Thread: Domino into melamine

It's chipboard, right? You'll need to be really careful of racking the units off perpendicular when assembling and lifting them.

I fitted out our walk-in-robe with that board, just used chipboard screws and the little screw-head covers. Add clothes and you don't see many of them. It is a very tight space and fitting the upright panels first and then fitting the shelves made it possible

Yes it is melamine coated particle board. I will be using some sort of backing sheet.
For the kids rooms we will have 2 1200mm cabinets separated by a desk. So two end panels will be seen either side of the desk. I am going to minimize the amount of dominos if I can by using screws.

Just use 50 mm chipboard screws, either countersunk or with those little plastic caps. Space the screws 150-200 mm apart, and not closer than 50 mm from a corner.

in my view, the chipboard would not be strong enough to hold a mortise for a domino tenon.

Just a tip when screwing close to the corner attach a small clamp and you will avoid any splitting.

if your doing the cheaper route becuse of economics consider MDF. lot lot stronger than chipboard.

I get lots of 'used' cover sheets from local cabinet makers usually around $10 full sheet and that $$ goes into their 'christmas' fund

short answer not very long.

I've made some forms turned on a lathe using chipboard. I was sharpening my chisels every 10 mins or so in order to keep turning, so its def hard on the tools.

I wouldn’t even be concerned about the cutter, just go ahead and build them as planned. You cut up alll the melamine sheets with a tungsten saw blade or CNC cutter bit, the Domino is just doing the same.

Just do it!

Ah, yes I didn't realise that the cutters were carbide tipped.
The dominos will mostly support in shear so if a 5mm shelf pin supports a normal shelf, I suppose a 4mm or 5mm domino will be more then adequate. I will offset them and leave more material at the top. 6-5-5. I might do a test and use some poly glue and a domino and see how that goes.

Thanks to all for the valuable input.

The evolution of particle board fixing has been an interesting one. Nails, cam locks, screws, glue, dowels, and dominos. All have their pros and cons. A fixing nail gun and a battery driver saves a lot of time and a lot of mess. A couple of thin nails shot in (if not visible) to hold the panel and finish with chipboard screws. No glue, no mess, no clean up, no drying time, on to the next one.

Originally Posted by rustynail

The evolution of particle board fixing has been an interesting one. Nails, cam locks, screws, glue, dowels, and dominos. All have their pros and cons. A fixing nail gun and a battery driver saves a lot of time and a lot of mess. A couple of thin nails shot in (if not visible) to hold the panel and finish with chipboard screws. No glue, no mess, no clean up, no drying time, on to the next one.

Agree, this is a very common method for cabinet makers. The downside for the OP might be he doesn’t want to see any fixings?

Originally Posted by Ardep

... The dominos will mostly support in shear so if a 5mm shelf pin supports a normal shelf, I suppose a 4mm or 5mm domino will be more then adequate. I will offset them and leave more material at the top. 6-5-5. ...

Please keep us posted with the results, Ardep.

With those 5mm shelf pins, you have 16 mm chipboard plus the surface melamine sitting on the pins.

With a centred domino, you have only 5.5 mm chipboard above and below the domino - big difference. You probably could offset it a little more than you have suggested, say 8-5-3.

The ultimate for strength might be to leave the dominos exposed - domino shelf pins - and then sit the shelf wholly on top.

With a centred domino

On that, Im very new to the domino. Is there a way to do this without using the thickness gauge on the side? When making the transoms and some external architraves I used the gauge, but use a closest to measurement and made sure that I only referenced from the top side. It worked, but they were offset.

A couple of things…you can put a small bit of 2 or 3 mm plastic or wood over the depth steps on the side to get an intermediate centre height. I have used that method on literally thousands of domino cuts. See photo

If you are worried about dulling your Festool cutter you can always buy a CMT version for less money, but I expect that you won’t see any noticeable difference after your project.

Originally Posted by Ardep

On that, Im very new to the domino. Is there a way to do this without using the thickness gauge on the side? When making the transoms and some external architraves I used the gauge, but use a closest to measurement and made sure that I only referenced from the top side. It worked, but they were offset.

When the board doesn’t match a preset gauge thickness I measure the board thickness with calipers and set the height gauge to half that value. That’ll get you very close to centred but you still want to reference from one side anyhow.
cheers
Michael