Hey Joe - my general rule of thumb is the gullets are close to the surface of the material so they clear properly but the teeth are not too high.
It is a very general setting and depending on the person, they may feel this is too high from a safety standpoint. If that is the case, then by all means a person should only raise the blade to where they feel safe.
As far as the blade height affecting the quality of the cut, I normally cut with it at the height you see in the video so I am not sure otherwise.
The biggest factors in getting a clean cut are using the proper blade (and sharp too,) using a smooth & steady feed motion, have plenty of infeed/outfeed support according to the size pieces you are cutting, and a zero clearance plate helps too.
Super video Todd lots of great information . I guess I've been lucky because I haven't experienced chipout ,but I don't use melamine that often . I only have a 60 tooth blade but it seems to work fine. I also noticed your feed rate is very slow ,do you feel that helps with chipout ? I always enjoy your videos and your messages are very helpful.
Joe - I went back and looked at the blade height on both table saws. It appears the blade height was a little bit higher on the DeWalt than on the Jet. This was merely an arbitrary setting that I felt comfortable with in both cases.
I did not have the hand feather board for use on the DeWalt and once I started, I did not bother going to get it I decided to keep recording. I usually set the blade height for common 3/4" material using the hand feather board.
I made some progress as the two big scenes were recorded in one shot each. I do have a lot of hours in the editing process though.
Jonathon - I did not make it clear in the video but the inserted images are showing the back side of the cuts. That is what the double sided melamine blade produces, a cut that looks like the top side.
There was a part I dropped in editing where I did mention some of the attributes of the melamine cutting blades. Among them is the negative hook (which will vary) and that there are other blades by other brands and they all seem to work pretty good, especially if you stick with the name brands. You get what you pay for in blades.
You also bring up a good point in that melamine does wear out the tips pretty fast and for clean cuts I have to keep the blades sharp!
a1Jim - Thanks for the comments, they carry a good amount of weight coming from you with the experience you have.
I do get better results with a fairly cautious feed rate on the material. For one thing, I keep the material square against the fence. If the material wavers a little bit, that is usually cause for a bit of chipping as the teeth rake the sides of the cut at that point.
What you see in the video for images pretty well disappears with the edge banding.
I don't get a lot of these projects, but I just made new cabinet doors for a beat-up coffee kiosk last week and realized this was a good topic to cover since I also used to struggle with ratty edges on my melamine cuts.
Jonathan - Sometimes the most obvious things escape me and I did not make that clear in the video so I am glad you brought it up.
There are a lot of things racing through my mind that I need to share when recording a video and then editing. Stuff like that slips through the cracks of my mind
Todd You also didn't mention that the blade is a Triple Chip. That design blade goes a long way in making your cuts chip free.
The high tip cuts through the surface and leaves a very small piece on the edge. The next tooth is a square cut and all that it has to cut is the small piece left by the first tooth.
A miracle of tip design.
Great video.
Any triple chip tooth will cut down your chip outs. But the back bevel on the tooth makes it harder to push your wood through the saw blade.
Your video's are gettin awards material. Gr8 filming, etc.. I have used a "hand-featherboard" as you did there many times. I appreciate all your tips and such.
As others have said great video. You didn't say that you were showing the bottom cut but I knew you were because on the top side you drew a BIG 1 and an arrow and the side you showed had a smaller 1 with no arrow.
Of course, you could have just been showing us an entirely different board but I know well enough from watching your videos to know you wouldn't do a bait and switch like that. So the only logical conclusion I could make was that you were showing us the bottom of the board… which is what we were all waiting to see anyway.
But here is a question for you. If you cut regular plywood with a melamine blade with it dull it quicker?
I use the same technique with the exception of the blade. I've been using a HATB (Schumacher, Freud, or CMT) that have been working great for Melamine giving me clean cuts on top as well as bottom. My TCG's have mostly been used for Plastics like Lexan or UHMV. Great videos by the way.
Jonathan - one of my favorite blades is my CMT 40 tooth General. It cuts like an 80 tooth finish blade with half the teeth. Other than the 80 tooth melamine blade I rarely use my high tooth count blades anymore. I use the blades with the least amount of teeth as possible.
Bothus - Cutting a material that is less than ideal often results in heat build up that tends to dull blades and cause pitch build up. However, it should be noted that particle board itself is one of the worst materials for a blade to cut.
Other than that, the tooth geometry of any given blade is typically the largest factor in whether or not you get a good result in any certain material.
John - I have used a high alternate bevel blade on melamine before with good results but it wears the fine tips off the teeth in a hurry. But I will admit it can work.
well all of this wood work is fine and dandy, but what i wanna know is when do the kayaks come out and you and rita hit the river…lol…..to much work will make todd a tired man…grizz
oh that is great, im sure your looking for another date to do it, i love Montana and that river is awesome, its been awhile since i was out west, i sure miss that country….enjoy the river for me when you go…
Todd,
I appreciate the peak inside of your world as a professional. I really enjoy your videos and the professional way you produce them. I really look forward to all your posts, but this one was exceptionally helpful. Thank you.
I have an 8" thick aluminum disk that has one side of the edge rounded off.. I glue sandpaper to one side of it. When I work with melamine or even more, formica, I cut it a hair larger then use the sanding blade to bring it down to width. It usually takes all the chips out. If you just take off a 32nd or so it passes through very fast. For working with formica laminates like making edge strips it works really well.
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