thin melamine??

[engineerone]

so what is the thinnest mfc you can buy easily,
15mm or are there places you can get even thinner.

need to make a couple of floaters and the client wants
then white, but not painted.

think that 15 units would be too heavy.

paul

[jfc]

need to make a couple of floaters

;D ;D ;D

[jasonb]

8mm is easy enough to get hold of in plain white or woodgrain but your floaters may turn into saggers otherwise its 15mm contibix. Or you can get decent MFC in 15mm.

Jason

[Scrit]

jasonb said:

8mm is easy enough to get hold of in plain white or woodgrain

Both Finsa and Egger do 8mm MFC in a double sided white/magnolia (two sides different colours) finish - Kronospan go one further and do it in white/magnolia AND beech/metalika. You can also get MF-MDF in the same finishes and same thickness. One downside is that this stuff comes in "jumbos", i.e. 2.6 x 2.0 metres. I've used the stuff for retail stand backs and cheapo drawer bottoms but never for "floaters" (whatever they are, do tell ;D)

Scrit

[jasonb]

My local supplier does a limited range of the 8mm in 8x4 sheets

Think he wants floating shelves, thats why I said they would be saggers in 8mm material.

Jason

[engineerone]

i was hoping to make two floating shelves
which would be torsion boxes which is why i
am thinking abut thinner than 15mm.

so i guess no one does it in narrower strips
then?

and no i am not smoking any strange herbs

paul

[Scrit]

engineerone said:

I was hoping to make two floating shelves

Phew! I had begun to wonder if the "floaters" were something completely different (Note to self: Stop listening to "Derek & Clive Live" before answering questions on the 'Net......)

engineerone said:

Which would be torsion boxes which is why I am thinking abut thinner than 15mm.

So I guess no one does it in narrower strips
then?

You could always get a supplier to saw it into strips for you. In Manchester or Sheffield the company for that would be HPP (Hills Panel Products). Surely you've got someone down in London who offers the same service? Silvermans? SLH?

A couple of things about assembling melamine-faced boards into torsion boxes - you ain't going to be able to pin them and you'll probably have to use a better glue than DIY shop PVA (and scuff the surface to be glued I've no doubt)

One interesting technique I came across recently was this:



That is Spa Laminates "Aeropanel" product - very light but very strong. Fundamentally it is a piece of pink expanded insulation foam, the dense stuff used by builders in attics, etc laminated up with thin MDF. You could probably make that yourself. Just a thought

Scrit

[engineerone]

looks like the latest version of "mallite"

seems to me always that if you don't screw melamine stuff,
then you need to strip off some of the coating to ensure a good fitting, and i had thought to strip it off and glue.

as for floating, well of course, if you go to the optician, then
he/she can tell whether you have floaters in your eyes

paul

[Scrit]

engineerone said:

Seems to me always that if you don't screw melamine stuff, then you need to strip off some of the coating to ensure a good fitting, and I had thought to strip it off and glue.

Strip it off and you unbalance the sheet........ always assuming it will come off. That's why I suggested scuffing it with a very coarse sandpaper to provide a surface for mechanical bonding. Then if you use something like a UF glue (e.g. Cascamite, Euromite, Vegemite or whatever they are calling it thes days), as opposed to some crappy PVA, and cramp the joints whilst they are setting you should achieve a good bond. There are one or two D3/D4 cross-linked PVAs around these days which can do the job, but they are generally only available through trade outlets.

Still leaves you with the problem of how to treat the edges, though ;D

Scrit

[engineerone]

my plan was to cut the edges and main pieces at 45 degrees
and glue it that way for the front and sides. with a proper structure inside it should work well

but thanks again for the update re removing the skin]

paul

[jaco]

engineerone said:

and no i am not smoking any strange herbs

paul

Glue???

[engineerone]

no, just ordinary scotch, not the glue ;D

paul

[wizer]

scrit said:

I like that idea

[jonnyd]

could you make the boxes up out of thin mdf and apply laminate and a balancer on the inside and do the edges after glue up. If you didnt want to see the black edges of the laminate you could use the formica colourcore which is white all the way through although more expensive.

Jon