Sealing the ends of melamine boards

[Dengue]

Can anyone please advise how best to seal the ends of the box carcase top and base shown below, plus the 3 exposed edges ( not shown) of the door

[mic-d]

Hi Jill,
You can either buy iron-on melamine strip from the hardware or you can fill the raw edge with builders bog or a wood putty and sand smooth and then paint it.

[malb]

The door would normally be edged all round with a matching plastic edging material. The ends of the top would normally be done the same way if visible.

The edging can be bought in lengths from about 10m, preglued or unglued, and in various thicknesses.

Components would normally be cut undersize to finish at the required size when edged. Typical material for your job would be 0.4mm thick preglued, which would be wider than the stock thickness. This can be ironed onto the edge with a household iron or similar, or a heat gun and some form of roller, as the glue is heat activated. The edging is then trimmed to width using a specialist trimmer, a block plane, or a file and plane blade for the last .25mm or so. Pre glued edging should be available wherever you buy the sheeting.

For the case, you could get away with sealing the ends with a coat of epoxy or varnish to weatherproof it, but it would not help cosmetically.

Hope this helps.

[Sturdee]

Hi Jill,
You can either buy iron-on melamine strip from the hardware .

Bunnings sells it but I buy it from a kitchen supply company, much cheaper that way.

When you use an old iron to iron them on, use some grease proof baking paper between the iron and the edging tape to stop marks getting on them. You can trim the tape with an sharp putty knife and then sand the edge with 320 # sandpaper.


Peter.

[Christos]

I would go for the plasitc strip. It will most likely mention on the packet

Keep the iron moving.
Press with a roller.
Cut off excess with a very sharp knife.
Lightly sand the edge (I perfer to use 120 - 180grit).

I might suggest that you take each piece apart so that you are not going to burn the other surface.

[Dengue]

In the end, becasue I was in a bit of a hurry to finish the damn thing, I used Interior Timber Polyfilla left over from a paint job, sanded it and painted it with sealer and white finish coat. Not as nice and neat as edging. Also in the past I have had a lot of trouble trimming the pre-glued edging, so that turned me off.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Next time I will go a bit slower :)

[Mrs Blackie]

Iron on melamine strip would give it that proper finishing touch and look, they come in all different colours textures and sizes, just make sure if you do that you remove any dust or particals left on the surface before ironing it on there, then use a very fine sanding block to do the edges to take any sharpness away.