Working with melamine

[Jason White]

Hey, folks. I need to build a closet organizer system (for a reach-in closet about 8' wide and 2' deep) and I want to make it out of melamine. I've never worked with the stuff before. I know it's prone to chipping out and requires special screws. There will be some cabinet boxes hanging on the back wall, so I need to figure out a slick way to hang them, too. Design ideas are also welcome -- especially if you have pictures of stuff you've built.

All input and advice is welcome and appreciated. Thanks!!

- Jason

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Jason, I don't know what to suggest for the chip out, I just raise the scoring blade on the saw to take care of that.

I use #8 X 2" particle board screws for my construction, works well.

A French cleat is as slick as I get, although the metal cleat systems available are even better............Regards, Rod.

[Jim Dwight]

Jason,

I built a kitchenette in our last house with melamine cabinets. My first comment is to understand the sheets are heavy and oversized - 49x97. I cut it up on my table saw and didn't have problems with chipping but I made sure I had a nice sharp blade. These days I would use my track saw. I used the large screws with plugs where they would have been visible. I cut shallow dados to expose the particle board for joints so the glue would stick. I also used some special glue from Titebond for melamine but I didn't like it as well. It has some strength but is very susceptible to shock. A hard knock would cause joints to fail. I hung them pretty much the normal way. I had finished drywall walls so I just put a hanging strip on the top and bottom and caulked where they met the wall. I screwed through the strips into the studs. If you don't like that method you could use a French cleat.

I'd rather use melamine than MDF. It is nicer to work with. But solid wood is far nicer than melamine. It makes a durable and inexpensive cabinet, however. I made glass and raised panel doors for the melamine boxes which I pickled. We thought it looked better than the site built kitchen.

Jim

[Jeff Monson]

A good sharp blade will sure help with the chip out, as Rod stated I use a scoring blade on my table saw to prevent chipping. Using rabbet's and dado joints should eliminate any screws but if you want screws, I have used the McFeely melamine screws with good success. I'd also recemmond a French cleat system as it makes hanging them a breeze (they sure get heavy). I had good luck with the Titebond melamine glue, but I cant say that I stressed the joints.

[David Hawxhurst]

the make blades designed to cut melamine. tenryu is the one that jumps to the front of my mind. they make a blade for veneer plywood and melamine. also think carbide processors makes one under their name as well. if your not set on using melamine i would consider looking in to pre-finished plywood.

[Martin Wasner]

My experience with melamine has taught me don't work with melamine. Your mileage may vary.

[Andrew Joiner]

I know it's prone to chipping out and requires special screws.

- Jason
Here is what I've learned working with it over the years. Special screws may be stronger, but sheet rock screws hold well if you bore first. Test this to see for yourself with scraps.

To prevent chip out make your first saw pass with the blade adjusted to just cut thru the melamine, about 1/16" or so. Then with the second pass crank the blade up (or down on a tracksaw) to cut thru the stock. This works great on veneered sheet stock as well.

[John TenEyck]

I've built a fair number of cabinets from Melamine and like it other than it's weight. I use a Popular Tools HiATB blade and it is virtually chip free on my Unisaw. I use biscuits, Melamine glue, and screws for all unexposed joints, and just biscuits and glue for those that show. I use coarse thread 2-1/2" screws. None have failed yet. Cutting dados in Melamine just invites trouble, IMO. I would hang the wall cabinets using screws through a cleat built into the cabinet, just like hanging kitchen uppers. There are rail systems made for hanging kitchen cabinets that would work well, too, if you are looking for a modular system.

John

[Bruce Wrenn]

Grab hold of a copy of Danny Proulx's book, "Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets." It's a god send. For screws, I use Wurth's assembly screws, which are made for melamine

[Peter Quinn]

My experience with melamine has taught me don't work with melamine. Your mileage may vary.

LOL. My experience is similar. If you take away that thin plastic coating whats underneath is pretty much garbage. So if you put cheap lipstick on a pig.....you get a very cost effective date. I always wear gloves when using it because the edges are razor sharp, unless they are chipped, then they are serrated and razor sharp. The dust is a nice toxic blend of harsh glue, wood chips, and slightly burnt plastic. Yum, so wear a mask. I use a High ATB/TCG blade made for melamine, its nearly chip free, and I'm careful to orient cuts so any chipping is mostly blind, rarely does the top face of the sheet chip. Hardest part is getting that nearly 100# sheet cut up into manageable parts...then putting it back together into a barely moveable cabinet. Everybody says "I'll use a track saw" and thats great if your track saw can if text sheets out of your truck and install the cabinets for you....which mine can't. So whenever possible I pay the $50/sheet upgrade and use prefin plywood.

I use assembly screws, deerwood ultimates, and they make melamine glues for it that dry a bit slowly, so glue up and leave them longer than you might a regular cabinet. That is if you ignore the sage advise to not touch it at all.

[Jeff Duncan]

Working small projects in melamine can be a bit of a PITA because your trying to "make do". It's really a great material to work with if your set up for it, melamine blades($), edgebander($), system for construction boring($) etc. etc.. A steep investment to get going, but once your set up you can make money with the stuff:D

I use Forrest HI-AT blades as they will give you a good clean cut on both sides of the melamine on an ordinary table saw. You can buy a special Confirmat drill bit to drill and use Confirmat screws. The banding is the tough part as iron on melamine banding is really not very good at all. I might buy some spray contact and a roll of PVC banding and just do it that way. It'll be time consuming, but give you a much better edge. Alternatively you can cut all your panels and see if a local cabinet shop will band them for you. Something small like what your describing would likely take less than 20 min. to run, so shouldn't cost too much.

As far as hanging systems I think Hafele has a couple different hardware systems you can use. I've never tried any of them so can't help much there.

good luck,
JeffD

[George Werner]

Gloves are your friend. That evil white coating has some serious bite.

[Mel Fulks]

I've always liked it as great stuff for the money. Some brands are better than others ,we had a buyer who would always try to find a particular brand. It was much better about not moving laterally and crooking up,which can be a problem on long pieces. The surface takes wear quite well for its extreme thinness.

[Curt Harms]

Here is what I've learned working with it over the years. Special screws may be stronger, but sheet rock screws hold well if you bore first. Test this to see for yourself with scraps.

To prevent chip out make your first saw pass with the blade adjusted to just cut thru the melamine, about 1/16" or so. Then with the second pass crank the blade up (or down on a tracksaw) to cut thru the stock. This works great on veneered sheet stock as well.


I've done the same re scoring cut. I was concerned about 'stepped' cuts but as long as I was careful to keep the pieces tight against the fence no issues. I was using a regular ATB blade, a veneer/ melamine blade may not require a scoring cut.

[Robert Engel]

I built a pretty large kitchen using double sided melamine.
The building process is simple and fast.

Here's my experience:

Use the correct blade. Freud makes a blade specific for DS melamine that is excellent. Scoring cuts, etc are unnecessary.

Pocket screws and biscuits are pretty useless IMO.
Use Confirmat screws and butt joints. You'll need a special bit.
I wouldn't use anything else, but coarse thread drywall screws might work ok.
I would never use pocket screws and biscuits seem unnecessary to me.
Always use butt joints - no dados or rabbets.
Always clamp everything up before drilling.

Use iron on edge banding to cover any exposed edges. Make sure you apply it before assembly.
You can get screw caps to match color. I get my supplies at Woodworkers Hardware.
Hope this helps.

[Andrew Joiner]

I've done the same re scoring cut. I was concerned about 'stepped' cuts but as long as I was careful to keep the pieces tight against the fence no issues. I was using a regular ATB blade, a veneer/ melamine blade may not require a scoring cut.

You can even use a dull blade if you climb cut the scoring cut.

Yes, there's many good blades now that cut chip free on a single pass. Sometimes I still use the old scoring method if I just have a little bit of cutting to do.

[ian maybury]

Not necessarily what you have in mind or local to you Jason, so just to float a possible option.

I usually find there's something ready made in the Ikea kitchen, bedroom, bookcase, CD rack or whatever ranges in nominally 18mm melamine coated particle board that gets the job done. Or is at least a cost effective and hugely labour saving basis to work from. It's usually possible to figure dimensions, fittings etc well enough to decide what you need from the drop down 'futher information' and linked assembly instructions.

It tends not to be too hard to cut down to the required size, or to add local reinforcing where needed when storing heavier stuff. The most awkward job can be figuring out how to cut holes etc for re-use of the original joining systems when this is visually necessary. Screws often do the job when it's not visual - pre drilled so that they don't cause spliting. The good news is that extras of these parts can usually be bought from the service desk in their stores. Sawn edges can be recovered with iron on melamine tape.

There's lots of very nicely spray painted doors in decent quality MDF all sorts of colours and sizes too - they can be very handy when you want a piece of ready finished material.

Just watch out that some of the fancier furniture items with thicker panels are some sort of honeycomb rather than particle board, and not very re-work friendly. Lots of kitchen 'makers' here buy Ikea cabinets, and maybe build fancier hardwood doors themselves. Or buy hardwood doors from other suppliers set up to spit them out.

My experience with sawing up melamine (the Ikea version anyway - some of the box store stuff is very poor) is that provided the blade is pretty sharp and a good one, the saw tight and well aligned - and you set the blade height to just cut through that it's no problem to avoid chip out - even with a universal on….

[Hoang N Nguyen]

322505 I'm in the same boat as OP, and have the same project. Wife found this picture in a magazine and wants it for her closet, she said consider it an early mothers day gift. I plan to do shelves out of Melamine and just match the drawer color to the melamine. Not even sure if it's possible to match the color like that yet.

[Rick Potter]

I am in the middle of this right now also. I am doing a pantry with 9 boxes, then a large walk in hall closet, then two large walk in bedroom closets.

For simple shelving boxes, I dado all permanent shelves in 1/4", and use gold screws, pre-drilling and countersinking as I go. Almost all the sides of the units will not show when installed, but when one does, I use the fastcap white stickers. Not doing fine woodworking here, they are all utility units. I also use the Melamine glue on all joints. As far as installing, if there are real cabinet type uppers, I use nail strips and screws, just like kitchen cabinets. If they sit on the floor they get simple metal L brackets screwed to the plate, with the same L brackets on the top, screwed to a stud. This makes it easy to rearrange when the wife decides she wants it different. As far as looks, you have to get on a ladder or your hands and knees to see them.

I finished off all the edges with natural oak in the pantry, but will use white tape in the closets. My hardwood dealer has some pre-made shelving that may save you some time. It seems better quality than the big box stores, and comes in 11 1/4" @ $15.50, 15" @ $17.50, and 23 1/4" @ $21.95....all 8' with a factory taped edge. This is more expensive, but might save you a lot of trouble and time playing with sheets and edging.

I have a blade from CMT that is made for melamine and works well on both sides.

[David L Morse]

Before I got a slider with a scoring blade I struggled with getting a clean bottom side when cutting Melamine. I gave up on that and instead cut the show edges 1/8" oversize and then cleaned them up with a compression bit in a router table with a jointer fence setup. The scoring saw does an acceptable job but it's still not quite as good as the compression bit was.

A lot of people get good results with butt joints and screws but that skill just eludes me. I run out of hands and fumble with clamps and blocks and it's just easier and faster for me to cut dadoes and hidden rabbets and assemble with glue. There's no need to fight with screws stripping out or splitting the particle board and it's all self locating with boxes going together like a puzzle.

To attach the cabinets to the wall I just use screws through the 3/4" backs into studs. I have been looking at some of the hardware mounting options for backless cabinets because I too have a wife requesting a closet organizer. I'm not sure yet what I will do there.

I really like the FastCap peel and stick edge banding. It goes on fast and their trimming tools are excellent. I've tried contact adhesive but it's way too messy for me and I can't seem to maintain the process control (time/temperature/pressure) with home shop tools to get consistent results with hot melt. I have some cabinets that I built in early 2010 with the FastCap stuff that show absolutely no signs of adhesive failure so I'm gaining more confidence in it's longevity.

[Jason White]

Thanks so much for all the tips, guy. Much appreciated!!

[Rich Engelhardt]

All input and advice is welcome and appreciated. Thanks!!I went to HD to pick up a sheet of Melamine to make a closet thingie for my wife.
I picked up a sheet by the corner (3/4") and concluded that anything that heavy was more trouble than it's worth.
I walked over to the 3/4" Birch plywood and slid a sheet of that onto the cart & stopped on the way home at Sherwin Williams and picked up a quart of 100% acrylic paint...;).

You did say all input was welcome right?

I did make a sacrificial table for my drill press out of Melamine shelving once. I cut it down with my Festool track saw back when it was brand new and had a brand new blade, The cuts were perfect w/no tear out and/or chipping.
I used some of the scraps from that last year to make a fixture for my CMS stand and experienced some chipping using the track saw & that same blade.
A new sharp blade seems to be the best way to avoid chipping the edges.

& yes - the edges are razor sharp.

[ian maybury]

Melamine as before is pretty much trouble free on a decent saw with the right (sharp) blade on - no need for any cleaning up or other pecularities. There's people making bedroom furniture and the like that saw nothing else all day every day - so it's a well known requirement. It's advisable to gear up properly for a project though. Chances are it quickly finds the limits of budget blades, misligned saws and the approximate sharpening that's pretty common here..

I've had no problems with it using even a universal blade with no scorer or zero clearance insert fitted. There's a scorer on the (Hammer) saw, but so far it's never been necessary to run it - it'd probably come into its own on poor quality material and/or a long job where the blade could end up a bit dull.

I bought the 48T/12in 058057 version of the Leitz WZ multipurpose/universal blade for everyday work - and it's been 100% on melamine projects. Clean cutting both sides and long lived. A year's light use later it still handles cheap 18mm ply cross grain top veneers with almost no tear out (maybe the odd fine fibre here and there in what's pretty 'hairy' stuff, but perfectly acceptable) and effectively none when fresh. Here: https://shopuk.leitz.org/product.php?id=52235&itemid=19632&pgid=52235&chash=0130f5

There's finer toothed versions available too which probably would be even better on melamine. Also 10in dia.

Leitz blades and sharpening are regarded as very good, the service is reportedly excellent in the US too. They seemingly run very good quality grinding machines - a Felder Silent Power they sharpened for me in the UK was slightly but definitely better than new. Amana Tool (and i'm sure others) also do purpose made melamine blades in the US, there's a test of one here which looks good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzrl3R1KEpk

Melamine is very do-able. The key seems to be a true running and well aligned saw and high ATB/pointed tip blade as above that self scores/slices out at the edges of the kerf before taking a heavier cut towards the centre...