I had some plywood sheet cut to size in B&Q a couple of years ago and the cut edges were quite splintery and ragged - a not very sharp blade, I think and the operator almost said as much. It didn't matter a toss in my application.
However, now I need some 12mm ply sheets cut where the quality of the cut edge does matter. What should I reasonably expect? Do these places usually make good quality cuts?
Cheers
IME (with 18mm ply and 12mm MDF) They've always given nice clean cuts, ask them to demonstrate on an offcut from the scrap bin first?
To do it right you would need a machine with a scoring blade otherwise it will splinter on cross cutting.
Some recommend taping the cut line before cutting but I haven't tried that myself as I have access to a machine with a scoring blade.
An alternative you might try is having it cut oversize and then trimming with a router.
It should only splinter on one side so you may be able to make allowances for the splintering by ensuring it is hidden on assembly..
Don't believe anyone who says they have a magic blade that doesn't splinter. If such a blade existed industry would not spend money on machines with scoring blades.
If they set the blade so that it only just gets through the wood it will attack the surface at an angle and that greatly reduces splintering.
Bill
Yes, this is the way to go.
Or you can score the cut with a Stanley knife and make the saw cut on the "waste" side of the score. The outer lamination of faced plies is very thin, you can easily cut right through it.
he would need to score two cuts equalling the thickness of the teeth on the main saw blade. Not an easy task to carry out if there is any length to the cut.
And tell the bugger to take it slowly while keeping pressure on the sheet
If you need a clean cut with a circular saw, make the cut twice - the first with the blade set to just knick the surface about 1mm deep, then cut again with a full depth pass.
In fact, as per:
It can also depend on quality of ply ... I bought somne sheets from Local timber merchants - although rated as standard WBP it had a much darker ply on one side ... and that splints very easily .... I had to score with knife to get any decent finish.
Also after only 6 months in place this outer dark ply is rippling ... will never buy this stuff again.
FF to 3:50 to see how this saw copes with plywood.
Mafell make excellent tools IMHO. Expensive but .............
Blimey, they're talking about the scribing cut being automatically offset by 0.1 mm. Precision stuff compared to my Power Devil :-)
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