That time I tried using melamine for drawer boxes instead of plywood

I had a kitchen job in Nashville last fall where the client wanted white interiors on a tight budget. Figured I'd save some cash and use melamine instead of the Baltic birch I normally do. Big mistake - the stuff chipped like crazy on the dados and the edges just wouldn't hold up to the Blum slides. Learned my lesson though, now I only use plywood for drawers no matter what the customer says. Any of you guys had luck with melamine on something specific?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena_miller3116d agoMost Upvoted

What kind of slides were you using? I've heard some guys say the undermount Blum slides are way more picky about edge quality than the side mount ones, so maybe that was part of the problem. Also, did you use a cabinet grade melamine or the cheap stuff from the big box store? I feel like there's a big difference between the two, the good stuff has a denser core that doesn't chip as bad on the dados. But yeah, I've pretty much given up on melamine for anything that gets opened and closed a lot, it just doesn't have the same strength.

hayes.tara16d agoTop Commenter

@xena_miller31 Did you notice the chip-out on the dado cuts too, or just the edges?