Thread: How good are Bunnings saw cuts on melamine?

There are better places to get this done than bunnies,I used a plywood distributor some years ago in Dandenong
I gave them the sizes i wanted they had a computer program that cuts the most efficient out of a sheet and told me how many sheets I needed
Can't recall the cost but was happy to have it done properly
They also edged the exposed finished edges where required
Again I was happy with the price and results

Not melamine but when they made all my pine cuts of 500mm they were all 520mm. Although when they cut me a sheet of plywood it seemed alright

Unfortunately your sliding compound mitre saw isn't going to do much when it comes to sheet goods - the cut range just isn't good enough.
If you don't have the necessary equipment pay a joinery firm or kitchen company to do all the necessary cutting for you and supply you as a flat pack that you can put together.
I would hate to be the one putting together a cabinet that has been cut by Bunnings.

We have gone the kitchen company route four times. Each time it seemed a lot of money to pay for a melamine box in bits. And we were never happy with the quality (squareness) of the kichen company product and had to 'fix' a lot of annoying badly cut bits of each kit. They were all mid range priced kitchen companies too.

Over time the fence on the panel saw at work works its way out of square and once it's out by more than 1mm over 1m (0.06 degrees) assembly can become a pain. Buy it flat pack from a kitchen company and save yourself the headache.

I can recommend MadeCo, we used to contract large jobs to them before we got a CNC router at work

Ok then .... perhaps best to stick with Bunnings. I am sure that the person running the worn out saw, with the level of training only basically acceptable to breakdown sheet goods to assist with transport, will do a perfectly acceptable cut. The manager will not mind the saw person taking the time to work out the cutting list to maximise the return from the sheet and spending that additional bit of time double checking the final 0.05mm with the trusty measuring tape.

You have asked this question on a woodworking forum. I would be suprised if you dont get 100% of respondents saying to go to a joinery firm or kitchen company.

Originally Posted by Sir Stinkalot

You have asked this question on a woodworking forum. I would be surprised if you don't get 100% of respondents saying to go to a joinery firm or kitchen company.

Or go to IKEA and get their flat packs or even the flat packs from Bunnings. They would be accurate and easy to assemble.

Peter.

I purchased some Melamine from Bunnings a couple of weeks ago - I don't yet have the ability to cart full sheets of material around, so I got some cut down pieces. Let me assure you, the cuts were laughable in their quality - it looked like Freddy Kreuger had gone bonkers with a pair of Kindergarten scissors.

I recut these pieces to their final size with my track saw, and turned out perfect cuts (as you'd expect with the right gear and taking time etc).

Like you, I was at the research stage (and am pretty much finished reading, researching and so on), and am now assembling the tools and the equipment to build my own kitchen. This will take time, and represents a bit of cost. I firmly believe, though, that by taking the time and effort, not only will I end up with a kitchen I am really wanting, I will be able to customise it to exactly the way I want it.

I will then own all the equipment I need to complete many further projects around the house.

My equipment list is a track saw (already purchased) and parallel guide system, table saw with Incra TS-LS fence, and am building a router table into the table saw. I will also buy an Incra mitre guage for the table saw, and possibly a Domino to allow for joints to be made.

Howdy RubyRose
Cutting melamine panels cleanly and squarely to the exact dimensions is not an easy task on the saws that Bunnings use (or sell) because of the way they are positioned on the panel saws ... vertical ... and as they saw approaches the end of the cut the saw kerf closes and creates an angled final cut ....

Besides that ... to cut melamine requires a scoring to be done before the special blade cuts the sheet ... I know that Bunnings wont have a scoring panel saw ... and I'd be surprised if they had the special melamine blades fitted to the panel saws. If the scoring is not done and the special blade is not used the you will get chipout on the blades exit side ... the top may be OK ...the bottom will have tearout for sure.

BUT ... you could use Bunnings to do the cuts to your size if you were to use the melamine panels in a wood frame ... doesn't matter too much if the edges of the infill panel are chipped or not perfectly square. But that could be a very expensive approach.

The general advice is to have a good shop cut and edgeband for you... they know what they are doing and the results should be OK .... this may not be as cheap as buying a flat pack though.

Regards

Rob

Originally Posted by Rubyrose

My hubby and I are still in the research stage prior to getting serious renovating our new place on Mt Tamborine.
I was dead set on getting a sliding compound mitre saw(another post of mine), to help with the many cuts that we (he being the saw man) would have to do on the decking,cornicing ect and had a few ideas (delusions my better half would say) that we could use the saw in some of the kitchen cabinets ect.
Another friend suggested that a smarter option may be tojust get the kitchen cabinet melamine cut on the Bunnings saw system for a fewdollars.
Is this wise. Are Bunnings cuts good and square? Or is this just crazy talk?
Thanks for putting up with my dumb girlie questions.

how serious and industrial do you want to become with your renovation tool kit ?

for trimming decking and flooring to length, almost any of the miter saws sold by Bunnings or Mitre10 will surfice. And you don't really need a slider as most 10" non-sliders can cut around 130 mm wide at 90 degrees. (I didn't look it up but I think 12 inchers can cut to 150 mm.)

to minimise waste when making your kitchen you would want to become very industrial -- sliding panel saw (with scoring blade), edge bander, line drilling machine, dust extraction, computer sheet layout program, etc and possible power supply upgrade -- which comes at a very high cost.

perhaps the sweet spot is the Festool System -- TS55 track saw, 1010 router, 2700, 1400 (LR32) guide rails, MFT table (for easy squaring cuts), a self-starting vac and a handful of accessories -- but even then you are looking at more than $4,000

BUT
IMO you really have to be wanting to get serious with your reno to justify that sort of financial layout.

I think you could purchase 10 flat pack kitchens before you came close to recouping the cost of the tooling.
Remember the cost of a kitchen is in the fittings, not the water resistant melamine board.

I'm another in the "get a cabinetmaker to do it" camp. I have a sliding table saw with scribe blade and most of the other required gear with the exception of the edgebander. I did my kitchen in December. 8metres of bench space, 3 corner cupboards, about 3 metres of overheads, basic white doors and drawers all soft close. Carcases came to $3500. For that price I wouldn't bother with the hassle. Once you work out the board cost, fittings, etc there is not really a lot left for labour. My time is better spent doing the stuff I like to do.

Cheers

Last time I looked at the white board at Bunnings it appeared to be a very coarse chip and not HMR, even if they could cut to spec, which they can't.

i won't even consider this path, those saws aren't designed to cleaning cut melamine, no scouring blade, and normally a blunt blade.

Its ok for plywood and MDF, but thats it.

Look for a sheet material flat pack company, Aussie Cuts in Brendale will deliver or a similar company on the gold coast.

I purchased a small sheet of melamine from Bunnings a week ago. All the sheets I looked at on the pile were chipped already. Only had a small project so purchased for convenience.
Guessing there may be better quality melamine available elsewhere.