Posted by:
wade
at Sun Feb 9 11:09:12 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by wade ]
The best source for good quality melamine would be a Hardwood distributor that sells to cabinet shops. They are like lumber yards but only sell cabinet grade materials.
Another source would be from a cabinet shop in your area. If you call around and then take them a cut list, you may find one that is willing to cut the sheets down to size for you.
You can cut melamine just like any other plywood type material. The malamine surface does have a tendency to chip. If you can find it, melamine with a pine core chips less than melamine with a fir core. It is not always avaliable.
I have a large expensive saw that has two blades, one cutting from the top down and the other cutting from the bottom up. It's called a scoring blade. It prevents the chipping. This is not the kind of thing the average guy is going to have in his garage. If you can find a cabinet shop that will cut it for you that may solve that problem.
If you have to cut it yourself, use a good quality sharp carbide tiped blade. If you are using a 10" table saw, I would suggest that your blade have at least 60 teeth. Makeing you cuts slowly will also help.
The chips will be small. Much less than 1/8". Probably closer to 1/16". If you use white silicone to caulk all the interior corners, the silicone will cover all of these chips.
I have seen people cut the melamine 1/16" oversize on the saw and then use a router with a straight cutting bit and a straight edge to trim the piece down to finish size. The router will not chip the board and this works well. It's a little extra work but you will get very good results.
Hope that helps
Wade
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RE: Melamine, MDF, or Plywood - wade, Sun Feb 9 11:09:12 2003