Hey, thanks for the detailed reply Murph. It really helps.
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However, I wanted to put a small portion of the material under the lip of the screen trim to help hold it down flat so I used a calculator, similar to this one, to figure out the height after losing .25 to .5 inch per side. I can't remember what I settled on, not that it would make a huge difference.
That is exactly what I want to do, except I want to use aluminum to keep the frame light. The plan was to use square tube for the main frame and then some 1/2" angle around the edges clamped and screwed to the main frame to help hold the laminate in place. I was thinking of using double sided sticky tape between the frame and the laminate on the back and between the laminate and the 1/2" angle to hold the laminate in place.
I had read that using adhesive on any frame cross braces led to waves in the laminate. That may be because people were using pine lumber for the frame and running into moisture induced warpage.
Wilsonart has a location in Toronto. I guess I should call and talk to them about what to do.
I've been to that calculator a number of times now when looking at what space I have available.
No issues with sagging yet. I made a really tight frame of MDF boards, pocket hole screwed together. I probably went overboard with the bracing in the middle but more had to be better, right?
That's good to hear. What centers did you run on your bracing?
I used a spray adhesive to glue the material to the frame. You will want help with that part and since the material comes in a roll, you will want to spread it out and pre-flatten it for a while, if you have the room. I skipped that step but I recommend that you do not.
What spray adhesive did you use?
I had also considered gluing the laminate to a 1/4" ply backer, but read the adhesives you had to use create a LOT of fumes. Was also not confident that I could do that without causing bubbles between the laminate and backer. Really, If I can avoid using a backer I want to just to keep down on the weight. Getting something larger than 4x8 play would also probably be quite expensive.
To hang it I made french cleats into the top rail in back (a simple 45 degree angle on the bottom edge.) ...
Biners and eye hooks! It came to me this afternoon that I could use caribiners and eye hooks to hang this thing and to hold it when folded up. Devilishly simple yet quite strong. I could even go with desinger biners to add some flash to the mancave.
I think this might just work. The next step is to see what I can get from Wilsonart and see if there is an adhesive I can use for aluminum (other than sticky tape).
I guess I should really open a thread in the HT subforum unless the mods can move this thread there.
