Melamine Chip out

[bruegf]

I just finished my first Euro style cabinets for my laundry room.  I'm disappointed in the quality of the cuts using the MFT/TS55 with the Triple Chip blade.  The standard blade did no better.  The blade was new (less than a dozen 16" cuts in particle board core melamine prior to this project.  A few cuts were perfect but most were less than acceptable.

I suspect that it was the particle board core that caused the problem, but was wondering if anyone had any ideas.

Fred

 

[woodshopdemos]

Fred,
  First, the cabinet overall looks very good. I agree with you  that it may be the quality of the particle core board.  Cutting this stuff is tricky. If you haven't done so, take a look at my section on the subject. I get "perfect" cuts everytime when I do all the little things necessary.

and the page:  http://www.woodshopdemos.com/fes-60.htm

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Fred,
Nice project.  I'm planning to do something like that in my laundry room as well.

But looking at the cuts, I'd say something else is going on.  I've always been very pleased with the cuts I achieve using the ATF55 or TS55 on melamine.  Let's see if we can figure out what's going on here.

Matthew

 

[bruegf]

John,

I had read your section on cutting Melamine before tackling this project and adjusted the saw as you recommended as well as sprayed the MFT track with Topcoat.  I also played around with feed speed as well as saw speed, but nothing seemed to help very much. 

For what its worth, I also had problems with chip out on the TS with a brand new HATB 80 tooth Leitz blade - some cuts were perfect, but many were not.

I suspect that the core would chip a little, taking the Melamine with it.  Next time I think I'll try to find some MDF core and see if I have the same problem.

Fred

 

[woodshopdemos]

Fred,
  Only other thing to check is t he white mel stuff itself.  You might try getting a sheet at your better lumberyards. I was just in shop with a friend/contractor who does some of his own cabinets. He was amazed at the cuts I get. Went a got apiece of white mel scrap out of his truck and I couldn't get a good cut. They were better than he was getting but not pure. He looked at my cuts and looked at TS which had a rip blade on it...and he said "you got those cuts with this blade?" I Said "No...with this one pointing at the plunge saw that was sitting on the boom stack." He couldn't believe that I could get a good chip free cut with a circ saw. So I made three quick cuts for him. His eyes boggled. He left saying he was going to go get a "system." Word of eyes, once again.

 

[bruegf]

The melamine I used was 16" shelving from Menard's.  Probably should have ordered 4x8 sheets from where ever my Dad buys his stuff from, but 4x8 sheets are a pain to get into my mini-van.  Plus I could buy panels with pre-drilled holes for the 32mm hardware so I thought I'd try it.

Fred

 

[woodshopdemos]

Fred,
  I am tempted to think that may be the problem. I, too, foun d the 12 and 16" pre-drilled convenient but in my case, the white edge banding peeled off. Try your father's source and see if they wnt make one rip for you to get into van.

 

[bruegf]

I looked at the 16" panels at Home Depot after I discovered that the rear row of holes was about 1/16" lower than the front row of holes in the panels at Menards, but the banding at  the stuff at home depot was not stuck well at all, plus the particle board core was even coarser than what Menard's had, so I went with the Menards panels.  I just had to be very careful of where I measured for my cuts.

Home Depot did have some MDF core, but it was bull nosed and at the time I didn't want to mess w/ any more edging than I had to.  As it turned out, with the Fastedge edging and the Fastcap trimmer, edging was as easy as could be.

Fred