There are special blades made for cutting melamine, but they are more for production work, where a lot of melamine is processed. You can use an ordinary carbide blade and carbide router bits with it. The bottom of the cut may chip a little but nothing that would require much more than some sanding of the edge. You’ll want to do that anyway. No sense having sharp edges on a tool table.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
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HAMMER--thanks for the good advise. since i'm retired and poor as #%&!! it's good to know i can get by with carbides. i'll give them a test run and then do a little sanding. rege in K'port, maine
I'm just up the road from you in Gorham. I've done quite a bit of work in Kennebunkport, I thought they threw out all the poor people, heh, heh! Good luck with your new router table.Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
hi,
if clean edges top and bottom asre really important to you, then you could try this trick i use. if you need to rout melamine, sandwhich it between two pieces of 1/4" hardboard (if the profile you are using allows) and then rout. the hardboard will act as a zero clearence throat for the bit and minimize or eliminate chipping. for cutting you can put a piece of hardboard under the melamine when you pass through the saw (be careful). you could also do a scoreing cut on the tablesaw by setting your fence and doing a first cut with the blade raised 1/32", just enough to score the cut line, then raise blade to necessary height to do through cut. works for me every time. hope this helps
pjw
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