Ouch!!! Melamine table top damage

[JayWC]

I left some Irwin quik-grip clamps out in my dining room when I was working on re-finishing my kitchen cabinets. My 3 year old decided to pick one up and use it for a hammer. I have a table with a melamine top. Is there a way I am not thinking of to fix the top? When she pounded on it, the top rippled up in places and others she pounded all the way through the white into the brown. I need to get rid of the alligator skin feel and treat the damaged surface. Ideas please!!!!!

[Kerry]

I'm certainly no expert but I don't think there is any real way to repair that. Best guess would be to try sanding down the dents and using something like epoxy to fill the area back level. I doubt that will work very well though and it certainly won't match if that is a major concern. Another thing you could try would be to lay in a small section of laminate in that area but it would be pretty tough to get the levels to match up. Best thing would be to just laminate the whole surface but you'd have to get the melamine off first. Might as well just replace the whole piece at that point. Definitely a bummer.

[John Anderson]

This may help, it is for a formica countertop. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20300221,00.html

[mikepdarr]

I guess you will just have to build a new table. Dangit!!!!

[JimB1]

If by rippled up you mean the melamine is pulling away from the substrate, you may be able to get a syringe and inject some glue under the ripple then clamp a caul to hold the area flat while the glue dries. That works for most laminates.

Not sure about the divots and dings though.

Sorry I can't be more help.

-Jim

[PaulMarcel]

Plastics like that are difficult to repair in the sense that the edges of any patch will be clearly obvious.

Melamine comes in a couple varieties. Most commercial places use thermofoil because it adheres better. Chippy cold-press crap is what you get at the Borg.

You can get what you need at Rockler. They sell PSA laminate in peel n stick. What I'd do is sand away the loose bits. For the places where you get down to the particle board, put some Timbermate wood filler. They sell is in pure white. Your goal with the filling is to make it all level so nothing telegraphs through. Scuff sand the whole top with P150 or P180. Lastly, apply a piece of PSA laminate over the whole surface that has the dings. You want a whole piece to cover the bad piece.

Without seeing a picture of the whole piece, I dunno what the edges look like. Since there's a clean edge to the previous laminate, you will likely be able to trim the new laminate to the edge then lightly sand it with P400 paper to feather it to the previous corner.

Here's the Rockler page for the laminates:

Rockler PSA Laminates

You want the "RTF White"... that's rigid thermofoil in white. Basically Melamine skin.

[JayWC]

Thanks all!