what wood to use for trim and cabinets

[paul s]

i have a project coming up, building a kit and triming out the kit , dining and living ares , door and window trim, base board the cabinets etc.

trying to decide what wood to use, considering cost , machineability and the woods ability to be stained.  

pine  is out,  the pitch  just  makes everything difficult

do not like oak and the cost is  high.

have never done much with popular, in fact mot sure i can spell it either

does it stain well?
 or what are my other choices  i live and work in north carolina

[MarkAndDebbie]

It machines well. It paints well.

[MountainDon]

Poplar. Poplar will stain unevenly in my past experience. You can get blotchy areas. The greenish  areas of the wood stain darker/funny. However, you can use a prestain conditioner. That helps a lot. I've used a Minwax product.

The prestain conditioner evens out the absorption of the stain in soft and porous woods including pine and spruce. My entire house has stained pine trim and I first applied the conditioner, then went right to the stain. Worked out very nicely.

As MarkandDebbie stated poplar does take paint very nicely.

As an oak lover I've used a lot of it, plus some maple and pine. Never had a problem with pine pitch though. I've no idea what woods are readily and economically available in SC. Look for a specialty wood dealer. They'll usually have a good selection and a better quality and more fairly priced than the big boxes. At least around here.

[paul s]

i had thought poplar was more paint grade than stain grade.  the cabinate maker does not like pine  and is worried about pitch ruining his wide belts which the machine has 3 of themin the wide belt sander at almost  6o dollars each.  i to have  never had this problem with pine

just more to think about


thanks  for the replies