Joining melamine faced boards

Looking at a sheet materials supplier’s website showed that melamine faced plywood is cheaper than b/bb grade (unless I’ve misunderstood)

We’ve been looking for a bookcase/toy storage unit that doesn’t seem to exist. One solution is for me to make it. I find the woodwork bit can be done fairly quickly but finding the time for finishing takes so long. I mainly do everything outside.

If I’m right about the pricing of sheets then melamine faced board could be a solution to finishing but I’m not sure about joining boards. Am I limited to using screws and knock-down fittings, unless I strip/rebate the finish off for glueing areas?

Cheap biscuit jointer? Then glue and clamps

Ikea normally do those peg and catch joinings (google hafele cam locks for an example) for their melamin faced offerings. I’ve got a few in the garage I think fro when I stripped a load of broken cabinets and kept them “just in case”. It’d be a case of being able to accurately place each side – peg in once piece, receiving hole in the matching end then larger cam hole theough the inner face

edit – like this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Furniture-Eccentric-Connector-Pre-Inserted-Wardrobe/dp/B09CGVKZ7D/ref=asc_df_B09CGVKZ7D/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=552775282758&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18020691407835690227&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046436&hvtargid=pla-1462013382162&psc=1

glue and dowel?

Yeah, glue and dowel.

I built a hifi cabinet 30 years ago using that and it’s still being used in my garage as a general purpose shelving unit.

dowels don’t have the surface area like a biscuit for load bearing more a high heal than a nice flat shoe. No extra tools needed thou

Anywhere near Warwickshire I can lend you the means 👍

I make nearly all my furniture out of melamine faced board. In my case chipboard. If there is a surface that can’t be seen (back, base etc) then I use pocket hole screws. If on show, plastic joining blocks – called modesty blocks.
I would only use dowels (or dominos) for alignment, not strength. And I’ve never glued melamine, except edging strip.

I usually put a simple frame of stripwood on the shelves- stops them bowing under weight and gives loads of options for attachment, and IMO looks pretty nice with the colour contrast. You lose a little under-shelf space so you have to take that into account if it’s built for specifically sized items. It’s nice to do especially since it needs no special skills or tools

Used to always dowel and glue, ime it’s strong enough for most jobs but I don’t like the permanence of it now, I like being able to tweak and adjust stuff. (and I’ve been doing all the bits for my new place with boards reclaimed from old furniture)

I think DMorts is central belt so you’re looking at the melamine faced birch from either Latham’s or Thornbridge. It’s pretty good stuff – free of voids on the whole so the cut edge is attractive.

You do need some sort of mechanical fixing rather than glue if you’re not machining away the melamine on the joints.

You do save time on finishing – I used it when a client sprang a job on me that was so short notice there wasn’t any hope of putting any sort of finish on it.

you need to put some thought into cutting as chipping the melamine is all but impossible. You also need to ease the cut edge a bit, because it’s sharp but also remained prone to being chipped. Just the tiniest chamfer is all that’s needed though. As well as protect the edge the chamfer gets rid of any smaller chips.

Allow yourself some practice cuts to get reliable results and to allow some practice with different chamfers today get an edge you like (and account for that chamfer in your design so things intersect nicely at the corners

Favoured joining method for me is pocket screws. Small investment in kreg jig.
Second, order the sheet from somewhere like cutlist.co.uk where you can get all the parts cut to size (for free!) by them on their incredible panel saw. No chips. I’ve built my alcove units (and a small kids storage unit with the offcuts) using their cutting service and pocket hole joinery.
Agree on the above about chamfering. On my alcove units I did a very mild chamfer with a block plane. On the kids unit I use a roundover bit on a 1/4” router, but went to about half the depth of the roundover bit. Came out real nice and safe for the kid.

Many moons ago I worked for an architect based in the Lighthouse Glasgow and we did the Vitra retail shop that was put on the first floor. That was a full shop build including everything, mezzanines, wall coverings,flooring and all the units. Everything made from base materials.

All the counters, shelves and units were first made in mdf ,these were then finished in a *Formica laminate surface, glued on using industrial impact adhesive and brought to size using a router and trim bit.

The good thing about that was you could use 2 pack filler and a lot of sanding, to fill any and all gaps. It can be screwed together, biscuits etc, then those screw holes filled in 2 pack and sanded flush, all to be hidden under the outer layer of formica.

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*Formica is the name of the thin laminate sheet that when glued to a substrate(mdf/ply) becomes melamine.

The good thing about that was you could use 2 pack filler and a lot of sanding, to fill any and all gaps. It can be screwed together, biscuits etc, then those screw holes filled in 2 pack and sanded flush, all to be hidden under the outer layer of formica.

The great thing about it is if someone else is paying for the laminate!. Its quite eye waterrngly expensive for something that people often dismiss as being a cheap finish.

‘Formica’ / High Pressure Laminates and ‘Melamine’ are different things. High Pressure Laminates  are  much more resilient – being a fibre (paper basically)  laminated into a resin. Melamine is just a resin/plasitc on its own and much thinner. The reason you get the latter as a pre-applied finish on a board, rather than as a material to apply to a board, is its just too brittle on its own to be handled and transported where as HPLs are resilient enough to be able roll up a 8×4 sheet and stuff it in the boot of your car. Its also the reason a high quality birch board faced with melamine on both sides is cheaper than one piece of High Pressure Laminate

Confirmat screws for quick n easy carcass construction with chipboard is what I used to use.

design would depend on loading and fixed vs movable requirements, but a solid 6mm back panel
would usually do the job.

no need to muck around with planes or routers, just carefully rub a bit of wet n dry on the edges and handle carefully. Melamine splinters are horrible.

shelf fronts a few strips of 3mm ripped off any old batten and glued miles better than glue on edging unless you like ironing.

HNY!

Thanks for all the info, great stuff.

@maccruiskeen thanks for highlighting melamine and Formica are not the same thing, I thought they were. I think my desk is Formica faced ply, or something similar. The finish layer is about 1-1.5mm thick and looks like resin under the grey top layer. So, a melamine faced board would just be that very top grey layer straight onto the ply? Is how Ikea finishes its chipboard products, like kitchen units? If so that chips horribly when cut with my track saw! Maybe a scoring cut would help..

@kayak23 thank you very much for the offer, unfortunately I’m in Edinburgh. I’d like to know what ‘means’ were you offering to lend though?

@goldfish24 cutlist.co.uk seem to be trade only?

Things like ikea kitchen doors can be a thin ‘foil’ – almost a bonded on shrink wrap- if it follows round contoured edges then it’ll be that rather than melamine

you can help prevent chipping by putting a piece of scrap wood on top of the the board you’re cutting  so that the laminate / melamine is held film against the upwards motion of the blade