FS: Black Melamine MDF - for a nice Cabinet

[swamp]

For Sale: 6 sheets of 3/4" thick, black two sided melamine laminated medium density fiberboard. Like particle board but more dense and stronger. Also a much better black finish compared to paint. The ideal orginal looking material for a nice MAME cabinet project. San Deigo, CA area, $30 per sheet, 3 sheet minimum (enough for a nice full cab. project). Mail swamp2 at san.rr.com.

[Dave_K.]

Darn, to bad I'm not near you (I'm in northern CA).  I can't find black melamine anywhere.  BTW: you didn't list how large the sheets were.

A side question for you, what tool do you use to cut Melamine to avoid excessively chipping the top/edges as you cut?

[Xphile]

Darn, to bad I'm not near you (I'm in northern CA).  I can't find black melamine anywhere.  BTW: you didn't list how large the sheets were.

A side question for you, what tool do you use to cut Melamine to avoid excessively chipping the top/edges as you cut?

if it's a full sheet it'll probably be 97x 49"
 to avoid chipping on straight cuts on a tablesaw (or radial arm), have the blade only as high as you need to cut it - excessive blade height will chip *lots* more...also, use masking tape along the line to be cut, (stradle both sides of the proposed cut with the tape, and press it firmly in place), so the blade goes through the centre of the tape..helps keep every thing pretty..:-)

[Brax]

A new carbide fine tooth blade as well.

[zr5-2002]

Too far away for me, but what kind of places sells sheets of this and how much should I expect for retail???

thanks.

[swamp]

This stuff is nearly like gold from my experience. Very hard to find especially in small quantities. Particle board is very easy to find though but quality is way lower. If you can find some way to get it shipped up to you then you are welcome to arrange that. Sheets are 4'x8' and weigh 100 lbs ea.

I am having my professionally routed with a CNC router. No messing around with bad quality cuts, chipping or wasting expensive material.

[eightbit]

A lot of the big box stores like Home depot, Lowes, Menards and the like will usually order it for you. They just don't stock it.

[Dave_K.]

I am having my professionally routed with a CNC router. No messing around with bad quality cuts, chipping or wasting expensive material.

Who/what service are you using to do this?  And how much approx is it costing?  Also, did you just email them the plans (autocad, dxf, other?)  This sounds like a great idea (for those of us who down own a complete woodshop  ), so please share!

[_Iz-]

A router, straight cut bit and straight edge work the best to cut melamine (if you don't have access to a CNC). You can even rough cut the pieces 1/2" oversize with tablesaw or jigsaw and then clamp the straight edge on as a guide and rout them to exact size to make it easier. Can make a plywood template to guide the router to do curves. A bit more work but 100% better results if done properly.

[eightbit]

A cnc uses a router to cut. So if you take your time and setup your cuts accureatly you can get the same results with your own router.

[Dave_K.]

A cnc uses a router to cut. So if you take your time and setup your cuts accureatly you can get the same results with your own router.

Yes, but this requires you to find the black melamine (very difficult), buy a good router + bits, and not make any mistakes.  I have a very small garage, and not enough room to work on these huge sheets, I also don't own a router...so cost wise a CNC service sounds like a good idea.  Still waiting for a response from swamp (ifs its really cost affective or not).

[eightbit]

A small shop could probably do it for you but bigger shops probably won't touch it. Most small shops won't have a CNC. CNC is usually used for mass production. Each run requires a lot of setup. If your only going to do one its usually not worth setting up for it. Call around I bet you could find a local cabinet guy that could cut it just as good for you and for less than what a CNC equipped shop will charge.

[Jungle]

A router, straight cut bit and straight edge work the best to cut melamine (if you don't have access to a CNC). You can even rough cut the pieces 1/2" oversize with tablesaw or jigsaw and then clamp the straight edge on as a guide and rout them to exact size to make it easier. Can make a plywood template to guide the router to do curves. A bit more work but 100% better results if done properly.

I haven't seen much in the projects I've looked at about cutting the sides with a router.  That is how I did mine however, since I didn't want to mess up $50 oak plywood.  It turned out great and was very easy to do.  I cut a template out of particle board with a circular saw/jig saw, rounded off my corners with a wood rasp and I was all set.  Just clamped the template to the play and took a couple of passes with a straight cut bit.  I did have to buy a template guide for the router but it was only a few bucks.

[_Iz-]

CNC is usually used for mass production. Each run requires a lot of setup. If your only going to do one its usually not worth setting up for it.

This part you actually have backwards. The beauty of a CNC is that setup time is virtually none. (This is assuming you know how to use CAD and do the drawings yourself). They just load your CAD file and cut.

[eightbit]

This part you actually have backwards. The beauty of a CNC is that setup time is virtually none. (This is assuming you know how to use CAD and do the drawings yourself). They just load your CAD file and cut.

Exactly, if your only doing one its usually not worth putting it into cad and then massaging it so they can cut it. Unless of course you already have it in CAD and know how to do it.

[swamp]

Sorry for the delay...Answers to most questions are here now.

I found a local sign shop to do this work. Like someone else mentioned, smaller shops are probably better but also less likely to have CNC. I tried lots of cabinet shops but none had CNC. They are making 10 parts total for 2 full cabinets. They are cutting the sides, speaker grilles, coin door cut out, monitor bezel and any other parts with curves or fillets. The price I got was $265 for everything. I did do a complete CAD design for my cabs so like someone else said I'll just give the shop the file and there is very little work left to create the CNC paths.

I am having my professionally routed with a CNC router. No messing around with bad quality cuts, chipping or wasting expensive material.

Who/what service are you using to do this?  And how much approx is it costing?  Also, did you just email them the plans (autocad, dxf, other?)  This sounds like a great idea (for those of us who down own a complete woodshop  ), so please share!

[PoDunkMoFo]

I am located in central California.  I own a Sign Shop.  I have a router.  I am a fellow enthusiast.  If anyone is interested I can cut out parts.  The price would depend on how much work I had to do to the files that were given me.  I am currently working on a cocktail design and any designs I already have would be less then having to set them up from scratch or a poor CAD file.  I cut my cabinet out on my machine and it worked great.