Help with out of the box question

[Silas Smith]

In my business, we have a need for particle boards. We basically take cabinet 3/4i nch particle board and cut it down to 42X49. Currently we are paying a cabinet shop to cut down a standard sheet of cabinet stock in half and sending us the boards. We would like to cut the boards ourself. Does anyone know what a standard price is and a supplier in the Houston area? What suggestions does anyone have? We could also consider MDF or another cheap alternative. We would be looking at producing 2000 boards per month and we currently pay $7 a board and want to make it cheaper.

[Tim Morton]

Hmmm, I wonder if you start throwing in labor and frieght and inventory, how much below $7 bucks you would need to go to make it a savings. Thats a hundred boards a day to be cut and cleaned...which means an add'l employee doing a real dirty boring job...which means high turn over. I don't know what you are using the boards for, but I would think you might be able to raise the end cost by a buck or two and not have to deal with the hassle of taking this in house.

[Doug Shepard]

Assuming you have the space to store it, could you order in larger quantities direct from a manufacturer already cut to size? Even just 3 months worth would be 6000 pcs. Sounds like a pretty big order and one that you might be able to deal directly with the manufacturer on. Just a thought....

[Jeff Sudmeier]

As Tim said, cutting MDF is a really dirty job! If you are not currently cutting any of the boards in house, just assembling, you are in for a real mess.

That said, if I was looking to cut these myself, I would be looking at a high quality panel saw to speed up the process.