As practice shows, do high-quality cut chipboard with a durable melamine coating is very difficult. Rough tools often leave nicks on cuts. You can no longer assemble a neat door or shelf with such defects. Sawing chipboard at home, usually occurs when repair work or making furniture.
How to cut chipboard without nicks and chips?
Special equipment
Of course the most the best option- use a special format machine. With it, you can get any cut. But for private needs you cannot buy such an instrument, but on manufacturing plant providing sawing services, such a procedure will cost good money. More cheap way - Circular Saw. There are even special saws for chipboard. But they also require the use of special tools. However, many in the arsenal should have milling machine, which will fix the rough cut with the cutter. If you have experience with such a machine, it will not be difficult to get a satisfactory appearance cut.
improvised tools
You can cut chipboard and a jigsaw, but it will be a rough cut. The edges may not turn out straight, but sinusoidal, and in the worst case, the edge will come out not perpendicular to the front surface.
During the cut, you must be prepared for the fact that the jigsaw file will begin to “walk” due to the bend. You need to cut with a margin of 4 mm, and then level the edge.
Sawing chipboard at home with a jigsaw reduces the formation of chips. When cutting, you need to increase the speed and reduce the feed by setting the swap to 0. Only sharp saws designed for special sawing of chipboard should be used. Only by following these rules can you achieve good result. After cutting the butt, which will be in sight, you can earn some money with sandpaper. Additionally, before cutting, as already mentioned, you need to cut a line along which the cut will take place. But we do not file along this line, but near it - then the chips will not touch the limits you need. In the end, it remains only to finish the edges with sandpaper.
Indents from the contour can be up to 4 mm. Then these few millimeters are removed cylindrical cutter using a manual electric milling machine with a bearing. The bearing is guided along a long level, fixed with reverse side sheet.
In addition, if the chips are in a non-working, inconspicuous area, they can be masked with a marker or felt-tip pen, matched to their color.
The most undesirable way to cut chipboard- a file (oddly enough, in old textbooks a lot of material is devoted to this method). It is possible with a planer, but preferably electric and with carbide knives. But here it must be borne in mind that the dust from under the planer will scatter throughout the room.
And the most comfortable way- by using manual router along the guide. The butt should be even and under 90 gr, there will be no chips, and when the vacuum cleaner is turned on, there will be almost no dust.
Masters recommend using a hacksaw for such a cut. If you have a saw with a fine tooth, then the procedure is as follows:
1) Draw a line of cut with a knife. Sharpen the saw before starting work. The knife should be driven with a little pressure so that the laminated top layer is notched.
2) Glue a tape with a sticky base along the intended cutting line. It will help keep the decorative layer from cracking. You can also use paper tape.
3) The tool should be held under very acute angle. In this case, the angle should not be higher than 30 degrees - this will reduce the likelihood of chips. In the process of cutting, it is necessary to slightly press on the saw. If the work is done with a power tool, such as a jigsaw, then you do not need to rush and press it
4) After finishing sawing, the cut can be cleaned with a file. But in many cases, this is not required, since the small teeth of the saw do not deform the laminate. If torn edges have formed, then delicate work with a rasp will bring the cut into the proper form. The grinding tool must be guided towards the center from the edge - this minimizes possible damage to the top layer.
5) A glued strip of veneer will give the final beauty to the cut.
Of course cutting chipboard at home does not imply professional quality and high speed. For those who are in a hurry, we can offer sawing chipboard with a grinder. A wood disc is used as a cutting element. A bar is attached to the chipboard on clamps so that the grinder is guided along it for an even cut. After cutting, possible chips are treated with the same grinder, only with a different nozzle - for grinding. But a more gentle option is to use sandpaper.
Today we will tell you what affects the quality of sawing, how to cut chipboard evenly and cleanly, and also how you can saw with a guide and without a guide with a conventional circular saw.
We will show using the example of a hand-held circular saw, but this does not affect the sawing techniques in any way, the difference is only in minor details. You can get a similar cut quality on a cheaper tool if you follow our advice.
What influences the quality of cutting chipboard?
In this case, we will saw chipboard, this is the most capricious material for sawing, because it has longitudinal and transverse layers, quite delicate and thin veneer. But on the other hand, it has a rigid adhesive base, which will also interfere with us.
Saw disc. How to choose it?
When cutting chipboard, the saw blade must simultaneously cut cleanly and be resistant, because the glue is very close to glass in its properties and quickly dulls the tool itself. Therefore, in the process of cutting chipboard, you need to choose enough good rims to cut them without loss of quality for a long time.
What is the difficulty of sawing with a circular saw with discs?
If we look at the cut of the workpiece, we will see that it is full of scuffs, because it is almost impossible to keep the saw straight in the cut “on the hands”.
On the saw blade there is a difference in height between the body of the saw itself and the sawing part - the tooth. Due to this distance, the disc has the ability to direct its position in the cut. Accordingly, as soon as it changes its geometry, the rear teeth begin to hit the chipboard blank and leave traces on it.
It is important to place the workpiece face down. Why?
The disk rotates from bottom to top, it cuts the pile of the workpiece up to the base. Thus, from below front side, we always have a clean surface. Problems start to form at the top where the teeth come out of the workpiece. This is how explosions, chips, pile are obtained.
How can they be minimized or avoided altogether? There are several simple tricks and we will talk about them now.
Reception 1. Cutting along the guide
We install a guide (tire) on the workpiece, set the sawing depth and perform a cut. As you can see for yourself, even on the outside of our chipboard blank there are no chips, no explosions. He himself drank even without signs of scuffing or side waves. Why such difference?
What is the merit of a leader?
When we saw with a disc, we inevitably move the saw, we get the so-called "movement of the iron." That is, when we move our hand, we move the saw all the time to the right, to the left. The guide, which has a hard edge, avoids this.
Accordingly, when we guide the saw along the guide, it does not move and the saw blade itself runs smoothly without changing its position. It turns out an ideal line parallel to the guide.
What to do if there is no manual circular saw and guide?
You need to make your own guide. We find a regular profile, you can take the rule, any flat rail, the main thing is that its geometry is even.
We measure the distance from the saw blade to the edge of your chipboard blank. We fasten the guide to the workpiece with any clamp and start cutting.
The main thing in the process is to constantly press the saw against the guide. That is, your hand should always lead the saw towards the homemade tire.
After cutting, you will get an almost perfect cut, the cut line is barely visible. We made a very high quality cut, the cut itself is clean, no side marks are visible on it. Except for a small pile on the back of the workpiece.
Where did this pile come from, because we worked with a guide (tire)?
A commercially available cutting bar has a special plastic protective tape. This tape does not allow the pile to rise and the saw cuts it. In this case, we did not have this tape, so we got this pile on the surface.
What to do with the pile in this case?
There are two options:
1. Take ordinary masking tape. It is glued to the place of cut, marking is made on it and sawn together with masking tape. The adhesive tape holds the ingrown in place and when we cut it, we get everything clean.
2. Just drive the saw blade more slowly. That is, if you do the same with a slower feed, then there will be much less chips.
Reception 2. "Reverse cut".
The first pass is performed in an unusual manner - in reverse. That is, the circular saw rotates in the course of feeding the workpiece. We set the minimum cutting depth, turn on the saw and move not forward, but backward.
If you have ordinary saw, then simply fix the saw with a minimum reach beyond the base. The meaning of the first pass is that the blade, moving along the guide, only clings to our workpiece. We need a small groove on the chipboard.
Having made the first - undercut cut, you will make sure that there are no chips with such a feed (back). The surface is perfect!
Now we will set the saw to full depth and cut the workpiece along this groove with a regular cut - feed forward. We will get two cuts for one workpiece. No wave cuts, no arson, nothing - perfect quality!
Video - how to saw off material (chipboard, plywood) without chips
The furniture in the store is beautiful, attractive. Road. And it does not always turn out to be exactly the most desirable addition to the interior, as it was drawn in the imagination that was played out in earnest.
Another thing is custom-made furniture. The master came (at least that's what they call themselves), measured everything, asked everything, assessed everything, left to fulfill the order. Sometimes for a long time. Less often - not quite what was required. But the price of custom-made furniture often turns out to be even higher than its analogue, which is languishing in the store.
Guided by such considerations, the heads of middle-income Russian families often think that it would be nice to acquire the skills of the legendary Pope Carlo themselves and sculpt masterpieces of furniture architecture right at the place of their future residence. That is, at home.
Starting, as a rule, with "light infantry" - stools, bedside tables, coasters - simple hacksaw and ax workers inevitably face one problem. Her name is Smooth cut chipboard. Making reciprocating movements with the same hacksaw, or (worse) leading a vibrating jigsaw along the drawn marking line, they get anything but an uneven cut of the material. Well, maybe even. But this is a rarity.
But for cabinet furniture, geometrically flawless ends wooden boards are of critical importance. This is the quality of fitting the elements together, and the appearance of the decor, and in general, so on.
In what ways did our ancestors, who were more skilled in this matter, achieve this level of processing?
When working with a hacksaw, the tool itself is primarily important: its choice depends on the material being processed, its qualities and properties. For chipboard, which is now common, it is highly desirable to use a hacksaw with fine teeth, diluted by half the thickness of the canvas. A larger divorce will give a wide propyl and unwanted chips; narrow - jam the tool in chipboard sheet leading to mild psychosis. In addition, if the hacksaw is armed with hardened teeth, this only goes to her "plus" - and the wiring is preserved better, and the sharpening is lost more slowly. It is important.
However, sawing long cuts with such a hacksaw is fraught with significant fatigue, since small and frequent “teeth” are quickly clogged with wood dust and are no longer able to effectively perform their functions in this state. But still, at home, using a tool with just such parameters is most preferable. The very same sawing should be done at the most acute angle of the cutting edge of the hacksaw to the sawn plate. This is less tiring, and besides, it gives the desired even cut.
Of the electrified devices in this area, such figures are known as electric jigsaw and a miter saw.
The first is characterized by a rather riotous nature with uncontrolled conduct of his harvesting. Techniques for his restriction of freedom here are quite simple and unpretentious. This is, first of all:
- guide - flat and straight, preferably a metal ruler, fixed with clamps along the marking line. Resting against it with the sole, the tool passes its distance almost perfectly, without “blockages” and chips.
- the file itself - its parameters, this is rigidity and purpose - for a simple chipboard - with small teeth directed upwards and without wiring, for a tree - divorced large teeth, predatory sticking out in different directions from the plane of the canvas. But about the first ones, it should be remembered that, after about a meter of cut, their canvas will inevitably heat up, lose its qualities and “tear” to the side. Almost always this happens with inevitability of 100%;
- adhesive tape pasted from the side where the teeth exit to the surface. Better yet, both. You never know ... Chips appear in these places. However, it is not out of place to monitor the strength of the bonding of the adhesive tape itself with the surface to be treated: if it is subsequently removed, it is itself capable of heaping up characteristic flaws, even worse than a file;
- two parallel cuts with a carpenter's knife on both sides of the marking line for the entire length of the intended cut. It also saves from chips, and is especially true for laminated chipboard sheets.
After sawing, you can modify the cut with a milling cutter or grinder, however, firstly, this is due to circumstances, and secondly, too many tools are already required for a cabinet that will appear in life once and for many years.
Pro miter saw only one thing can be said: it is necessary.
So, I collected a sufficient amount of material and decided to dash off another analytical note. This time the theme is sawing chipboard without chips.
There is a fairly fair opinion that it is possible to cleanly saw chipboard only on professional equipment(that is, a panel saw).
The whole highlight of this machine is that it has two saw blade located strictly on the same axis. The first cuts the chipboard, the second cuts it through.
The cost of this unit is about 700,000 - 1,000,000 rubles (of course, there are more expensive))). NOT VERY ACCEPTABLE FOR THE AMATEUR.
Not a bad way to trim incorrectly marked parts, but you can’t cut the whole cabinet in this way. Chips, of course, are present, but in an amount that is quite comparable with the formatter (it also, in secret, leaves a small number of small chips). A lot of hassle with markup. Only straight cuts can be made.
Method 5 - Fraser
Provides the cleanest edge of the workpiece; the quality is no different from the formatter, often even better.
With it, we first saw the workpiece with a jigsaw, departing from the marking line 2-3 mm, and then align the line according to the template (I usually use the second piece of chipboard, sawn on a formatter, of a suitable size). should be copy, that is, with a bearing.
Very clean cut. The possibility of carrying out curvilinear cuts, that is, the manufacture of many, including several completely identical ones. Cons - a lot of trouble: the need for accurate marking, preliminary sawing of blanks, setting a template or tire under the router, that is, not very suitable for mass use.
The electric hand-held circular saw will celebrate its centenary in just a few years. During this time, the "circular" or "parquet" has reached technically, if not perfection, then very great heights. With all the complexity of the mechanism and settings, the tool has very high security measures!
It would be strange if a circular saw was used only for sawing wood and derived materials such as plywood, fiberboard, chipboard. By replacing discs and setting the required number of revolutions, this unit can easily cut workpieces for laminate, plastic, organic glass and even slate. In a word, almost all sheet materials are too tough for him, literally and figuratively. Is it not worth experimenting with concrete and brick - other tools will be taken for them, the same circulars, only for the appropriate purpose.
In choosing an instrument, the most important role, oddly enough, plays the diameter cutting disc. After all, if you think about it, it turns out that the diameter of the cutting disc is the parameter that manufacturers have to equal. It just won’t work to increase the diameter - you need to increase the motor power in order to spin the tool up to the desired speed, and therefore, you will need more torque to maintain this speed. Following the torque, the stabilization system also has to be improved, which will protect the tool from noise and vibration.
But just focusing on the diameter of the circle is not enough, because this indicator, in fact, can have a completely different value in the maximum depth of cut. Developers should specify these parameters in the data sheets accompanying the tools. The most versatile are saws with a cutting depth of 50 mm to 65 mm. Tools with a smaller diameter are suitable for sawing sheet materials, while units from 65 mm are professional. You should be guided in choosing among them, based on your needs.
Circular saws for wood are no longer presented without reliable and sophisticated electronics. Of course, the more difficult it is, the more money you will have to spend when choosing. However, the costs will pay off with work. What is the constant frequency maintenance system worth - during operation, the device itself controls the speed, and if this indicator drops sharply, for example, when it hits a higher density of the material, then the feed power automatically increases. This will not allow the disc to jam in the cut, and the quality of the cut itself is noticeably improved.
From network congestion when starting the tool, almost all powerful circular saws equipped with a system soft start, which significantly extends the life of the tools. Not all saws are equipped with an idle year preset, which plays a big role if you have to work with different kind materials. But all high-quality models are able to independently protect themselves from overloads, if the operator does not count the time spent in work.
A sensitive system will react to the excess temperature of the motor winding and turn off the power, thereby saving a decent amount of money. Unlike most tools, which are equipped with protection against accidental activation, the safety button, without which it is impossible to press the trigger, does not allow the trigger to be clamped on. Such a "beast" as a circular saw must always be under control. The functionality of the circular largely depends on the base plate.
It is she who is the element of the tool on which its versatility depends in terms of work from different angles.
Adjusting the bevel cut, for example, is set precisely by the positions of the platform. Usually it is possible to set the desired slope within 45 °, although on professional devices this parameter is increased by another 10 times. Pay attention to how tightly the parts of the platform are fitted to each other, because the slightest play can affect the result. A well-thought-out platform allows you to get a stationary circular saw from a manual unit, a kind of machine without a table. Such a function is good for any unit, but for especially powerful ones it is doubly good, because a table saw significantly expands the list of tasks that can be performed using the tool. Don't forget safety and ergonomics!
To date, a spring-loaded casing is a mandatory part of all circulars - it completely hides the disk when the unit is idle, and releases it only when there is an emphasis on the workpiece. Since you will be dealing with hand tool, the question of its convenience is very important. There are even models for left-handed people! First of all, pay attention to the location of the handles and their shape - as practice shows, if you need an approach from different sides, a fungus handle is much more convenient, since a straight handle allows you to work comfortably only when cutting in a straight line away from you.
Preparation of circular saws for work - sharpening and wiring
New tools and discs do not need to be prepared, however, different manufacturers may have different wishes in this regard. Over time, it does not hurt to check the shape of the disk for deviations from flatness, as well as to edit, sharpen and set the cutting teeth. Flatness can be checked with a special straightedge or with a special device. If you find irregularities in shape, mark the spots with chalk and correct them with a forging hammer.
