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Thread: Where to buy melamine

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
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    cincinnati, oh
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    505

    Where to buy melamine

    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

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Belleville, IL
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    489
    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.

  3. #3
    I hear you can get it in Chinese milk.
    --
    Life is about what your doing today, not what you did yesterday! Seize the day before it sneaks up and seizes you!

    Alan - http://www.traditionaltoolworks.com:8080/roller/aland/

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    Bloomington, IL
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    Menards has black laminate that you can apply yourself. The Melamine here is white and it is already applied.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2005
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    walnut creek, california
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    get it from a plywood supplier if you can as it's usually much higher quality than the stuff you get at the borg.

  6. #6

    Black

    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

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
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    Indiana
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    672
    Quote Originally Posted by Alan DuBoff View Post
    I hear you can get it in Chinese milk.
    ah, hell! Someone beat me to the punchline! I also hear you can find it in dogfood too.

  8. #8
    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!

    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...
    --
    Life is about what your doing today, not what you did yesterday! Seize the day before it sneaks up and seizes you!

    Alan - http://www.traditionaltoolworks.com:8080/roller/aland/

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Rio Rancho, NM
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    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.
    Nancy Laird
    Owner - D&N Specialties, Rio Rancho, New Mexico
    Woodworker, turner, laser engraver; RETIRED!
    Lasers - ULS M-20 (20W) & M-360 (40W), Corel X4 and X3
    SMC is user supported. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/donate.php
    ___________________________
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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Northern New Jersey
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    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


  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Tampa, FL
    Posts
    974
    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.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Peachtree City, GA
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    1,582
    China has a lot of it. They use it in dog food.
    Maurice

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Nancy Laird View Post
    ... 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?

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Doylestown, PA
    Posts
    7,551

    Cutting Melamine

    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

  15. #15

    Frank is right

    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).

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