to give buying advice to people.
• High-quality particleboard has many desirable properties compared to solid wood, especially when it is to be laminated or sprayed with opaque lacquer. Low-quality particleboard is of course junk.
• Many of your contributions had a strong point of view in favor of American-style face-frame, solid-wood cabinets, what people (incorrectly) consider "traditional" in the US. Some of us consider this as simply obsolete engineering and kitschy design, but that's just an opinion, and doesn't belong in an encyclopedia article either way....
• At the same time, there is a strong anti-European design tenor to the comments, attributing the general European preference for Modern design to post-war poverty (!!!), when in fact the modern movement was well under way before the War.
• Detailed comments about the engineering properties of particleboard belong in the particleboard article, not here. It suffices to mention that, for example, shelving should not be made out of materials with a tendency to creep, such as low-quality particleboard.

In summary, as an encyclopedia article, the Kitchen cabinet article should describe accurately without preferring (say) Smallbone-style kitchen cabinets to Bulthaup-style kitchen cabinets. And historical and engineering judgements should be backed up with reliable sources. --Macrakis (talk) 02:02, 27 March 2008 (UTC)