Melamine Shelving Joints

[Ryan Myers]

I have been commissioned to build some melamine shelving for the wife's work. I just finished ripping 14 sheets of melamine on my cabinet saw and can see why a slider would be great to have. Now my back is killing me.

The units are varying in length(5' - 7-1/2') but are approximately 76" inches tall, 12" deep with no back and shelves every 12". In addition to the end uprights I am placing 3" wide uprights front & back, so that there is no more than 30" unsupported shelf. I plan on using 3 dowel pins at every end joint plus a couple of screws maybe with washer heads. At the 3" uprights will just be two dowel pins with no screws. I originally was thinking of confirmat screws but I can't find them locally and I need to get these shelves assembled tommorrow. This is the largest project I have ever done with melamine/pb. I am having doubts about the joinery just because I know how temperamental PB is when it comes to screws. Does this seem sufficient?

[Paul Simmel]

Ryan,

I am going to building some cheep cabinet carcasses out of melamine PB. My plan is to do a shallow dado (1/4 or less) in the side panels in order to get a glue surface. I will glue, staple, and reinforce with screws.

[Jim Becker]

Confirmat screws are the best choice, but dados/rebates/grooves and Roo-Glue are an alternative.

[Ted Miller]

Ryan, I just got done doing about 40' run of Melamine shelving floor to ceiling in a large garage. I did dado all of the shelves. Since the melamine was 3/4" I went with 3/8" dado, glued. I went around the garage with the owner to see what he was adding to all these shelves and only a few them were going to carry some serious weight so I glued and screwed the shelves on those few units. I like to use flat head steel screws 1 1/2" predrill of course to hold up the shelves and if heavy loads will be there then I will either face the front of the shelf or support the back and both sides with 1" strips of hardwood painted. I like to build my shelving with a base so the melamine edges are not just sitting on the floor carring all the weight...

[frank shic]

ryan, if you're doing that many shelves, a biscuit jointer might be a little bit easier to cut while maintaing a little bit of fudge factor for alignment especially since a lot of your joints are not easily referenced off the ends of the case. if i were doing this, i'd make up multiple alignment jigs (just a board with a cleat on it) to help with the vertical spacing of the biscuit joints.

dowelling will definitely work. it's what some of the professional cabinetmakers and factories use along with large machines called case clamps but it requires much more precision.

screws will definitely work as well - confirmats are preferred but drywall screws will work as well in a pinch.

i'm getting ready to start my next project which will require 15 sheets of 3/4 melamine so i'll be sharing your back woes soon!!!