What Is Melamine Lumber?
Melamine lumber is a sheet lumber product that is used for cabinets and furniture. The smooth surface and void-free core make it an ideal material choice for budget conscious builders and manufacturers. The variety of colors and wood grains that are available in melamine lumber make it popular with designers and builders. Does this Spark an idea?
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Melamine Lumber
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Melamine has become the commonly used name for a manufactured lumber product. The product is a core of particle board or MDF (medium-density fiberboard) that has paper bonded to one or both sides with a melamine resin. The paper used to coat the core determines the color of the finished product and, though it is most often seen in the lumber yard in white, it is made in a wide variety of colors and wood grains to emulate solid lumber.
Choosing a Core for Melamine Lumber
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The type of project you are building with melamine lumber will determine which core to choose. Both particle board and MDF are created by mixing waste wood product with an adhesive and then pressing the mixture into sheet form. Particle board is created from larger grains of wood and is especially susceptible to swelling and warping from moisture. The larger grains do not hold fasteners well and tend to tear out when cut.
MDF used as a core is the heavier of the two due to the finer grains of wood used and the density of the resulting sheet. It is less affected by moisture but it is not waterproof. MDF is also less susceptible to tear out due to its fine grain. This means that cuts are cleaner and that it can be milled easily to create different edge shapes.
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Shaping Melamine Lumber
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The melamine resin that is used to bond the decorative coating to the core forms a hard, protective surface that is ideal for the finished products. This same hard surface creates a problem for the woodworker in cutting and shaping operations. It is highly susceptible to chipping at the cut which exposes the core wood. The craftsman must use a fine plywood blade and preventative measures such as taping the line to minimize this problem.
Maintaining Melamine Lumber
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When used to make furniture or cabinets, melamine lumber is popular with consumers. It is maintained with household products and, because it is not solid lumber, the user does not need to worry about splinters or cracks in the wood. As long as the warnings against exposure to moisture are followed the wood is very stable and long lasting.
Formaldehyde Danger
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Some of the urea resins used to bond the MDF core of melamine lumber contain formaldehyde. While the trace amounts released from the wood over time are generally harmless, people who are highly sensitive to this chemical may not want to have melamine lumber used in their interior spaces. New forms of urea adhesives are made without formaldehyde but are less readily available. The same furniture or cabinet designs can be crafted from solid lumber and then painted or oiled to avoid exposure.
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