Gripfill to put MDF skin on built-in carcass?

[ChrisKingston]

I've built a carcass for a custom-made built-in up-and-over storage. Will all be painted so can screw and fill if necessary. But have never managed to do that yet and not have it show through.

Have got to attach an MDF skin (12mm or 18mm) to the (very solid) carcassing. Do I need to screw it in, or can I just use Gripfill? That would save having to do anything with the screw holes. Am I missing anything, is there a reason not to glue it instead of mechanical fixing?

Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Have got to attach an MDF skin (12mm or 18mm) to the (very solid) carcassing. Do I need to screw it in, or can I just use Gripfill?

On grounds of safety and durability you really need to screw it in my opinion, although if possible I always prefer to screw on decor panels and the like from the inside. If you have access to a pinner, such as a Passlode or deWalt DW618 it would be possible to glue and pin even 18mm onto the carcass. I do this at work with boxing in. GripFill, PinkGrip, etc are construction adhesives designed to attach stuff like skirtings to masonry/plasterwork walls. As such they contain a filler (to fill gaps) and you'll therefore never get a really tight fit with them. They also have to be pinned in position whilst the glue goes off....

 

[joinerjohn]

As JobandKnock says . Get yourself a small nailer/pinner. Use that and PVA glue. You can fill the nail/pin holes afterwards and trust me, they won't show through. I used to work for a shopfitting/manufacturing company and we built hundreds of mdf display units/cases that were glued and pinned together, then spray painted afterwards and never had any pin holes show through.

 

[xr4x4]

Go 50 50, grip fill with less screws.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Get yourself a small nailer/pinner. Use that and PVA glue. You can fill the nail/pin holes afterwards and trust me, they won't show through. I used to work for a shopfitting/manufacturing company and we built hundreds of mdf display units/cases that were glued and pinned together, then spray painted afterwards and never had any pin holes show through.

Likewise. When it came to on-site assembly we'd only use screws and filler if we couldn't get away with pinning/glueing. I still tend to use 2-pack fillers (car body filler) as it's less prone to shrink and telegraph through