Cutting melamine

Yes, go out & buy yourself a Festool TS55 & guide rail. Sure, it's pricey, but it IS worth it for the amount of hassle it saves.

 

If you can't afford the Festool, cut slightly over size with a jigsaw or circular saw and finish to size with a straight edge and router.

 

Just cut upside down with a circular saw and straight edge clamped to the chipboard. Make sure you've got a sharp fine toothed blade and you pass through slowly. No need to mess about with a router. I used the aforementioned method for years until I got myself a Mafell KSP55.

[Edited by: admin2]

 

usually you can get away with one side being chipped provided the cut is straight, hence i normally use a table saw. Had a job this week where the old bird moved a shelf and saw the chips, bloody thing was over her head anyway! So i routed a mm off to tidy it up.

 

joe that'l be the the new pogo sticks that the pensioners get free on nhs.

 

bet you produce some right quality work joe

 

If it doesn't need to be 100% perfect (say it's a filler panel and the cut edge may have a bead of silicone run down it). I find the best thing is a downcutting blade in a jigsaw. Festool saw's good for anything else but fails with melamine. If it's got to be perfect only way I know is to use a router. There's got to be a better way...

 

They're all talking rubbish, easiest and cheapest way by far is to cut the panel 2mm oversize with a jigsaw using a fine downcutting blade, then finish to size with an electric planer. Job done in less than 1 minute and the finish will be perfect.

 

bet you produce some right quality work joe

i certainly think i do. Bodged to me is the lad i saw cutting 100mm off a unit with a free hand jigsaw, looked a total mess. If you know how to use a table saw properly im sure you know the results you can get.

Or are you the sort of fitter who worries about how things look even if they're out of sight?

 

go back to basics. score melamine both sides with stanley and then cut with handaw tidy finish every time and very cheap.

 

ts55 gives a lovely cut on melamine. Yeah I do make sure that even things that cant be seen look good. Sets you apart from cowboys like you. It takes just as long to cut it properly as it does to bodge it so why bother bodging it.

 

hows a blade going to give you a factory edge? Its how its used that gives you results. Best bit of kit by a country mile for neat cutting is a properly used TS55 and guide rail.

 

sure the ts 55 is good at cutting mellamine straight off but still leave the underside a bit chipped, but if you clamp a scrap piece on the underside and plunge all the way thought the melammine into the scrap, hey presto no chips bothsides. Dont know why anyone manufaturer doesnt bring a small (ish) portable twin bladed table saw am sure it would be a must for all chipboard fitters.

 

you can also do it with a jigsaw and downward cutting blade with a scrap piece clamped underneath.

 

you wouldnt be selling these blades by any chance would you Cutting Melamine. Spam Spam Spam. I never have a problem with chipping. I take half a sheet of Mdf around with me and cut all my boards on it with my TS55. No chipping.

 

bottom side has the MDF up against it and the top side gets the festool treatment

 

whats all the hype of the festool then???
i thought this was what its good at!
if it dont cut clean top and bottom of cut i cant see the need of spending all that cash on it.
i can use a bit of mdf with my dewalt saw and get a perfect cut.
this is not a go at you lamello,its just that the fes is talked up so much but it cant do what i thought it was designed for.
what am i missing??

 

Festool's good, but not going to work miracles. It'll do a better job than any other saw, but it's still a saw. Melamine chips if you look at it. Depends how clean an edge you want anyway. An almost perfect edge can be got with any saw if you're careful and remember that the deeper the blade the cleaner the cut as it's coming at the material from a steeper angle.