Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×
 


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 02-15-2015, 08:36 AM   #1
Senior Member
 
boywonder's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: So Cal
Posts: 4,036
Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

OK.....time for a laminating/resurfacing demo/tutorial........

Nick was kind enough to drop by and loan me one of his SMB galley panels for reference.

A few observations about that panel:

The T molding appears to be glued on

The panel appears to be approx 5/8" thick MDF/melamine.

So in the interest of not harming any existing panels, I decided to create a pint-sized panel from scratch to show the steps and not burn up too much material.

Note: If other typical SMB doors are the same (roughly 5/8") thickness, these may be extremely easy to reface, as gluing new laminate to both sides will probably get you very close to 3/4" thick, perfect for std T molding.

The neighbor had a piece of laminate left over from his RV table rebuild, so I used some of that for this tutorial.

It's not the sexiest color, so we are all going to have to squint a little & pretend this is the new super cool cherry flavor laminate that SMB has...or whatever your favorite is..use your imagination..........

I used a scrap piece of 3/4" Baltic Birch which is actually 18mm, slightly thinner than 3/4" which is approx 19mm.


The first step was to cut the laminate slightly larger than the panel. I used my non-ferrous blade for this and it cut nice but any crosscut blade should work fine. If you don't have a table saw, a jigsaw or any other method you can come up with to cut the laminate will be fine, rough edges are no issue as they will be trimmed later. Heck, you can probably score it with a utility knife and snap it.









Here is a shot of the required supplies:

The panel to be covered
The Laminate
Contact cement (more on this later)
T-molding (more on this later)
A chip brush of other cheap paint brush








I rounded over the corners of the panel; this allows the T molding to conform to the panel better than hard corners. I used a 1/2 round over bit , it appears that Nick's SMB panel has 3/8" radiused corners, whatever you like will work fine.

I used my router table for this although it can also be done with a hand-held router and round-over bit.







Next comes the groove for the T molding. The finned rib on the T molding was about .110" wide, so this requires a 3/16" (.093") thin-kerf blade to make the groove. Standard 1/8" (.125") blades are too wide and won't grip the molding fin. Most modern rip blades (and my non-ferrous blade) are 3/16" wide.

This is the only operation that requires a table saw; the requirements for the groove are that it's centered on the edge of the panel and that it's deeper than the the center fin on the T mold.

All four edges are grooved for the T molding.








Next up.......I figured I'd get a little fancy and throw in a Southco latch since I had one laying around. These are available from McMaster for about $16. This requires a 2" diameter hole, easy enough with a hole saw or a forstner bit.

Here is the panel fully machined ready for glue-up:






Once the machining is done, the laminate is glued on by painting the panel surfaces and the back of the laminate with contact cement and letting the contact cement dry. This took about 5 minutes to dry in So Cal today since we are having Santa Ana conditions with a relative humidity in the single digits. If you live in Florida it's gonna take a little longer. When the contact cement is dry, it is very tacky to the touch. If some of the cement sticks to your finger when you touch it, it's not dry enough.

Sometimes when applying the contact cement to fresh wood, a fair bit of it soaks in, so you only get a little tackiness. I usually apply two thin coats to the wood; the second coat usually provides ample tackiness.








I'm using fancy high temp contact cement that I buy at the upholstery supply house, but the garden variety stuff available at your local home center or lumberyard works fine also. Modern contact cement comes in two flavors; the old fashioned red cans that are solvent based and extremely flammable and the green canned versions that are non flammable. I've mainly used the old fashioned stuff but the few times I've used the green can type it worked fine.

In California it may be difficult to find the red canned stuff and almost impossible to find it in gallons. The red can type is still readily available in quarts in Cal.......

Once the cement on both panels is dry/tacky, the laminate is adhered to the panel. Two things to note here. Once the glue on one panel touches the glue on the other panel, it's pretty much stuck for life, so you want to be sure the positioning is correct. For newbies, it doesn't hurt to make the laminate panels a little oversized so that you have a wide target when gluing.

The other thing here is that you don't want any bubbles trapped under the laminate. To achieve this, I flex the panel into a slightly convex curve and "roll" the laminate on to the panel from one end. So either start from an edge and stick the laminate down with your hand or start from the middle and work your way out. It's pretty easy once you do a few; many of these steps are harder to describe than to actually do. For large surfaces I use a veneer roller to apply it evenly with no bubbles.

I my case I cut the laminate about 1/2" larger all-around. If this is your first attempt, 1" larger all around may not be a bad idea, you'll just waste a little more material.







You don't have to wait for the cement to dry any further once the laminate is stuck, you can move right to trimming.

I used a laminate trimmer bit in the router table but you could also accomplish this next step with a hand held router, or (even better!) a hand-held laminate trimmer. I have one of these and I can post a picture if anyone is interested, it's just a tiny one-handed router.

The trim bit height is adjusted so that the bearing rides against the edge of the panel. The bit will then trim the laminate flush with the wood.







Here is a picture of the flush cut laminate:







To get the trimmer bit in the latch hole, drill a 1/2" or larger diameter hole through the laminate and the trim the ID of the hole with the router.










Once the first side is done, glue the laminate one the opposite side and trim.

With the laminate trimmed up, it's time to install the T molding. This was my first time working with this stuff.







The local hardwood lumber supplier here (Austin Hardwoods in Santa Ana) sells this stuff by the foot for 34 cents/ft. It's available in black, white, almond and silver. I'm sure there are other colors available online. The stuff I used is 13/16" wide; it's also available online (at Rockler) in 3/4'' widths as well.

I ended up notching the center rib in the corners to make it seat well. I simply pressed this in the groove and used a plastic hammer to get it nice and flat, no glue required.......











...and......the last shot with the Southco latch installed.....




__________________
2008 E350 RB passenger 4WD SMB penthouse
2013 KTM 350 EXC
2008 KTM 250 XCF-W
2003 Honda Element
boywonder is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-15-2015, 11:32 PM   #2
Senior Member
 
schluchtenflitzer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Unterfranken
Posts: 456
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

Great job, looks very professional!
Thanks for sharing it
__________________
www.Dieda-unterwegs.net
2001 SMB E350 4x4 7.3 Powerstroke
1968 Pontiac Firebird 400 Convertible ,1978 Peugeot 504 Convertible,1988 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2,KTM 300 EXC,BMW G/S Paris Dakar,BMW "Diabolo"
schluchtenflitzer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 12:24 PM   #3
Senior Member
 
Bbasso's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Western North Carolina
Posts: 1,258
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

Impressive,
I have no knowledge of that trade.
__________________
Rob.
Current:
2001 E350 PSD w/ a bunch of stuff.
And had three other E350s...
Bbasso is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 12:40 PM   #4
REF
Senior Member
 
REF's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Boulder, CO.
Posts: 2,551
Send a message via MSN to REF
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

Nice, seems doable, now I need a router...or better yet a router table
__________________
'03 Ford E350 7.3L Diesel
(de)SMB'd Custom RB-50
Quigley 4X4 w/Deavers & Agile Offroad's R.I.P. package
CCV High Profile Pop Top
REF is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2015, 03:22 PM   #5
Senior Member
 
reelchef67's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: North Vancouver BC
Posts: 295
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

Thank you , you made that look so easy.
I bought a router slot cutter bit online for the t molding , I figure that will be easier than reblading my table saw
I will be soon starting a door galley project as well as some interior door projects.
I am just waiting for parts to arrive.
Stoked
__________________
2002 E250 5.4 4R70W 2wd 3.5 inch lift Pleasure-Way Traverse on 16x8 with 265/75/16's
reelchef67 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-27-2015, 03:00 PM   #6
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 132
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

So since this is a tutorial about re-surfacing existing cabinets, What would be the best way to remove the existing laminate from cabinets?

Sand them down?
rean1mator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-27-2015, 06:09 PM   #7
Senior Member
 
reelchef67's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: North Vancouver BC
Posts: 295
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

God no , heat gun and a. Palette knife to scrape it up. The remaining surface will be a mess
__________________
2002 E250 5.4 4R70W 2wd 3.5 inch lift Pleasure-Way Traverse on 16x8 with 265/75/16's
reelchef67 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-27-2015, 08:14 PM   #8
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Flagstaff, AZ
Posts: 1,995
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

Awesome DIY contribution! We need more of these threads from the more mechanically inclined

My door has pulled apart but so far gluing it back together with clamps and bigger screws is working but it's only a matter of time.
__________________
2005 E350 RB 6.0 PSD for extended fun
1989 Landcruiser FJ62 for local fun
2011 VW TDI Golf for hwy fun
JoeH is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-16-2015, 04:06 PM   #9
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Aurora, OR
Posts: 71
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

Wow, nice job. Looks great!
__________________
01' E350 7.3 4x4 SMB PH, VS interior
16' Jeep Rubicon
16' Adventure Trailer Chaser
94' LR Discovery - built
KF7KOY
01E350AZ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-22-2015, 12:43 PM   #10
evy
Senior Member
 
evy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Terrebonne, Canada
Posts: 218
Re: Cabinet door laminating/resurfacing tutorial

Wow nice clean job!

I used 5/8" "select" plywood instead of "Russian" type plywood like you did.
an advantage of using "select" plywood is that it's lighter because it's made of less layers of pine.
But a big disadvantage is that you have to laminate both sides, otherwise it will warp, but "Russian" plywood is so strong that it won't budge that's why you can laminate on only one side and that's why I used stain instead of laminate.

In my DIY campervan build I planned on using recessed/flush doors, so you need to remove 3/16" between the panels and the doors for the two T molding thickness (depending on the T molding's thickness) just do a quick test before cutting anything.











__________________
DIY conversion build, extended 2010 Ford 5.4L E250 + high top, from Montreal Canada, new to all this so please be patient and clear with me (never built or camped in a van yet)
evy is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off

» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3
Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sportsmobile SIP or any of its affiliates. This is an independent, unofficial site.


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:33 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.