How long should chipboard last in water?

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Fitting a new kitchen and B&Q only allow for one draw in there 400mm cabinets. As this was going to leave very few draws in the kitchen I decided I could fix this by making my own draw fronts by cutting down full sized doors with a router. The style of the kitchen has continuous profile with 2mm plastic strips on the top and bottom of the doors/draw fronts.

No problem I thought cut these off with 2-3mm of chipboard still attached and dunk them in an old tray full of water. Give it a week and the chipboard will disintegrate and I can then glue the plastic strips onto my new draw fronts.

Problem is that three weeks later the chipboard is not showing any signs of disintegrating, thought it has swollen up. How much longer do you think it will take or am I on to a loosing wicket?
 
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Even if the chipboard falls apart (maybe take it out of the water and let the air get to it for a bit), there will still be glue on the back of the plastic strip.

You need a sharp wide blade. You need to take a lot of care and take your time if you are not to damage the strip. When it's off, scrape the back to get all the residue off and contact adhesive it back on.
 
Hot iron over a cloth will loosen the glue, though less effective now they are wet.Would be easier just to buy new draw fronts.
 
Hot iron over a cloth will loosen the glue, though less effective now they are wet.Would be easier just to buy new draw fronts.

They only do door packs that include a single draw for 400mm wide cupboards. By making my own draw fronts I can have more draws...
 
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B&Q sell individual draw fronts or they can be purchased online from many kitchen suppliers.
 
B&Q sell individual draw fronts or they can be purchased online from many kitchen suppliers.

To be specific for their IT range of kitchens for the 400mm cupboards B&Q only offer a draw/door pack that supports one draw. You could buy more draw/door packs and just use the draw fronts but then they don't come to the correct height. Online kitchen suppliers won't sell me draw fronts that match the rest of the kitchen.

Hence given the style of kitchen (maple style modern) I have chosen to make my own. In fact I have the extra draw fronts cut to size, as it was just a case of slicing a section out of the middle of 400mm wide doors using a router to get a clean cut. They are even attached to the draws and it all works just nicely thank you, apart from separating the plastic tops and bottoms from the doors I cut up to make the draw fronts so I can glue them onto my new custom draw fronts.

I expected the chipboard to disintegrate pretty rapidly. While the remains of the foil covering have come off and the water has gone brown, apart from swelling up the chipboard is staying remarkably robust. I guess it just needs more than three weeks...
 

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