How to cut laminated wood

cubix

The likes of what you would see in wardrobes, is it a certain type of blade for a chop saw or do you simply put your masking tape on. As I seem to be getting a lot of chipped edges which makes it look like a dogs dinner.
Is some laminated wood better than others for not chipping??

Thanks

1chippy

cutting panels like that need to be cut on a panel saw with a scoring blade which runs in the opposite direction of the main blade but perfectly aligned so that when the main blade cuts through it doesnt chip. i have seen a lad pulling his circ saw backwards on a guide first set at say 2mm then dropping it and cutting it the normal way. it works but takes a lot of time.

the name of the sheets are melamine faced. laminated wood is made up of layers or strips of timber glued together

slowburner

cubix wrote: »

The likes of what you would see in wardrobes, is it a certain type of blade for a chop saw or do you simply put your masking tape on. As I seem to be getting a lot of chipped edges which makes it look like a dogs dinner.
Is some laminated wood better than others for not chipping??

Thanks

The wardrobe material is veneered chipboard or MDF, presumably.
There are a few things you can do to prevent or at least reduce break out.
Most important is to be sure that your saw blade is sharp. An 80 tooth blade on a 250mm chopsaw would be the best.
Make the cut with the face to be seen uppermost - most break out occurs on the underside of the cut.
You could try a false bed on the chopsaw - a piece of MDF would be good for this, and keep a firm downward pressure on the stuff to be cut.
Commercial saws built for cutting sheet materials have a scoring blade; this is designed to minimise break out before the main cutting blade follows to do the principal cut. You can do something similar by scoring the cut line with a sharp knife.
I've never use tape myself, but I can imagine it would help.

slowburner

1 chippy beat me to it

cubix

Thanks lads