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Why not use a strip on the edge if it's all you need. It's usually quite time consuming to do so most professionals would have to balance the cost of doing it against the cost of just using the ply.
The birch ply is definitely a consideration on cost these days, I would use it a more but I end up specifying very expensive pieces of furniture.
If it were me doing it I'd probably join a 2-3 inch strip of birch ply to Mdf using a system similar to biscuit joints, just because I find it easier than glueing veneer to a board edge. Unless you pin the veneer on with an air nail gun.
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We did a plywood kitchen at our last place which included phenolic faced plywood doors onto basic units and a through colour formica laminated plywood worktop to avoid visible knife marks etc.
Plykea and the like are all masisvely overpriced and you can get a much better result with a decent joiner and raw materials. In regards to visible end panels it all depends on your existing kitchen (assuming you are retaining the carcasses) and whether the doors are overlay type or sit within a frame. In our instance they were overlay and our joiner made the end doors 12-18mm wider to sit over the end panel. Hopefully that makes sense, feel free to send me any questions and I'll try to help. I can also dig out where I bought the material from including the worktop should you wish.
Formica kitchen project edges towards reality:
Spent some quality time measuring up for the birch ply and formica overhaul. Going to be replacing around 20 doors, 8 uprights, kickboards and the worktops plus a few additional shelves.
The current island is two regular Magnet kitchen units back to back with a granite top. Plan is to keep one unit with new formica doors, get rid of the other but add get new longer uprights at either end to to support the top and create an overhang to tuck stools under on one side. The old granite is going and we're going to use our existing ply & formica dining table as the new island worktop. Have sketched the shape I want the new ends to be... am disproportionately excited at the prospect of making it real.
Must admit that having measured it all up I have a better appreciation of just how much relatively pricey raw material is involved. I'm wondering what we can do to avoid having expensive materials in places where surfaces won't be visible. For example, the two big uprights either side of the fridge freezer are over 2m high and 0.65 m deep but only the edges will be visible. Feels cheaty to stick a strip of ply on the exposed edge but what's the point in having all that material hidden?
Anyone done anything similar?