Wichita, KS
I'll cut to the chase.
I do not like MDF. All it is is sawdust and glue. Walmart loves to use it in its furniture; You can see that with those crappy sagging shelves. And as the makers of MDF try to convince me that the stuff is strong and as good as plywood; Black Beard and the other pirates don't like it because it would break before the condemned made two steps towards "walking the plank".
More common problems are sagging shelves if you put too many cans of soup on your cheap Walmart shelves.
Plus, MDF is heavy. You will break your back moving that stuff around .
https://woodworkingtoolkit.com/mdo-vs-mdf/
I'll let the article speak for itself, but when I was shopping for material to make my lamp board, I was going to go with some plywood, but plywood can warp. And on the shelf of ply wood that was bowing on the shelf, right next to the ply wood was some MDO.
As noted, the plywood was sort of bowed on the shelf. The MDO was laying there as flat as a table. Since it is some sort of processed wood, it will not warp.
Neither Lowes or Home Depot carried the MDO. I had to get mine at Menard's.
If you are building a lamp board I highly recommend you seek out some MDO. It is exterior grade material and can be painted.
