Where to buy melamine

[Mike McCann]

I am building a tv entertainment center and the plans call for 1/4" black melamine. Where can you get this. Does it come already on plywood or do you have to apply it yourself. I can go either way just not sure where you can find it to purchase.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks
Mike

[Guy Germaine]

I don't know about black, but I buy white melamine at the BORG. Lowe's and Home Depot both carry it. You may have to order black, though.

[Alan DuBoff]

I hear you can get it in Chinese milk. :eek:

[Mike Heidrick]

Menards has black laminate that you can apply yourself. The Melamine here is white and it is already applied.

[frank shic]

get it from a plywood supplier if you can as it's usually much higher quality than the stuff you get at the borg.

[Lon LeBlanc]

Fine cabinet shop here in Lake Arrowhead gets it. I find a piece or two in the scrap pile from time-to-time. It's cabinet grade ply, and I used the scraps for jigs and such.


Lon

[Ray Schafer]

Go to a place that supplies cabinet grade sheet goods -- the nearest place that the cabinetmakers go to. Their melamine will be cabinet-grade. The stuff at the BORG is lower quality (and I suspect is the reason that so many people have a bad feeling about particle board core melamine).

[Peter Quinn]

They sell it in many colors through a good cabinet supplier(white, black, yellow, blue, red, green, etc), usually in either a particle board or MDF substrate, but the main office for melamine supplies is in HELL. Pretty sure the devil himself invented the stuff. Explains the milk thing too.:D

[Steve Clardy]

They sell it in many colors through a good cabinet supplier(white, black, yellow, blue, red, green, etc), usually in either a particle board or MDF substrate, but the main office for melamine supplies is in HELL. Pretty sure the devil himself invented the stuff. Explains the milk thing too.:D



ROFL....good...good :D

[Bruce Wrenn]

They sell it in many colors through a good cabinet supplier(white, black, yellow, blue, red, green, etc), usually in either a particle board or MDF substrate, but the main office for melamine supplies is in HELL. Pretty sure the devil himself invented the stuff. Explains the milk thing too.:DMelamine is great for boxes. No grain, wipes clean, and no finishing required. You do need the right blade to cut it. Just finishing a $11K job that has melamine boxes, with wood exteriors. All the ladies brag about the "white interiors" being so light, instead of looking like a dungeon. Boxes were built using Danny Proulx's method.

[Jamie Buxton]

... 1/4" black melamine. Where can you get this. Does it come already on plywood or do you have to apply it yourself...


"Melamine" is common shorthand for "Melamine-covered particle board". It consists of a thin layer (.005" or so) of melamine thermally bonded to particle board at the factory.

A related product is high pressure laminate. Formica is a leading brand, and that name is often used to mean high pressure laminate made by any manufacturer. HPL is about a sixteenth of an inch thick -- thick enough that it can be shipped and sold separately from a substrate. You buy a sheet of it and adhere it to your substrate.

[Denny Rice]

I hear you can get it in Chinese milk. :eek:

ah, hell! Someone beat me to the punchline! I also hear you can find it in dogfood too.

[Alan DuBoff]

Oh no...dogs need to worry also?

Seriously, my kitchen cabinets are lined with melamine, but I didn't build them, a friend I went to middle and high school that I have known most of my life built them for us before I was getting back into woodworking.

I can say that if you spill milk ON it, it wipes right up! :p

My wife is pretty happy with it, the sides and shelves are lined with it, over particle board as Jamie mentions. If any liquid did penetrate inside the particle board would fall apart, so that would be one downside.

It is easy to clean, which is good for my wife. We actually like it, just don't want it inside our kid's milk...:rolleyes:

[Nancy Laird]

All of my kitchen cabinets, plus my dining room built-in china cabinet and buffet, plus my pantry cabinets, plus my sunroom cabinets, are built from white (or almond) melamine, with oak faceframes and doors. They are super easy to clean - just a damp cloth or, for sticky or stubborn things, a spritz of 409 cleans them right up.

Word of warning---if you are going to rabbet and/or dado for the backs, joints, and/or shelving, do NOT use the "special" glue that is recommended for use with melamine. If you do rabbets or dadoes, you will be gluing MDF (or particleboard) to like, or melamine to the substrate, and the glue does not work, unless you are gluing melamine to melamine. Use regular yellow carpenter's glue, and also screw the boxes together about every 6-8". The melamine glue will only soak into the substrate, the joint will dry out, and the box will fall apart in a very short time. Do NOT ask me how I know that--the recollection is too painful.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Melamine was more available to the regular guy and gal back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I was able to get it in white, gray, almond and black. I was also able to get it in 3/4", 1/2" and 1/4".

Today, only white 3/4" is readily available at Lowes or Home Depot. Black is available at only one select lumber yard near me with limited stock.

Melamine certainly has some advantages: stable, inexpensive, no finishing, and a clean-able surface.

Here's a re-post of a melamine kitchen that was refaced about 2 years ago. The door faces have high gloss formica applied over the melamine surfaces. The sides of the melamine carcass's are real wood veneer and are now 20 years old.

-Jeff :)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/DSCF03881024x768.jpg

[Russ Filtz]

HPL >> Melamine. A good quality laminate will be tougher than melamine which is pretty soft. For cheapo drawer, shelves, etc. it's usually fine, but for something nice or countertops, etc., I'd stick with HPL, but it will be more expensive.

[Maurice Ungaro]

China has a lot of it. They use it in dog food.

[Mike Sheppard]

I needed a sheet of 1/4" and got it at Toledo Plywood Co (http://www.toledoplywood.com/), about 100 mile round trip. I don't know if they ship.
Mike

[David Keller NC]

Mike - For your entertainment center, get the melamine or formica already adhered to MDF or plywood (a specialty sheet goods supplier is the best place - they should have either substrate and a range of colors).

While you can laminate formica or melamine onto a substrate yourself, it's not an easy thing to do correctly (I've tried it). Unless you have a press or a vacuum bag system, it's tough to get it down straight and bubble-free, and the glues that they use at the factories is far superior to the contact cement usually sold to individuals.

And - you will need a fine-cut blade for your table saw and/or circular saw, preferably one specifically made for HPL work (Forrest sells one, as do Freud and others). Chipping this stuff is very easy.

Also, make sure your dust collection system is up to snuff. The chemicals used to make HPL are nasty, and the dust is micro-fine, abrasive and hazardous.

[Chris Harper]

... and the glue does not work, unless you are gluing melamine to melamine.

Nancy,

I'm under the impression that melamine glues are suitable when glueing particle board to melamine, or in other words for the typical butt joint.

Is this incorrect?

[Curt Harms]

I did a couple book cases using Borg Melamine/particle board. I did get chipping when cutting it in one trip. I found that if I made 2 passes, one with the blade about 1/16" high just to score the melamine then a 2nd pass to cut the rest of the way through it worked great. Obviously not a technique for large scale usage but it worked fine for a dozen or so cuts. Sort of a poor man's scoring blade setup:).

HTH

Curt

[Mike McCann]

Everyone thanks for your input. I was able to find someone local who carries the 1/4" x 4' x 8' black melamine. If any one is interested it is at the following place. It is around 30 bucks for the sheet.

Flagg, Inc.
9195 Seward Road
Fairfield, OH 45014
Phone: 513-874-5900