I made a simple box with plywood and high pressure laminate, glued with contact adhesive.
The high pressure laminate is pretty stiff and hard stuff, and can’t be bent without cracking. It’s almost like hard plastic, so 90 deg angles can be pretty sharp and does not seem very children friendly, even after hand filing.
I know I can buy foam or silicone bumpers made for this very purpose, but I am wondering if there are anything else I can do?
My kitchen cabinet door is made with the exact same high pressure laminate, they aren’t sharp. The edges have a tiny chamfer and looked fused or melted together. I don’t know what kind of process the carpenter subject them to, all I know is when they have to modify the door it had to be done in the factory and not on site.
I am thinking of rounding off the edges with a round router bit. This will expose some wood along the edges. I wonder if this will cause the laminate layer to peel, if not in the short term then in the long term? I’d rather not ruin my hard work.
The high pressure laminate is pretty stiff and hard stuff, and can’t be bent without cracking. It’s almost like hard plastic, so 90 deg angles can be pretty sharp and does not seem very children friendly, even after hand filing.
I know I can buy foam or silicone bumpers made for this very purpose, but I am wondering if there are anything else I can do?
My kitchen cabinet door is made with the exact same high pressure laminate, they aren’t sharp. The edges have a tiny chamfer and looked fused or melted together. I don’t know what kind of process the carpenter subject them to, all I know is when they have to modify the door it had to be done in the factory and not on site.
I am thinking of rounding off the edges with a round router bit. This will expose some wood along the edges. I wonder if this will cause the laminate layer to peel, if not in the short term then in the long term? I’d rather not ruin my hard work.
Actually those kitchen cabinet doors could well be thermoformed thin vinyl film, which can allow for not only single piece wrapping of radii or chamfers on adjacent edges, but profiles for raised panels, etc. Many major fabricators have access to roll stock matching true HP laminate patterns. There are also grades of HP lam specifically designed for large radius thermoforming - in a single direction, and using purpose built production machinery. The thickness of exposed edges and existence of seams would be the tell tale.
Routing off the exposed edges of the laminate would almost certainly increase the likelihood of chipping during the process, and failure of the exposed edges in the long term. An alternative often used in the commercial trade is to rabbet in either sold wood or profiled aluminium extrusion on the edges.
You’ve pretty much summarized the shortcomings of plastic laminates on speaker enclosures.
Routing off the exposed edges of the laminate would almost certainly increase the likelihood of chipping during the process, and failure of the exposed edges in the long term. An alternative often used in the commercial trade is to rabbet in either sold wood or profiled aluminium extrusion on the edges.
You’ve pretty much summarized the shortcomings of plastic laminates on speaker enclosures.
Thanks for your insights.
One more option I can think of is to have solid wood panels attached to the top or the sides. This will cover up the original corners. The solid wood panel edge can then rounded off.
One minor problem is attaching the solid wood panel to box already covered in laminate. Screws would work but doesn’t look great. Would contact adhesive work well here? I guess I will need to avoid holding the solid wood part when moving the speaker.
Or may be I’ll just use screws and then cover up the screw holes with a strip of laminate or something.
One more option I can think of is to have solid wood panels attached to the top or the sides. This will cover up the original corners. The solid wood panel edge can then rounded off.
One minor problem is attaching the solid wood panel to box already covered in laminate. Screws would work but doesn’t look great. Would contact adhesive work well here? I guess I will need to avoid holding the solid wood part when moving the speaker.
Or may be I’ll just use screws and then cover up the screw holes with a strip of laminate or something.
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The top surface of plastic laminate would need to be seriously scuffed with power sander to provide a good glue surface. It’s not uncommon in our trade for work bench surfaces or end gables of white melamine cabinets to be re-laminated with either an HP or veneer, for which contact cement works just fine.
We’d use a belt sander fitted with 80G paper and give it a once over in a rotating pattern, taking care to not round over the edges.
In over 40yrs of building speakers and furniture I’ve never personally needed to skin with anything thicker than 1/8” ply or MDF, but other than the one-shot nature of contact, can’t see why it wouldn’t “work”. If the cabinets in question aren’t too unwieldy, I’d be inclined to try cold pressing with white wood glue, and letting set for at least overnight before detail routing of edges.
We’d use a belt sander fitted with 80G paper and give it a once over in a rotating pattern, taking care to not round over the edges.
In over 40yrs of building speakers and furniture I’ve never personally needed to skin with anything thicker than 1/8” ply or MDF, but other than the one-shot nature of contact, can’t see why it wouldn’t “work”. If the cabinets in question aren’t too unwieldy, I’d be inclined to try cold pressing with white wood glue, and letting set for at least overnight before detail routing of edges.
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