woodworking noob question

[TheMonk]

Hi Everyone,

So I'm trying to sort out what I'm sure is a common problem. I want to cut out a door in the middle of a piece of MDF but I don't want to leave big notches in the surrounding material. Take a look at the image below:



The red area shows how I don't want to cut the door. I'd like the door to be cut a clean 90 corner with no saw marks in the material to the left or right of the door. How do people get this done? I've always left track marks in the wood when trying to do this sort of thing.

Hope that makes sense if you need more info let me know.

[dfmaverick]

I'm not the best woodworker, but I would figure people start with a circular saw in the middle of the line but stop short of the corners then use a jigsaw to the corners.

[orchidius]

And there's no way to detach the piece of wood? Otherwise I'd go with the above suggestion...

[BobA]

I don't see the image but any opening can be started inside the cutlines and the jigsaw can be use to make clean corners by making more than one cut to square the corners.

[eds1275]

Pull back your circular saw's blade guard and plunge that blade through with a guide. Do this on all 4 sides, then finish the cuts with a jigsaw while making sure the back side is supported so when it drops it doesn't tear out any wood. Kinda like in the video, but manual.

[Maldoror]

I can't see the picture either, but what I'd do is drill 3/8" holes at strategic locations (inside the area that will be discarded). Use a jigsaw to rough it out, then sand to shape, as MDF is quite easy to manipulate. I'm also guessing you don't want to see the score marks generated by a jigsaw/circular saw? Thats easy, get some painters tape, wrap up the table on the saw, and mask around the area you'll be cutting out. Not only does that protect the material, but also creates less friction between the table and material. Hope that helps!