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 elements together, and appearance decor and 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 sawing itself should be done under the maximum acute angle 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.

Only one thing can be said about the miter saw: it is needed.

As practice shows, it is very difficult to make a high-quality cut of chipboard with a durable melamine coating. 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 formatting 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. A cheaper way is a 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 obtain a satisfactory cut appearance.

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 you can achieve a 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 with a cylindrical cutter using a hand-held electric mill with a bearing. The bearing is guided along a long level fixed on the back of the 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 at a very sharp 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 top layer.

5) A glued strip of veneer will give the final beauty to the cut.

Of course cutting chipboard at home does not mean professional quality and high speed operation. 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.

Everyone knows that laminated chipboard is our chipboard, which is covered with a paper-resin film. The lamination process is special conditions: pressure 25-28 MPa, temperature 140-210 °C. The surface is strong, smooth, beautiful. The laminated chipboard coating is very resistant to mechanical stress and thermal. Because of these qualities, chipboard has become simply necessary for furniture production and for interior decoration.

Some craftsmen like to make furniture on their own. They acquire chipboard good quality from manufacturers or in special hardware stores. Since the color range of laminated chipboard is very rich, you can easily choose desired material. Chipboard surface also has the most diverse structure, since it is smooth, imitating wood different breeds or stone.

To make special furniture or unique interior with your own hands, it’s not enough just to buy chipboard and draw it into details. The coating of chipboard is very thin, its structure is fragile. If you cut the chipboard roughly and incorrectly, the cut will turn out to be ugly, torn, and shells will form on the edges. To be able to cut the chipboard correctly and not get chips and cracks, you need to know some little “tricks” of work.

Rules for sawing chipboard

To cut chipboard at home, use a hand saw with fine teeth, circular saw or electric jigsaw. To perform the work without problems, you need to do the following:

1. Fasten tightly adhesive tape exactly along the cut line. The tape will not allow the saw teeth to damage the coating film.
2. With a sharp knife, cut through the coating and the layer under it along the cut line. In this case, the saw will cut only the inner layer of chipboard, and touch the coating only tangentially.
3. The hand saw, when operated, must be placed at an angle (very sharp) to the surface of the plate.
4. For sawing with a power tool, you need to use the minimum feed.
5. When the part is cut out, cut the edge of the coating at an angle of 45° with a sharp knife.
6. The cut is ground with a small file, the cut is processed to the center from the edges.

The edge of the sawn chipboard should be closed with a special overlay so that in the future it does not get any chips or cracks. To protect the cut, you can use a self-adhesive melamine tape, or a C-shaped patch or a T-shaped edge.

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 blades 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.