Using melamine need tips

[John Scane]

Hi All

I'm building some cabinets for a client to hang on a wall.
It's not a big job, just 2 = 32" x 40" by 18" deep made out of black melamine.They will have mahogany doors attached with euro hinges.

I cut the melamine to rough sizes with an 80 tooth melamine blade to get a feel for it. I noticed there is a little tear out on the bottom side of the cut, since it's black it really shows. I will be edge banding with a combination of black melamine tape or mahogany but any tear out will show.

What tips do any of you have for building these basic cabinets using this material? Also what suggestions do you have for hanging them? They are made of 3/4 thick double sided melamine.

Thanks!

Oh yea happy Fday to you all !

[Jim Becker]

Hang with French cleats.

Cut with ZCI and the right kind of blade for the "most" chip-free results. Ideally, a scoring blade is best for this kind of material, but outside of Euro sliders, most saws don't have them.

[John Scane]

blasted stupid Unisaw!

Do I attach the french cleats directly to the back laminate?

I heard taping the cut line might help?

[Steve Clardy]

Lay a piece of waste under your material.
1/4 hardboard, plywood, etc.

[Mac Cambra]

Cut in two passes, first cut 1/8" deep and with the second cut finish the through cut. Essentially the first cut will score the stock and help protect the surface from chipping.

[Gary Keedwell]

blasted stupid Unisaw!

Do I attach the french cleats directly to the back laminate?

I heard taping the cut line might help?
Taping will definitely help. Another option is to raise your TS blade about 1/8 " and scoring one side...then turn it over and cut through on the other side without moving your fence. It worked for me....extra work but it was worth it.;)

Gary K.

[Gary Keedwell]

Whoaaa, I didn't see the post above me. :D

Gary K.

[Nissim Avrahami]

Yes, the scoring blade is the best but I also don't have it.

If you are trying already the advises on scoring 1/8" you can try this one that works for me.

It's based on the scoring blade "patent".
The scoring blade is rotating and cutting against the direction of the main blade so, what I do, I raise the blade to 1mm (3/64") or so and start the cut from the Outfeed side pulling the board toward me than I raise the blade and cut normally.

niki

[Brad Naylor]

If I didn't have a scoring blade on my slider I'd cut my pieces 3-4mm oversized and then trim back to the line with a router and guide rail.

As for hanging them - French cleats are the best. Build your cabs with a 20mm void at the back and fill this with a bevelled cleat glued and screwed to the top rail. Screw a corresponding cleat to the wall and hang 'em up.

[fRED mCnEILL]

What I do to get absolutely NO tearout on plywood and melamine is to put the blade up about 1/16-1/32 of an inch(just enough to score the surface) and run the material backwards over the saw. Then raise the blade and finish the cut as you normally would.. Some will set their hair on fire and insist this is unsafe but because the sawblade is only up a fraction of an inch there is no danger for the blade to catch the wood. In effect what you are doing is mimicking a scoring blade. It is a little more time consuming but then not all cuts require this treatment.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

John,
I did the back scoring thing...at least until I got a Freud Hi-ATB melamine and sheetgood blade. What a wonderful job this blade did. I did not have to score nor use a zero clearance insert. Perfect kerf ...and we are fussy. On the downside, I heard that Hi-ATB blades dull fast. But mine is still going strong.

As for the chips. Try using a permanent black marker like a Sharpie. Rub it at a 45 angle along the pen tip's side. Be careful not to mark the black melamine's face. Even though the pen and melamine are both black, you will still see a difference.

-Jeff :)

[Russ Filtz]

Don't mix the melamine dust into your pet food to "up" the protein content, like the Chinese company did! ;)

[luc gendron]

I read that some of you are cutting the piece from the outfeed in. Could you not simply ''flip'' the blade over and cut normally to score the piece. I know I wouldn't do this with the blade set up high but simply to score the piece would this not work?

I've had some problems with chipping before i bought the expensive blade. What I used to do is to score the cut line with a sharp box cutter or exacto blade. This worked fine but was very a slow process.

[Nissim Avrahami]

Hi Luc

Yes, it will work and actually that's what the scoring blade does (see pic)

In any case, you must set the blade low (~3/64) and you shall have to "Flip" the blade again for the main cut...otherwise you shall have a lot of smoke it the shop...

Your idea is good if you have to cut many boards to the same width; you score all of them, "flip" the blade to "normal" and cut all of them.

niki

66594

[Mike Henderson]

Hi Luc

Yes, it will work and actually that's what the scoring blade does (see pic)

In any case, you must set the blade low (~3/64) and you shall have to "Flip" the blade again for the main cut...otherwise you shall have a lot of smoke it the shop...

Your idea is good if you have to cut many boards to the same width; you score all of them, "flip" the blade to "normal" and cut all of them.

niki

66594
I think the scoring blade is counter-rotating to the main blade, so the teeth of the scoring blade are cutting into the wood "normally". It's as you suggested earlier about running the wood backwards through the blade, but with the blade in normal position (not reversed).

If you flip the blade over, no matter which way you push the sheet through, the blade will be cutting on the back of the carbide, which is not a "good thing". (unless I misunderstand what's being said).

Mike

[Nissim Avrahami]

Ooooops:o :o :o

You are soooo correct Mike...somehow the directions of turning were messed-up in my head...and I even attached a picture....:o

That's what happens when I'm thinking at 4:00 AM...Yep, it's a bad idea to "flip" the blade...

Sorry for that
niki

[John Scane]

Thanks everyone,

My table saw has a large outfeed table attached so feeding it backwards isn't really an option for me. I did do some test cuts today with the blade raised to about 1/16 that worked pretty well....I also bought a better melamine blade... the freud and I'm going to try that tomorrow.
I think the 2 pass technique will work good enough and all the peices are the same width so it should go pretty fast even with 2 passes.

[Tim Martin]

Hi John, I have cut up heaps of Melamine (chip-free)on my standard 12" TS with out a scribing blade.

I use the 2 pass method. First pass with the blade sitting roughly 2mm above the table to make the scribe. For the second pass I move the fence out a papers thickness (a bee's diaphragm:D ) and raise the blade to complete the cut. It leaves a fine scribe mark on the edge of the board, but this ensures no chips and is barely noticed when covered with iron-on edging etc. It ends up exactly the same as an edge cut by a slider with a scribing blade.

This method also works brilliantly for veneer board and laminates. Gee I'd love a slider though.:rolleyes:

[Byron Trantham]

I have built far too many projects with melamine and I have found that by raising the blade just enough to score the melamine I can get virtually chip free cuts. I use a Forrest veneer/melamine blade. I tried the tape method but found that the tape wants to curl off making the material very difficult to move through the blade because it wants to stick to the TS top.

As for hanging, as has already been mentioned, French cleat is the only way to go. For one thing you can level and attach the wall side of the cleat all by yourself. You aren't trying to hold a 2 ton cabinet in place while drilling holes and hoping your are in the right place. Another good reason is if you cut the cleat a couple inches short of the total width of the cabinet you can move it left or right to center or make sure its flush against the adjacent cabinet.

[frank shic]

john, i work almost entirely in melamine. the hi-atb blade/zci insert combo will work but recently i've purchased a modulus 2000 which gives absolutely the cleanest cut i've ever seen although it's not cheap at $482.

[John Scane]

It's been a while...i forgot i posted this.
Thanks everyone for your help.

Will the 2 pass method work for cutting dado's also? I'm assuming it will but want to make sure.

Thanks

[Dave Falkenstein]

I get chip-free cuts in melamine using an Amana melamine blade. I have used some blades that were supposed to be designed for melamine that did not cut melamine well at all. The Amana and the Forrest Duraline are two that actually work well.

When building black melamine shelving for a client a number of years ago, I used a black Magic Marker along the edges, after applying black edging tape, to hide any imperfections. Worked pretty well.

[frank shic]

john, you could use the two pass method to dado the melamine but why? butt joints with screws work well enough and if you use dados you will introduce another potential for a mistake to occur. personally, i stay away from dado blades.

[Scott Loven]

Don't mix the melamine dust into your pet food to "up" the protein content, like the Chinese company did! ;)
Ya know; I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they were caught using dog food as a filler in their melamine laminate!
Scott

[Jim Becker]

Ya know; I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they were caught using dog food as a filler in their melamine laminate!


Wouldn't that be ironic... :eek: :o