Melamine strength question

[Tom Porter]

I'm planning on building cabinets in a mudroom I'm putting in my garage. At this point, my intention is to use melamine. The cabinets will be built into a nook I've framed and drywalled. Part of the design is a bench about 12 inches tall and 12 inches deep with several open cubbies. It seems to me that, despite its reputation for a lack of strength, a 60 inch piece of melamine supported at both ends, at the back and every 10 inches with 3/4" melamine panels would be strong enough as a bench. The bench itself will sit on a drywall shelf supported by framing, so no worries there. But I wanted to check with a few who had more experience with melamine, since I routinely see comments about how it can be weak. I'm also open to suggestions about how to assemble it. I've searched a lot on here and seen that dadoes, biscuits and screws have all been suggested. Any comments are appreciated.

[Matt Day]

So you’re structural question is basically is a 12” x 10” “shelf” (you’ll have 6 of these forming the 60” bench), single piece of 3/4” melamine, supported fully at the back, strong enough?

Assuming I did the sagulator calc right, it is acceptable with a 250 lb load.

Last time I used melamine i used fastcap screws, worked well. They have a number of melamine accessories.

[Jamie Buxton]

I wouldn't want to have screwheads visible on the bench seat. In a mud room, isn't the seat going to get wet sometimes? If so, the water is going to collect on top of the countersunk screw heads, and immediately go sideways into the particle-board core. I'd run dados on the bottom side of the seat, and glue the cubby walls into them. The dados have little structural significance. They just remove the melamine so wood glue can bond the seat and the cubby walls.

[Wayne Lomman]

I agree with Jamie. Use dadoes or biscuits. It will be as strong as a brick s...house. Cheers

[Jim Becker]

'Just for making an important point, melamine is just the covering on the material...the strength of the substrate also matters. Most of what I've seen is particle board "inside" so knowing that is helpful in understanding strength for spans and weight handling of constructions.

[Steve Peterson]

'Just for making an important point, melamine is just the covering on the material...the strength of the substrate also matters. Most of what I've seen is particle board "inside" so knowing that is helpful in understanding strength for spans and weight handling of constructions.

The particle board core on 4x8 sheets of melamine at Home Depot or Lowes appears to be a better grade than the simple particle board. At least that is the case in my local area.

Steve

[John TenEyck]

I would use biscuits for the joinery, as dados will break the coating (and also reduce the cross section) and weaken the Melamine. I'm sure your design will be more than strong enough if all you do is sit on the bench, but I'm not sure it will be if you stand on it with each foot at the center of the span between the webs. I'd have to look up the bending strength and do some calcs. to see, or just build a little prototype and stand on it.

John