Confirmat Screws

[Don Selke]

Just placed a order for a confirmat screw starter kit. I need to put together a lot of melamine cabinets and have never used these screws or fasteners before.
I plan on using melamine glue as well as the screws. Is there any trick to there use and do you use clamps along with the screws for assembly.

[Nancy Laird]

Don, two things:

1. Predrill the holes for the screws, preferably with a countersink bit. Otherwise you'll be splitting the melamine from here to next year.

2. If you have ANY joints where wood is meeting wood or wood is meeting melamine, USE WOOD GLUE. Believe me, we found that out the hard way when all of the glue joints gave way and my china cabinet fell off the wall, destroying thousands of dollars of antique glassware and china. Glue and screw, about every six inches along every joint.

You are also going to want to use clamps to keep your boxes square.

Nancy

[Don Selke]

Thanks Nancy:

The kit comes with a confirmat drill bit as part of the kit. I have built a ton of cabinets but have never used the confirmat screws. I will practice on some scrap melamine and if I do not like them I will pitch them. Have used coarse screws and glue in melamine and MDF. But was looking for some people experienced in there use.:)

Thanks

[Jim Becker]

Roo-glue is specially formulated for use with Melemine.

Don, I haven't used the Confirmat screws yet, but will likely be doing so on a few projects I have on "the list". Keep us posted with how things work out for you.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Particle board screws also work well with melamine products. Particle board is what they are. Confimat screws main draw is the ability to take something apart and reassemble again. I use them when building high chairs for grandchilderen. Take um apart, and store till the next one. Try to get hold of a copy of Danny Proulx's book on Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets. He turned me onto particle board screws, which are much cheaper.

[Dave Falkenstein]

I have used confirmat screws to build a number of cabinets. They work really well. I have made cabinet carcasses with confirmat screws and no glue at all, and have not had a failure. I have also assembled many Home Depot cabinet kits, which use butt joints and a cam screw system with no glue. Again, never a joint failure.

There is no particular trick to using confirmat screws other than using the correct size for the material and pre-drilling with the step bit that is in the starter kit you bought.

When gluing melamine, I usually use a dado joint, so I am gluing wood to wood. I use Titebond for those joints. I have used Gorilla Glue successfully when gluing wood to melamine or melamine to melamine. Roo Glue that Jim mentioned is supposed to be as good as or better than Gorilla Glue for melamine. One issue with Gorilla Glue is that it expands as it cures, so cleanup of the excess is VERY important, and must be done while the glue is soft.

[Don Selke]

Thanks guys for all the responses, I will give them a try and see how I like them.
Dave: Hope you are enjoying the cool weather up north, I will be heading to Illinois for my Moms 89th birthday.:)

[luc gendron]

Hello,

I've built a few kitchens and also visited quite a few cabinet shops and none use glue for melamine cabinets. I suspect poor design led to your china cabinet failure. I have kitchen cabinets loaded with dishes and no failure. As for confirmat screws, why bother? 2'' particle board screws, predrilled of course, are much quicker and will hold as much, if not better than confirmat.

[Nancy Laird]

Hello, I suspect poor design led to your china cabinet failure. I

No, Luc, is was NOT "poor design" that led to the failure of the china cabinet. It was failure of the crappy melamine glue that dried out in the less-than-humid atmosphere of New Mexico, and not enough screws used in the assembly. After the china cabinet fell off the wall, LOML went back and checked the two buffets built the same way and had to reglue and screw them, as they were also about to fall apart because of the crappy melamine glue.

Bottom line? Do NOT use melamine glue if you are gluing anything wood to wood or wood to melamine; it will not hold. Use just regular yellow glue.

Nancy

[frank shic]

don, i've used confirmat screws extensively in many of my projects. are you planning on using 5/8" material or 3/4" material? the smaller 5mm screw works well in 5/8" material if you're new to this application and won't tend to blow through the sides as easily as the larger 7mm screw will. ditch the clamps and the glue if you have an air compressor and finish nailer or stapler. when you pre-drill, you may want to make a centering mark (5/16" for 5/8" and 3/8" for 3/4") to assist you in placement. another alternative is to use a general drill guide and attach a subbase to it with anothe scrap of wood attached for locating the center of the hole. i usually use three on upper cabinets and four on lower cabinets.

[Dave Falkenstein]

...Bottom line? Do NOT use melamine glue if you are gluing anything wood to wood or wood to melamine; it will not hold. Use just regular yellow glue.

Nancy

Nancy - Yellow wood glue will not bond to melamine. Using yellow wood glue in a wood to melamine joint is an invitation to disaster. Gorilla Glue or Roo Glue will bond to melamine.

[Jim Becker]

True, Dave. The solution is that the melamine surface needs to be scored along the joint lines and peeled off so you have a "wood product" to "wood product" joint for the PVA glue to work...and it will work well at that point.

[John Gregory]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the specs for using the confirmat screws is every 6"-8" With that many screws in a carcass, I don't see how it could fail, glue or not. I built a bunch of cabinets for a neighbor, using melamine and confirmat every 8 inches. Very sturdy.

I brad nailed the parts together to hold them while I drilled and installed the screws.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

we found that out the hard way when all of the glue joints gave way and my china cabinet fell off the wall, destroying thousands of dollars of antique glassware and china. Nancy

Oh my. That's gotta hurt.

Either change the glue, or collect antique Rubbermaid stuff.

As for me, I use just plain old coarse thread drywall screws, or deck screws, with yellow glue. Pre-drilling is a must. I don't rely on any part of the joint that touches the melamine. Polyeurethane glues have always been underwhelming to me...even in a humid environment.

-Jeff :)

[Don Selke]

Thanks again guys for all the information. As previously stated, I have used both Roo glue and coarse square drive screws on melamine with great results. A friend of mine highly recommended that I try the conformat screws so I thought I would give it a try.
Nancy: Living here in the desert SW I know about dry conditions. temperature here today 110 with 11% humidity. Yellow glue sets so fast that you can only apply it to a few serfaces at a time. Have to use Titebond lll or similar extended glue.

[Nancy Laird]

Oh my. That's gotta hurt.
-Jeff :)

Yeah, Jeff, it did. I cried for days. Among the things destroyed were glassware given to my grandparents as wedding gifts in 1914, real cut glass that belonged to my hubby's grandmother that she had inherited, and some china that his other grandmother had brought over from Germany when the family immigrated prior to 1910, a dozen Ukranian eggs that had been in the family for 50 years---and that's just the stuff I can remember. I was just sick.



Nancy: Living here in the desert SW I know about dry conditions. temperature here today 110 with 11% humidity.

Yeah, Don, it's about 91 or so here, humidity is at 8% right now, according to the trusty news website. But you gotta remember, we're at 5000 feet. It's actually pretty pleasant outside, after yesterday's 97!!.

Nancy

[Ed Falis]

Nancy & David,

Sorry to hear about that loss. There's no escape from the weather though. Here in MA it's around 90 degrees and Houston humid. I'm not even sure how I'm managing to work without A/C.

- Ed