| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 536.1 | | RIOT01::SUMMERFIELD | Sic Transit Gloria Mundi | Thu Apr 17 1997 15:48 | 13 |
| If you use a saw blade with a fairly high tooth count (for fine cuts)
and either a rip-fence or a decent straight-edge clamped to the board
to run the saw against then the edge should only need light sanding.
I'd be very wary of using a power sander, especially a belt-sander, as
you are quite likely to ruin what initially should be a pretty good
edge anyway.
Remember to wear a mask when cutting and sanding MDF, as the dust
contains formaldehyde resin particles.
Cheers
Clive
|
| 536.2 | | IOSG::CARLIN | Dick Carlin IOSG, Reading, England | Sat Apr 19 1997 17:12 | 29 |
| Chris
I've been through a similar exercise recently. I used MDF for the first
time; part of the shelving was for LPs so it was the cheapest way to
get the 13" depth.
Like you, I am a hand-tool person, but one of the few power tools I
wouldn't be without is a jigsaw. I used this to initially cut out the
pieces and then cleaned up the edges with a plane. Not just any plane
but a large antique Woden (see NOTED::WOODWORKING_AND_TOOLS 999.53)
which seems to keep its edge for ever, and makes a really satisfying
sound as it whisks the high spots off the MDF.
Bear in mind that MDF is HEAVY. I used 1 2/3 8x4s of 3/4" and it took 2
people to shift the bookcase. I butt-joined, glued and screwed the
pieces, but I suppose I could have routed out some shallow rebates
(router is my power tool # 2). Had I used wood I would have jointed
them properly. Because of the butt-joining the edges have to be an
accurate 90 deg. I used up an awful lot of screws. The paint finish hid
the polyfilled screw holes.
All in all I was happy with the result. To match some existing
bookcases in the house I routed a chamfer along the middle 5/6 of each
section of shelf and upright. I was quite generous with the number of
uprights, since I wasn't sure how much the MDF would sag over time.
Good luck
Dick
|
| 536.3 | MDF shelves. | WOTVAX::FAIRBAIRNA | ANDY FAIRBAIRN | Fri May 30 1997 13:09 | 27 |
|
Hi,
Recently I made some shelves for my garage using MDF. I used an 8'X 4'
piece 15mm thick (requires two men to lift), (can't understand why
Texas DIY stores quote the length and width in imperial while the
thickness in metric) and used a Spear and Jackson "Workhorse" hand saw
to rip this down into four shelves 1' wide by 8' long.
I used a plunging router (sounds like a bit of networking equipment
gone badly wrong!), which although it is really intended for more
complex jobs, can put a good straight squared off edge on rough sawn
MDF or timber for that matter. If you can borrow one of these and clamp
a straight edge onto the workpiece to act as a guide, then the edge
which may be achieved using a sharp router bit needs very little finishing.
The shelves above ended up about 11 3/4" wide allowing for the material
removed by the router.
I was able to then finish them off with a couple of coats of satin
finish polyurethane varnish, but beware, this can result in a streaky
finish because of the porosity of the MDF.
Andy.
|
| 536.4 | get the DIY store to cut it... | CHEFS::16.194.64.160::Mark | ex skate | Mon Jun 02 1997 16:55 | 6 |
| Why not get the MDF cut when you buy it ?? At my local DIY you get the first
2 cuts free (per board) and the 50p per cut. Well worth it in time and effort
as I got them to cut 18mm MDF for the same reason. They have on of those
rather large cutting saws, ideal for the garage....
-MARK-
PS diy store is nationwide type... Homebase i think.
|