40 years later...

From 1975 to 1982, I was working for one of the largest cabinet manufacturers in South Florida. The factory would turn out more than 350 cabinets per day. The most popular door style was flat with a plastic laminate face with a material referred to as Formica.

Similar to the way people call tissues Kleenex, Formica is the name brand of plastic laminated products

While this may not be 100% accurate, I've always heard the history of the name came from Micarta, one of the first companies to manufacture melamine resin laminates that had several layers of impregnated brown papers with the top layer being a decorative paper. The process involved heat and pressure and to created sheets of material that could be glued to boards to create countertops and cabinet doors.

During the war, Micarta switched to making products for the military that included helmets. Instead of fabricating flat sheets, the process involved fitting strips of the resin papers into curved molds that were shaped for the helmets.
After the war they went back into the manufacture of laminated sheets using the name Formica that comes from 'formerly Micarta'. Good story... yeah?

There were several housing corporations in Florida that built condominiums. Business was booming and often we had contracts to provide cabinets for hundreds of units. I recall many years of this type of work.

Recently, I received a sales lead to one of the condo communities with a name I recognized. The owner had some water damage and wanted to replace the cabinets. The condo was built in 1980 and I'm certain I was working for the original manufacturer of that kitchen. It had mica doors and a decorative scoring they had popularized. We made zillions of these doors.

The guy buying the kitchen is in his 80's and not the original purchaser of the unit, but he enjoyed my story about his 40th anniversary kitchen!


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Comments (7)

I used to work in a CNT factory.....
350 cabinets a day you say.
We used to take 3 weeks or more to hand make kitchens for our clients. Our CNT machine was to save them coin on product needed. To this day 15 yrs later our clients whom live in a different district say to my ex bosses... what's Ears doing.....
My ex bosses tell me. An I go stay at ex clients houses an they camp out wiv me on thier own lawn..........
One is a 20 million dollar property.....
Yet they wanna hang out amunst my camping style of my whole life an way of doing.
An the stories I tell them.
Not one other person could get away wiv it confused confused confused
I'm so happy I'm real an not look at me style...
The arrogant one is too big for little people!

tea, thanks for the kind words!
daears, what is a CNT machine?
There's a roofing materiel called 'asbestos' that was widely used in the UK for years, but has been banned since 1985 because of the associated health conditions. It used to affect the lungs and I know of two (older types) who used to be builders in their day, who got 'asbestosis', and died from it.

Ridiculous that these substances were/are hazardous to people's lungs... A bit like when they used to hand cigarettes out like they were sweets to children!

There can be so many innocent looking things poking out, that nowadays are actually very harmful. (Air fresheners, perfume, artificial aromas!)

All artificial chemicals that are bad for the ecosystem and a human body! Take care, heart wings
I remember those Formicas.

As soon as water get under them, you need to replace the whole darn thing. frustrated
Yep I remember formica's getting water logged all to easy. Living in this home I learned that tile counter top, pretty as it may be is much too much maintentance with bleach and a toothbrush. Of course with this virus going on bleach is a good friend to hang with.
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chatillion

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created Jun 2020
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