Planning on redoing my kitchen cabinets. Currently they are painted
plywood - really ugly. I do not want to tear them down and completely
rebuild them if I can avoid it. I thought I'd make some oak or ash doors and
face frames. The cabinet sides and possibly bottoms are the issue. I was
thinking of trying to laminate melamine or possibly thin oak ply(?) on those
surfaces. I've never worked with laminating melamine before.

Any suggestions, caveats? If I can find thin ( 1/4" ) oak ply, should I
glue the entire surface or spot glue & nail.

Thanx,

Vic

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don't

"Vic Baron" wrote in message
thinking of trying to laminate melamine or possibly thin oak ply(?) on
those
surfaces. I've never worked with laminating melamine before.

Are those surfaces finished in any way? If so, then properly gluing to them
might be difficult unless you strip whatever finish is applied.

"Upscale" wrote in message
...
"Vic Baron" wrote in message
thinking of trying to laminate melamine or possibly thin oak ply(?) on
those
surfaces. I've never worked with laminating melamine before.

Are those surfaces finished in any way? If so, then properly gluing to
them
might be difficult unless you strip whatever finish is applied.


Unfortunately they've been painted - probably will have to strip, I guess.


Vic

Vic Baron wrote:
Planning on redoing my kitchen cabinets. Currently they are painted
plywood - really ugly. I do not want to tear them down and completely
rebuild them if I can avoid it. I thought I'd make some oak or ash doors and
face frames. The cabinet sides and possibly bottoms are the issue. I was
thinking of trying to laminate melamine or possibly thin oak ply(?) on those
surfaces. I've never worked with laminating melamine before.

Any suggestions, caveats? If I can find thin ( 1/4" ) oak ply, should I
glue the entire surface or spot glue & nail.


Please let me know how this works out for you. I have a relative that
is thinking about undertaking something similiar.

I'm not sure how much labor you save though by stripping the cabinents
and gluing 1/4 oak ply to them. Since you are making new face frames
and doors anyway, you might be better off to just buy some 3/4" oak or
birch plywood for the cabinents themselves.
it's not that much more expensive.. at Home Depot, 1/4 oak ply is about
20/sheet, and 3/4 ply is about 40/sheet. I'd be concerned about how it
would look to just slap 1/4 plywood over the existing stuff.. but maybe
there's a good method to do it.

You could build and finish all the new cabinents in the shop and then
just have one day of hell taking the old ones down and putting up the
new ones.. so your kitchen is only disrupted for a day or two.

I've never undertaken a project as you've described before, so I am
interested in how it works out for you. Didn't mean to be a buzz kill,
I was just describing how I'd do it.

"bf" wrote in message
oups.com...

Vic Baron wrote:
Planning on redoing my kitchen cabinets. Currently they are painted
plywood - really ugly. I do not want to tear them down and completely
rebuild them if I can avoid it. I thought I'd make some oak or ash doors
and
face frames. The cabinet sides and possibly bottoms are the issue. I was
thinking of trying to laminate melamine or possibly thin oak ply(?) on
those
surfaces. I've never worked with laminating melamine before.

Any suggestions, caveats? If I can find thin ( 1/4" ) oak ply, should I
glue the entire surface or spot glue & nail.


Please let me know how this works out for you. I have a relative that
is thinking about undertaking something similiar.

I'm not sure how much labor you save though by stripping the cabinents
and gluing 1/4 oak ply to them. Since you are making new face frames
and doors anyway, you might be better off to just buy some 3/4" oak or
birch plywood for the cabinents themselves.
it's not that much more expensive.. at Home Depot, 1/4 oak ply is about
20/sheet, and 3/4 ply is about 40/sheet. I'd be concerned about how it
would look to just slap 1/4 plywood over the existing stuff.. but maybe
there's a good method to do it.

You could build and finish all the new cabinents in the shop and then
just have one day of hell taking the old ones down and putting up the
new ones.. so your kitchen is only disrupted for a day or two.

I've never undertaken a project as you've described before, so I am
interested in how it works out for you. Didn't mean to be a buzz kill,
I was just describing how I'd do it.


LOL! Not a buzz kill at all - that was my original plan but being inherently
lazy I thought I'd explore alternate methods. Forgot about the stripping
though - you're right - doing that "in place" is a chore. Not ready to start
quite yet though but I'm leaning back toward the remove and replace original
scenario.

Thanx,

Vic

In article ,
"Vic Baron" wrote:

"Upscale" wrote in message
...
"Vic Baron" wrote in message
thinking of trying to laminate melamine or possibly thin oak ply(?) on
those
surfaces. I've never worked with laminating melamine before.

Are those surfaces finished in any way? If so, then properly gluing to
them
might be difficult unless you strip whatever finish is applied.


Unfortunately they've been painted - probably will have to strip, I guess.


Vic

Roughing it up with some 36 grip in a beltsander will work. Then wash it
down with something nasty, like lacquer thinner.
Then use PL 700 (no nails) construction adhesive...annnnnnnnnnnd
a couple of brads till the glue sets.
Make sure the face-frame protrudes enough to cover the 1/4" plywood. (I
use 1/4" ply for that kinda thing.)