Cutting Formica laminate

[InfoCentral]

I want to cut Formica laminated wood sheets with my table saw. Both sides are laminated and when I cut them the backside Formica gets chipped. How should I cut this sheeting so as not to chip the Formica on the back side?

[SilentButDeadly]

You need to cut twice. First run through have the blade height up just enough to score the bottom face (~5mm) then you can cut through fully on the next pass. This is why most shops that cut melamine panels use panel saws that have two blades - the first is a scoring blade the secend a cutting blade.

[InfoCentral]

So I have to cut through the laminate panel on the bottom side and then flip it over and cut through the whole panel? Someone once told me that you could use duck tape and that would work. Never tried it but it doesn't sound like it would work...

[noodle_snacks]

My CMT melamine and fine cut off blade cuts the stuff without chips, i've only been through 10-15 sheets of MDF (but the last two were that stuff). No problems yet. I have heard the duct tape works, When sheets are too big to handle i cut them oversize outdoors with a circuilar saw, then trim with a router and a solid carbide spiral upcut router bit. leaves an excelent finish.

[rrich]

I've cut Melamine and laminated Formica with a very high angle (40°+) ATB blade. There was no diference in the quality of the cut from the technique described below.

I've also used the double cut technique. The first cut is to barely score the Formica (~2mm or so) and then make the full height cut. It is NOT necessary to flip the material for a second cut. The first cut is similar to using a saw with a scoring blade.

[Felder]

It is NOT necessary to flip the material for a second cut.

:confused:
Are you sure, rrich?

The whole point of making the scoring cut is to stop 'blow-out' of the Formica on the underside. By scoring the top, and then just plowing through the rest, you're not achieving anything.

When you are using a panel saw with a scoring unit, the scoring blade.....well....scores the underside before the sheet is fed into the main blade.

[Barry_White]

Doesn't the scoring blade turn in the opposite direction to and in front of the main blade on the saw so that it is cutting up against the laminate hence not chipping the edge and with only about 2mm of blade exposed would not cause any problem with pulling the material in to the other blade.

By the time the board enters the main blade there wouldn't be any drag by the scoring blade anyway.

[soundman]

I can see that the double cut no flip method could work, if the saw accuratly tracked the previous cut, the blade was sharp and the fence was paralel to the blade.

note he said just barely cuts the laminate on the underside.... the angle of attack of the blade tooth will be verry low & tear out should be close to nill.
As long as the second cut tracked and didn't recut the first appreacably it shoud be pretty clean.

Must give it a try.

Any nice fine sharp blade is good start.
getting the blade height just right can make a big difference.

No I don't meant the standard text book blade height response.
For minimum tear out running some test cuts should give you an ideal height.
It will vary from blade to blade and with materials.

I don't have much hope for the tape option because the tear ot is comming from behind.

Backing with another sherrt does work quite well though.
If you stack cut two sheets and they are nice and closely held only the bottom sheet will tear out.

cheers

[Felder]

Doesn't the scoring blade turn in the opposite direction to and in front of the main blade on the saw so that it is cutting up against the laminate hence not chipping the edge and with only about 2mm of blade exposed would not cause any problem with pulling the material in to the other blade.

Yes, thereby making a shallow groove in the laminate / board which eliminates chipping (blowout) from the main blade.

[Felder]

Wait on a sec. I can see where I've gone wrong now.

My mental picture on reading rrich's first post was of him using a circular saw, not a saw bench.
Obviously he is winding down his blade so that it is used as a scoring blade, then winding it back up for use as a main blade.

Sorry folks. No need to flip anything. It is I that was confused here. Hope I dragged you with me.

[mic-d]

Wait on a sec. I can see where I've gone wrong now.

My mental picture on reading rrich's first post was of him using a circular saw, not a saw bench.
Obviously he is winding down his blade so that it is used as a scoring blade, then winding it back up for use as a main blade.

Sorry folks. No need to flip anything. It is I that was confused here. Hope I dragged you with me.

I find that this also works with a nice shap blade in a circular saw too...

Cheers
Michael

[bsrlee]

The other method, if your saw won't cut the same track twice, is to cut 1/16 or 1.5mm over sized, then rout off the excess on your router table. The router bit won't chip the laminex and should leave a nice edge to glue the edgeing to.

Thank Triton for that tip.

[rrich]

:confused:
Are you sure, rrich?

The whole point of making the scoring cut is to stop 'blow-out' of the Formica on the underside. By scoring the top, and then just plowing through the rest, you're not achieving anything.

When you are using a panel saw with a scoring unit, the scoring blade.....well....scores the underside before the sheet is fed into the main blade.

Well, yeah but...

I was thinking of double sided material. Mostly Melamine but I did scrounge some wierd counter top (35mm thick) material. I don't know why but it had the same awful purple and grey Formica on both sides. I did the scoring and then the full cut without chipping. If anything, the cut was too good as I was always getting cuts from the edge. SWMBO was<FEMALE dogging> *female dogging* about me getting blood smears everywhere.

On the single sided stuff I've never had a problem cutting with the good side up. I guess it's all in the blade. (I bought a dado and the blade came for free.) I'm a big believer in the agressive ATB angle blades. I just had the blade sharpened and after making long bevel cuts in plywood, I'm getting blood all over again.

[Canetoad]

I used to cut a shallow pass first but passed it over the saw backwards and then do the main cut. It used to work quite well but was quite tedious to do. It was the only way I could find to simulate the scoring blade. As long as you keep them sharp I find it hard to tell the difference between the cut of the new generaration melamine blades and a scribe saw cut. The other advantage is that there is no shimming scoring blades or alignment to worry about. We have the scribing blades sitting in the saw but they aren't used much.