Thread: Cutting Melamine with a Circular Saw

You are on the right track. A high tooth count, sharp blade is good and so is a slowish feed rate. Tape along the line also helps prevent chipping the edges. Another point to remember is the worst chipping is where the teeth exit the cut so with a circular saw that is the top as you cut. Try a few test cuts to get a feel for it first. I assume you will use a strait edge guide or track. Also a good idea to have a practice run with the iron on edge strips to get the timing right. If the iron belongs to her indoors then be sure to use a cloth to protect the sole of the iron from glue marks.
Regards
John

Hi Dibbers,

All the tricks you've mentioned all work, which one i choose to go with is entirely dependent on the project/skill of user and something i'd recommend you weigh up yourself. If time is a big restraint I'd seriously wouldn't bother with all the "additional" work required to get clean cuts especially if they are storage boxes they will inevitably get dinged up anyway. Plus stuff like scoring cuts etc requires a certain amount of skill to ensure your saw doesn't go wandering and increases the likelihood of user error.

On a completely separate issue, i'd reconsider is making "rolling storage" out of melamine. Melamine is one of those boards that typically doesn't like to get moved around. Just think of any melamine furniture in your house and recall how rigid it was when you first got it vs how rigid it is now after moving it a few times and now imagine how it would go if you were to shove it around loaded with stuff.

Thanks for the advice.

@Orraloon - yes i'll be using a straight edge for the cuts. was going to buy a piece of al square tubing to use as my straight edge. I had a bunch of stuff fall a few weeks ago and my ply one got dinged to high heaven.

@Tonzeyd - fair point re moving melamine shelving... might make it out of 16mm ply and just make the "Door" out of melamine, it has to be rolling or we'd lose too much storage cos we wouldn't get to the deepest parts of the cavity...

I don't want to over engineer it all, so i'll sketch up my plan and post it here, but it'll basically be a series of 600mm Units joined together till i don't have any more depth, with maybe 3 shelves at the bottom, and a clothes rail/clothes hooks at the top... then a smaller one at the smallest angle that'll essentially be a a triagular "bucket" with no top... hard to explain but when i sketch it up it'll make sense...

OK, so i knocked up something quick in excel and word (I'm at work, so limited in what i have to work with).

This will be the larger portion, don't know dimensions yet, but it'll be no wider than 600mm for each unit. Multiple units will be screwed together and the whole lot placed on casters so i can "open and close" the storage.
Storage 2.jpg

This will be for the pointy end of the stair cavity (literally). It'll be open (with bracing in the middle somewhere, most likely brackets so i can still store longer items if needed). again, on castors.
Storage 1.jpg

I'll build these out of 17mm ply, and then just have the face in melamine for a cleaner face.

Thoughts? Critiques?

I'd think about shopping at Ikea -- seriously -- for the vertical units. Mostly because Ikea make doors that fit their Billy bookcase system.

The other thing I'd do is mount all your units on a single sheet of ply and put the castors under that sheet. Doing so should make the whole mobile more rigid and one piece.

you haven't said what the back will be, but think about using something substantial like 9 mm MDF, screwed to the melamine carcasses


blade wise, perhaps one of these https://www.bunnings.com.au/diablo-1...blade_p6370898

Originally Posted by ian

I'd think about shopping at Ikea -- seriously -- for the vertical units. Mostly because Ikea make doors that fit their Billy bookcase system.

The other thing I'd do is mount all your units on a single sheet of ply and put the castors under that sheet. Doing so should make the whole mobile more rigid and one piece.

you haven't said what the back will be, but think about using something substantial like 9 mm MDF, screwed to the melamine carcasses


blade wise, perhaps one of these https://www.bunnings.com.au/diablo-1...blade_p6370898

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the tips. I'll definitely check out that blade too.

Sorry if i wasn't clear, but these will all be sideways. The cabinets themselves won't have doors, when i said "Door" i meant the part that you pull on to expose the cupboards from under the stairs... like this:

storage 3.jpg

And good point on the base... noted

Originally Posted by Dibbers

these will all be sideways. The cabinets themselves won't have doors, when i said "Door" i meant the part that you pull on to expose the cupboards from under the stairs... like this:

storage 3.jpg

OK

In essence you are making an inverted "T" where the wheels attach to the cross bar, and you pull on the leg to move the unit.

I think I'd build the base of each unit using 35mm particle board for the rigidity. You might be able to cannibalise an inexpensive kitchen bench for the material.

I'd make the units double sided with something pretty solid down the centre of each unit.

For the "doors" I think I'd use 16mm ply, overlain with 12mm melanine faces sourced from a kitchen cabinet maker.

Yep, i'd second Ian's advice.

Rigidity is they key to success with a project such as this, much more than a single sheet of ply/melamine could offer.

Also what type of flooring do you have next to the stairwell? If you have anything other than tiles/concrete I'd go back to the drawing board.

Dibbers, you are getting excellent advice so far but you may get more help if it wasn't posted in the Woodturning Forums but in the right woodworking forum.

Currently it is seen only by those who use the new post search but may users go straight to their interested forums.

Peter.

Originally Posted by tonzeyd

Yep, i'd second Ian's advice.

Rigidity is they key to success with a project such as this, much more than a single sheet of ply/melamine could offer.

Also what type of flooring do you have next to the stairwell? If you have anything other than tiles/concrete I'd go back to the drawing board.

it's tile flooring. Only the stairs and upstairs are carpet.

I'll have to sketch something up once i measure the space properly and I'll post it here to see if it's adequate.

Hadn't thought of making it double sided, I wanted to make some toy shelves for my son too, so maybe if there's enough space i'll look to do that...

Thanks for the ideas

another option is to build a low plinth and mount the pull out units on heavy duty slides liek these Extra-Heavy-Duty Slides - Lee Valley Tools
or these Double-Locking Extra-Heavy-Duty Slides - Lee Valley Tools


* lee valley links because I have the site bookmarked.

Originally Posted by Dibbers

So, I was wondering if anyone has ever made a clean-ish cut in melamine using a circ saw? I'll buy some edging to iron on to the cut lines too, but the cut is whats worrying me.

I know the discussion has already moved on from here, but though I’d reply anyway. Set the depth of the blade so that it just clears the thickness of the board, and cut with the good surface down. That way the teeth are just nipping through the melamine layer, and doing it at a shallow angle, and you’ll get the minimum chipping.

Originally Posted by Dibbers

Any advice? or should i tell SWMBO that she's dreamin'?

You're a braver man than I am to even mention that

Some tips that I found useful to cut melamine before I had a Festool saw and guide rail.

If possible cut more than one piece at a time. The cut in the middle will have minimal to no chipping.
If you can not cut more than one piece, have a sacrificial sheet underneath (or on top, or both) to reduce chipping. The sacrificial sheet can be anything from 3mm MDF, plain pine, ply or more melamine sheets.

The only time I iron is to do edging.

You can get great results with a triple tip ( aluminium) saw blade to go into your circular saw. I use one when I break down melamine sheets. The other option is to cut over size (by approx 2mm) the clean up the edge and bring to correct size by running a router with a straight bit up the edge, just be aware that this leaves a razor sharp edge.
Hope all goes well with what ever method you use.