Melamine vs birch plywood

[donwon]

I have been a member for about a year and this site is great!  Lots of good feedback and "how to" knowledge and tips.

I am looking at making built in cabinets over the winter and keep reading about projects on this site to help guide me.

One question I have and please be kind with feedback as I do not know why, but everyone seems to say melamine is no good for built ins and one should use a birch plywood that is painted.

I will state some obvious facts first.

1. Melamine is particle board.  Not as strong as plywood and if it gets wet, it will self destruct
2. Melamine requires sharp tools and support of the sheets when cutting in order to prevent chip out.  In some cases it is very hard to achieve but with Festools track saws it can be done.
3. Melamine is difficult to touch up
4. Birch plywood cuts like a dream
5. Both woods would require some front facing

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

[ccarrolladams]

I have been a member for about a year and this site is great!  Lots of good feedback and "how to" knowledge and tips.

I am looking at making built in cabinets over the winter and keep reading about projects on this site to help guide me.

One question I have and please be kind with feedback as I do not know why, but everyone seems to say melamine is no good for built ins and one should use a birch plywood that is painted.

I will state some obvious facts first.

1. Melamine is particle board.  Not as strong as plywood and if it gets wet, it will self destruct
2. Melamine requires sharp tools and support of the sheets when cutting in order to prevent chip out.  In some cases it is very hard to achieve but with Festools track saws it can be done.
3. Melamine is difficult to touch up
4. Birch plywood cuts like a dream
5. Both woods would require some front facing

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

You are correct, to efficiently cut Melamine with minimum chip out on a production basis, you really need a saw with a scoring unit. If you do decide to use Melamine and want to use guide rails and Festool track saws, a solid sacrificial surface supporting the Melamine is vital.

Before I owned a pressure beam saw (these were perfected to allow Ikea and similar factories to efficiently use Melamine) my approach was to use the Festool Solid Surface/Laminate Saw Blade (cat 496 309) on a TS55 with at least one and better 2 19mm plywood sacrificial sheets supporting the Melamine. I would carefully clamp the guide rail in position.

Traditionally the scoring blade rotates in the opposite direction to the main blade. My experience is when using a Festool TS55, I would actually set the scoring cut to only be 2mm deep and I would pull the saw backwards. Then I would reset the depth to the thickness of the Melamine plus 2-3mm and run the saw in the conventional way. This approach has always worked well for me, but obviously takes a lot longer than sawing the sheet in a single pass.

I would have to include the extra labor when estimating Melamine jobs. Consequently it has been a long time since anyone has paid my price for Melamine jobs built on site.

In my shop both my pressure beam saw and my large Felder slider saw have scoring units with can be put into action with a click on that instruction. There is no extra labor. The action of the pressure beams also reduce chip out.

By the way, when building cabinets to be painted I still prefer maple to birch plywood. Should you decide to use shelf-pin holes, you will want to paint the sheets before drilling. Or, buy prefinished maple plywood assuming you want that natural look for the inside of the cabinets.

 

[stvrowe]

Melamine is just fine for built-ins, it lays flat, is pre-finished and easy to clean. If you want a solid painted appearance, I would choose the melamine product over ply every day of the week just for the time savings.  For particle board, I stick with the commercial and industrial grades which have higher density cores.  I would have no hesitation using it especially if you have the equipment to get clean cuts on both sides.  It has two downsides that you did not mention;  1) it is very heavy and, 2) the edges will cut you like a knife.  When using it, just be sure to use fastening and joining methods appropriate for particleboard.

Not all melamine products have particle board cores, you can also get them with an MDF core.

 

[BMH]

I switch to melamine to build my boxes or built in closets.  All melamine is not equal, I discovered the pleasure of Roseburg high density particle board. With the right type of blade on your Festool track saw and correct support under the sheet you have very little tear out. Steve is correct this makes for very heavy box and the edge are knife like. I don't think that there is much difference in water resistance between HD particle board and plywood. Domino makes assembly a breeze.

That being said the price is $27 versus $80 plus for good plywood, with the money saved you can spend more money on the doors or drawers front. Don't forget the hardware, a good drawer needs good slides and they are expensive. Overall melamine is more cost effective in my mind for many projects. If the budget is unlimited then high quality plywood is the funner way to go.

 

[panelchat]

not sure what you are building but if you end up with wide adjustable shelves anywhere, say more that two feet or so, veneer core panels are best as they make for stronger unsupported spans. the particle panels are great but tend to sag, sometimes a lot, if used for wide, unsupported shelves.

otherwise particle boards are great for casework- buy a $100k italian or german kitchen and the cabinets are made of good particle board products.