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Best way to cut melamine sheets?

old__man

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I have a lot of paticle board/melamine sheets that I will need to cut using a circular saw. My prefered saw is 6 1/2 with a 5/8 arbour.

What's the best blade to use and technique?

Original thread.

20171016_153258_HDR.jpg






EDIT: Add on question: What's the best tool to cut out wall outlet holes? RotoZip, jigwas, or oscillating tool? I own two of those three tools
 
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Voi

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I would build a circular saw shooting board.

021216088-1.jpg


Note that the saw in the image above is a right blade saw. I assume you're 6.5" saw is a left blade saw? Shouldn't be a problem, just plan accordingly.
 
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old__man

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Cool. I've been using the the Kreg saw guide thing with great success but if it fails I will build the shooting board above.

Any opinions on what blade to use and what depth to set?
 

zktk01

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I have a Kreg saw guide I always seems to get crooked cuts at the end of the cut. I do alot better with a shooting board. One of these days I may get a Makita Tracksaw.

I would just use a Diablo 24 tooth framing blade
 
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astroracer

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Use a carbide tipped blade with at least 36 teeth. Get the blade width (kerf) as wide as you can. Helps the blade to run cooler and keeps the resin from gluing itself to it. Pick up some blade cleaner as well...
Mark
 

Voi

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Any opinions on what blade to use and what depth to set?

I would use a cross cut blade over a combination blade if you have both. Certainly don't use a ripping blade. I don't like the super narrow kerf blades, especially if it's 3/4" stock.

There might be a melamine specific blade in 6.5" but I've never purchased or used one.

You might also read about doing a score cut. Not something I ever did so I don't recall exactly how it's done.
 

speed bump

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I use a carbide 60 tooth blade on my 7-1/4" saw and lay down painters tape on any cut lines that are visible.

I don't think I have ever paid attention to the cut depth.
 

jessesandy

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Always used carbide TCG (Triple Chip Grind) in the laminate shop.

Since a circular saw cuts "up", you want the pretty side of the sheet facing down.

triplechipteeth.jpg
 

rlitman

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Always used carbide TCG (Triple Chip Grind) in the laminate shop.

Since a circular saw cuts "up", you want the pretty side of the sheet facing down.

triplechipteeth.jpg

+1 You'll get a cleaner cut with a TCG, and the TCG blade will stay sharp cutting melamine (which is VERY tough on blades) much longer than any blade that has ATB cut teeth (a typical combination blade).
 

M35A2

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Agree with the height tooth count TCG blade. Bottom side will be your good side, any binding will still chip so a straightedge is mandatory. Don’t buy any special blade cleaner, just use oven cleaner and keep it clean as possible. A lot will depend on quality of the Melamine, in my business we use industrial grade which is usually not what you get at the box stores. I use a circular saw very little except in the field but this is the saw I normally use :)
 

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old__man

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Awesome.

The only blades that I can find that are TCG state they are for cutting metals (either ferrous or non-ferrous). Is this what I am looking for? I will admit, I am pretty ignorant when it comes to saw blades. Every saw I own still has the factory blade in it.
 

bdelmar2

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During my time in the cabinet shop we used a fair amount of melamine.

Mainly cut on a tablesaw. The blade in Jessesandy's photo above is the type we used. Its a fine toothed blade - 80t, 10" is what we used. You need to find one for cutting laminates - a quick google shows them on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006XMTY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Your 6 1/2" skill saw is going to chip them more than a larger blade would.

Whatever you use you want to set it as shallow as you can, the more the blade projects above the cutting area the sharper the angle and the more it will chip - especially when the blade gets a little dull.

We always got some kind of chipping on the edges, one side more than the other. A clean sharp blade helps a lot as does a zero clearance insert in the table saw (for the backside) - with a small skillsaw you are going to chip it, a lot.

We used white melamine for the interiors of cabinets and it showed very easily so you had to plan ahead a bit to hide it if possible.

The first few cuts with a new blade using a new insert were virtually chip free, you have to closely examine them to see the chipping, with more chipping becoming apparent as you cut. A dull blade will blast it badly - like 1/4" chips.

For areas where you couldn't hide it, say the front of a shelf, we had a router table set up to take about a 1/32" off the edge. (We then t'slotted it and put snap in edging on them)

A good router bit will cut melamine clean.

Since our melamine was white it probably showed chips more than your maple colored will, but I've never worked with that so can't say for sure.

Also worth noting is melamine has a sharp edge and will cut you almost like a razor blade, or worse.
 

rlitman

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Awesome.

The only blades that I can find that are TCG state they are for cutting metals (either ferrous or non-ferrous). Is this what I am looking for? I will admit, I am pretty ignorant when it comes to saw blades. Every saw I own still has the factory blade in it.

Non-ferrous; i.e. aluminum. Yep, that's the same blade you want for melamine.

Steel cutting blades have other features you do not want (and cost a LOT more).

In your case, you're cutting 1/2" sheets, so I wouldn't necessarily look for the absolute finest blade available, or you might run into burning issues. I'd suggest something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LFCM5P0/?tag=atomicindus08-20
That's only 30 teeth, but remember that it's only a 6-1/2" blade. It works out to be just a tad coarser than 50 teeth in a 10" blade, which is pretty fine cutting on anything other than luan.

Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FXT328/?tag=atomicindus08-20
is more suited to thinner stock like laminate flooring.
Again, 60 teeth on a 6-1/2" blade would be spaced the same as 93 teeth on a 10" blade (that's REALLY fine, and will burn a lot).
 
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nh_yota

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In the past I've cut it long with whatever blade I've had on hand and then trimmed it down with a router. You waste a little bit of material and it's a pain to do if you need to cut a lot of sheets, but it works nicely.
 
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old__man

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Non-ferrous; i.e. aluminum. Yep, that's the same blade you want for melamine.

Steel cutting blades have other features you do not want (and cost a LOT more).

I'm curious, seeing I know very little about saw blades, what features does a steel cutting blade have that I don't want?

Two others showed up in my search. Thoughts? The one you recommended is sitting in my basket right now.

Amazon 1

Amazon 2

I'm assuming because they are for steel I don't want them?
 

Voi

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I'm curious, seeing I know very little about saw blades, what features does a steel cutting blade have that I don't want?

I know little about metal cutting blades but the one on the second link at least seems too have much to narrow of a kerf for cutting thick melamine. I'm assuming the first is similar.
 

rlitman

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...I'm assuming because they are for steel I don't want them?

Well, I expect they'll work. There are three differences that come to mind in the ferrous cutting blades.

1) They use a better grade carbide. Only the finest grade carbides will stand up to cutting steel. That's good for everyone.

2) They have something in the design that prevents overcutting. It's essentially an anti-kickback leg. That's that hump behind the cutting edge on the first link. The second blade works similarly, though the hump isn't as well defined (it just has less of a top clearance or relief angle). It's like the anti-kickback design on better router bits, that acts like the rakers on a chainsaw chain (if you're familiar with that). It basically allows the tooth to cut just a little bit, and not any more, and if you feed it too fast, it pushes back. That's ok from a safety perspective, but can cause burning. It also leave less room in the gullet for chip removal (another source of burning). This limit on your depth of cut also means that it will forcibly cut more slowly (so I'd expect ferrous cutting blades to cut annoyingly slowly in wood). Still, if you look at the universal blades made popular by the Evolution saw, it can be used for the woodworking task.

3) The edge geometry is a little different for cutting steel. The line from the cutting edge will be straight through the blade center, which is a 0 degree rake angle (what the drawing below calls a neutral hook). Blades for softer materials (except plastic, which likes a negative rake) will usually have a positive hook that both helps advance the blade into the material, and also pulls the material into the sole of a circular saw, or down to the table of a table saw (positive hook also lifts materials on miter and radial arm saws, so it's not always a good thing). Not having that rake is probably not going to hurt much on melamine over MDF, considering it is already cutting very slowly.

tooth_geom.gif


All in all, it will work. And a ferrous cutting blade should last a long time cutting melamine, and you may even get good results with it. If you plan to use it to cut steel, and don't want to buy two blades, then maybe it's even the right choice.

Note that the ATB blade design is based on a crosscut saw, and is designed around severing wood fibers in a crosscut (though I get good results ripping with an ATB+R blade). But those sharp corners that are great at cutting wood get quickly dulled by melamine, and also cause melamine to chip out. TCG avoids those sharp corners, and that's important if you want good results.
 
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Steve from Socal

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I was in the wood industry both as plant manager and made tooling/sold tooling. The panel saw that fellow pictured likely has a scoring blade that cuts just slightly wider than the main blade. On all off hand melamine cutting I would suggest a high angle ATB, they would give the best scoring of the melamine. A triple chip works well for high pressure laminate but will cause edge chipping on melamine.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002IPHG9I/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Steve
 
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old__man

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Okay,

So to build on my earlier question. What's the best tool to cut out wall outlet holes? RotoZip, jigwas, or oscillating tool? I own two of those three tools.
 
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