Whitewood boards are great and very cheap, but I would still opt for MDF. Kiln dried whitewood still produces sap and dents easier than any MDF I have worked w

Whitewood boards are great and very cheap, but I would still opt for MDF. Kiln dried whitewood still produces sap and dents easier than any MDF I have worked with. By whitewood I presume you mean that mysterious asian species of wood, that dominates the market. Byt here's my tip - for amateur woodworking, go to a speciality lumber yard that sells S4S. They have discounted and returned items at fairly low prices. I made two bedside tables out of warped, cracked oak shelving S4S boards at about 30% of the cost of materials. But... that was still a hobby project that I had spare time for. If I accounted for the average cost of a carpenter's hourly wages - those items would cost easily $2000 each in labor.