Building bathroom cabinets with domino and prefinished ply

[lambeater]

I'm about to start building the cabinets for my bathroom with my new domino and either prefinished birch or maple ply. They will be euro style cabinets and I intend to edge the fronts and veneer the end in VG fir. Doors will also be VG fir.
Questions, Is it best to just cut dominoe slots and sand off the prefinish edges for gluing or use a melamine glue? Since we are now dominoe joining is there no need for a dado slot or should I still cut a narrow one. Pictures and thoughts from cabinet guys would be much appreciated.
thx
Lambeater

 

[lambeater]

Anybody ??? ???

 

[woodguy7]

None of the shop bought cabinets have rebates dados on them.  They are usualy doweld not domino but that shouldnt make a difference.  I made a bedside cabinet that had dados & i also reinforced with donimos.  Never used that melamine glue you refer to, if fact i have never heard of it but it may be that it is not available over here.  I am sure i will be corrected though.
My tops were 36mm thick so a dado & donimo was not a problem but if the had an 18mm thick carcase & you put a dado in it, there would not be a lot of depth left for a decent donimo.

Woodguy

 

[tiralie]

lambeater:
Depending on how you want the joint to look and size of cabinet you may want to dado. I have used Domino only with glue on a MDF (melamine) painted carcass and dadoed carcasses with yellow carpenters glue and screws/staples in melamine carcass and both work. I prefer Confirmat screws but dominoes and wood screws work.
Personally I prefer the the dado/domino combo better as it is easier to line up the carcass and shelf components and it makes for a tighter joint.
I have dadoed 13mm (1/2") and 20mm (3/4") material and had good results.
Depending on how much strength and how much stress/load  the cabinet carcass will bear are a couple factors you need to consider in the construction.
Generally speaking Bathroom cabinets rest on the floor so Domino's with screws would work fine. If you are hanging the cabinet from the wall (with no base) dadoes and screws with glue would be better choice.
If the edges are pre-finished (?) and you want a fir edge you could orient the cut edges to the front and trim with fir or you could cut the finished edge off and then glue on the fir trim the the veneer core. If you can find pre-glued fir trim it makes the job go faster than making your own and it works well. 3-4 mil. trim is better and holds up to abuse much better than the glue on but it is harder to work with.
I have never used a melamine glue but others have recommended Roo glue.
You should also think about matching (fir) panels on either side of the cabinet if both or one or the other is facing into the room.
Hope this helps.
Good luck
Tim

 

[Kevin Stricker]

I think it was Jerry Work who was using the Domino then routing a dado over the Domino mortices to get the best of both worlds.  My problem with dados is that my table saw is sure to scratch any pre-finished ply I get near it.

I have built cabinets where I only glued the domino mortice and domino and not the plywood edges and they came out great.  For bathroom cabinets I would probably add some screws or staples to keep joints tight while getting all the dominos in and ready to clamp up.  Pocket screws work great for this.