Counter is done.
It helps to have the right glue. In winter I experimented with a small can of WeldWood contact goo. The temp may not have been good either. Now it IS "over 65F", and I am using WilsonArt 600 made for the job. The tack-point is much clearer and the grip seems better.
I've always seen rods so I made sure I had some. (Around here they recycle as plant markers.) Curl was non-issue. I suspect that if my woodshed roll from 1980s flattened, any new laminate that "curls like chips" is made bad and should be returned. (Ah, but shipping is a killer.)
YES!! I had not appreciated how much of the job is Dust Control! Fabbing the boards, but especially routing the edge, buried in bits and dust.
It helps to have the right glue. In winter I experimented with a small can of WeldWood contact goo. The temp may not have been good either. Now it IS "over 65F", and I am using WilsonArt 600 made for the job. The tack-point is much clearer and the grip seems better.
I've always seen rods so I made sure I had some. (Around here they recycle as plant markers.) Curl was non-issue. I suspect that if my woodshed roll from 1980s flattened, any new laminate that "curls like chips" is made bad and should be returned. (Ah, but shipping is a killer.)
YES!! I had not appreciated how much of the job is Dust Control! Fabbing the boards, but especially routing the edge, buried in bits and dust.
Long tangled history.
The base product was Formica, 1912, as an electrical insulator. ("For-Mica", replaces costly mica in motor insulation.) Phenolic resin bulked-up with other cruft: asbestos, linen, cotton, sawdust, etc. Used for other products: 1930s was a standard material for engine timing-gears. Ugly brown.
1927, Formica patented an opaque barrier layer which allowed rotogravure printing of decorative patterns, woodgrain or marble.
Much of the history of Formica is tied-in with competing phenolic and melamine producers; also with not allowing the "Formica" brandname to become generic.
Meanwhile in Canada, C. Howard Smith was a hotshot wood products salesman and innovator. Developed the recovery boiler which is key to paper-making profits. (Here in Maine, one of the last papermills' boiler exploded, and it was not deemed worth keeping the mill open.) Smith felt he could make a sustainable useful product from lignin. This was Arborite, 'the "only all-Canadian" laminate'. 1960s they expanded into the UK market.
Later Ralph Wilson retired to Texas. Although there were 16(!) companies in the decorative laminate business, he started RWP, later WilsonArt. Wilson seems to have been a design bug; his house is a show-piece. WilsonArt strives for faster delivery than Formica; I observe WilsonArt often has the nicer patterns.
All these companies went through many mergers and spin-outs.
But here's the thing. Arborite, the former All-Canadian laminate player, is now a division of WilsonArt (Texas). I dunno if the products come off the same mills, if the current stuff is phenolic or melamine or lignin based, or if we care. I assume the basic flat product is "all the same" to the countertop laminator, whatever it is made from.
Yes, the Italian laminates were mentioned in a blog as a deluxe product.
Apparently the earliest stuff didn't even come in sheets, just tubes and angles. A bunch of guys broke-away to do Formica sheet, later developing the decorative stuff.
For countertop laminate the bulk strength is kraft (brown-bag) paper in phenolic resin. Ugly brown. The real advance was melamine resin and a tissue top-sheet. Of course the "woodgrain" etc is a print, like Hot-Rod or PlayBoy magazine done big. (The big players are, like books, moving to Print On Demand, so they can sell less-popular designs without being buried in idle printing plates and unsold paper/laminate.) So melamined tissue and magazine print over layers of phenolic-soaked kraft. I dunno if Arborite clings to the lignin process; it save a step over converting pulp to kraft.... I think not.
Anyway- several days of snorting MDF dust and laminate crumbs later--- done and looks good.
Apparently the earliest stuff didn't even come in sheets, just tubes and angles. A bunch of guys broke-away to do Formica sheet, later developing the decorative stuff.
For countertop laminate the bulk strength is kraft (brown-bag) paper in phenolic resin. Ugly brown. The real advance was melamine resin and a tissue top-sheet. Of course the "woodgrain" etc is a print, like Hot-Rod or PlayBoy magazine done big. (The big players are, like books, moving to Print On Demand, so they can sell less-popular designs without being buried in idle printing plates and unsold paper/laminate.) So melamined tissue and magazine print over layers of phenolic-soaked kraft. I dunno if Arborite clings to the lignin process; it save a step over converting pulp to kraft.... I think not.
Anyway- several days of snorting MDF dust and laminate crumbs later--- done and looks good.
Attachments
The paper will stick...Murphy will come to visit sure as hell. There will be a spot...or two and at the least opportune moment you are holding laminate up with one hand and picking paper from glue with the other. Eliminate that risk entirely by using PVC pipe as a separator, position the material and remove tubing. I start at one end. A J roller (no, not that kind) is used to apply pressure uniformly by rolling over entire area in a crosshatch pattern to compete the bond (careful not to roll past edges, laminate will crack).
PRR - thanks for saving me from posting the history lesson - you’ve pretty much covered the basics. It’s probably safe to say that until very recently - say 10 years or so, there wasn’t a whole helluva lot technically different among the numerous USA and European brands of High Pressure plastic laminates, but there has been a lot of new processes and even material compositions developed in that approximate recent decade or so. For example Colo(u)r -Core / ThruColo(u)r materials with no phenolic saturated kraft paper backing - more expensive and even more fragile than the phenolic backed products, new “Nano” surfaces that claim far more wear resistance and “ healing” properties, and some pretty damned gorgeous highly embossed woodgrain or simulated stone textures.
Architects and designers who can gleefully ignore minimum quantity order requirements to ensure die lot consistency on high density/primary colours, or the practical matters of available sheet sizes and fabricating with the highly textured products absolutely love these new offerings. Actually building with them is a whole ‘nother story. If I cared enough about who might be offended, I’d avoid saying it, but since I don’t, and have over 25 yrs experience in the trade upon which to base it - I’d suggest that a prerequisite for designers and architects should be a minimum of one year apprenticing on the shop floor building - and in the field installing - before receiving accreditation to draw anything - it’s a whole truck of a lot easier to make a pretty picture on paper than to make it real and installable.
Sorry, did that last part sound peevish?
edit - ol mcdonald couldn’t be more right - we happen to use 1/2” doweling or rips of 1/4” MDF for those separators - and only laid down after the sprayed on contact cement has tack dried for between 10-15 minutes (depending on ambient temp). We use WA 950 red contact cement as it’s far easier to see if you’ve got adequate coverage on both surfaces, and easier to see the inevitable overspray that’ll need to be cleaned up. Don’t use lacquer thinners for that, but a purpose designed contact cement cleaner such as WilsonArt121.
Architects and designers who can gleefully ignore minimum quantity order requirements to ensure die lot consistency on high density/primary colours, or the practical matters of available sheet sizes and fabricating with the highly textured products absolutely love these new offerings. Actually building with them is a whole ‘nother story. If I cared enough about who might be offended, I’d avoid saying it, but since I don’t, and have over 25 yrs experience in the trade upon which to base it - I’d suggest that a prerequisite for designers and architects should be a minimum of one year apprenticing on the shop floor building - and in the field installing - before receiving accreditation to draw anything - it’s a whole truck of a lot easier to make a pretty picture on paper than to make it real and installable.
Sorry, did that last part sound peevish?
edit - ol mcdonald couldn’t be more right - we happen to use 1/2” doweling or rips of 1/4” MDF for those separators - and only laid down after the sprayed on contact cement has tack dried for between 10-15 minutes (depending on ambient temp). We use WA 950 red contact cement as it’s far easier to see if you’ve got adequate coverage on both surfaces, and easier to see the inevitable overspray that’ll need to be cleaned up. Don’t use lacquer thinners for that, but a purpose designed contact cement cleaner such as WilsonArt121.
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Nice post, I have decades of hands on experience in the industry also...currently Ops Mgr in a solid surface (DuPont Corian) shop....I have been to Temple, Texas to the Wilsonart plant and even took the tour of Ralph Wilsons (former) home....it is laden with plastic laminate, literally everywhere you can imagine. I have also been to Formica in Cincinnati, Ohio and saw their laminate production process. It is (was, may have evolved) so labor intensive you would not believe it. The layers of resin impregnated kraft paper was hand collated at multiple stations by pairs of ladies in white-suits, kraft, kraft, kraft...color layer, clear layer and a metal plate that imparts the finish, then a separator plate. After a specified amount of sheets have been "laid up" they go off to gigantic steam heated presses. After pressing and cooling they are inspected and cut to various sizes. The woodgrains and patterns are nothing but giant photographs.
I have built a little of everything from kitchen countertops to monitor speaker cabinets for Bobby Goldsboro with plans from JBL back in the day and covered them all in laminate. Face frames for rack installs, speakers, subs, blank panels, road cases are all perfect uses for laminate, cheap quick and attractive. Unless you want to go furniture quality and thats a whole nother page.
I love your idea about "field experience" for designers/architects. They love pretty, and trendy with no notion of how to execute. I know this is an old thread and sorry to go off topic but wanted to chat with a fellow craftsman when the opportunity presented itself!
I have built a little of everything from kitchen countertops to monitor speaker cabinets for Bobby Goldsboro with plans from JBL back in the day and covered them all in laminate. Face frames for rack installs, speakers, subs, blank panels, road cases are all perfect uses for laminate, cheap quick and attractive. Unless you want to go furniture quality and thats a whole nother page.
I love your idea about "field experience" for designers/architects. They love pretty, and trendy with no notion of how to execute. I know this is an old thread and sorry to go off topic but wanted to chat with a fellow craftsman when the opportunity presented itself!
That bothered me. Reading WA's puffery, it seems to be a "recent innovation" to put Aluminum Oxide in the top coat. Moved up from the color coat? I sensed that they were getting AlOx inclusion from their outside printers, and only belatedly added sand-dust to their melamine vat. The pre-finished floor racket has been doing this for 20+ years. Even if they don't claim foot-resistance, this seems an obvious and low-tech low-cost improvement which should not now be "NEW!".
I once met a well-respected Architect who proposed hanging a lamp off-center from its cable. Don't get me started on "Designers".
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