Repairing Scratched Melamine
No repair is perfect, but here are some pretty good options for a surface gouge in a melamine cabinet interior. September 23, 2006
Question
I am building a couple of base cabinets with oak exterior and melamine interiors. I was kind of tired last night and made a slip with a chisel and made a 4 inch scratch in the melamine. It is pretty deep. Is there a way to repair this? Would white enamel paint work as a repair?
Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor A:
Solid colors are fairly easy to repair, at least for cabinet interior quality. SeamFil color kits are made for seaming laminate counter tops, etc. They come with mixing instructions for specific laminate colors. I keep a tube of white around for nail or screw blowouts. It dries very fast and hard, and can be buffed.
From contributor B:
SeamFil and or paint are the only things I have had success with on deep scratches but you will never be able to make the scratch totally disappear. If the melamine is white and the scratch is not too deep, Softscrub cleaner works great.
From contributor C:
If you have enough room behind the frame you could install a skin of 1/4 melamine. It is my experience that no repair of melamine ever goes away unless it is in a back area that won't be seen much. There is the white material that comes in a pen form. It is a waterproof marker and the material is white and gooey. It fills the scratch or blow out and I usually feather it in with lacquer thinner. I have also used white out with great success but as I said the repair never is completely unnoticeable.
From contributor D:
I know you won't believe this but a Crayola crayon works for melamine and laminates. It is a wax, so once you fill the crack take a cloth and rub over the area and it blends in pretty well. Make sure you don't get the crayon dirty or it will not work. I keep a set of 64 crayons around the shop to give the staff something to do at lunch. Just kidding.
From contributor E:
Try SeamFil 901.
From contributor F:
We have used a melamine thin skin to cover the whole inside of a gable to remedy unnecessary hardware holes. Just apply new edgebanding and it looks great.
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