Skin Removal

[larry_r]

I am looking to make a cabinet out of a 4’ x 8’ x ¾” thick sheet of either plywood or melamine coated particleboard. I will be using a ¼ spiral down cut bit. No vacuum hold down yet, so I will use screws to keep the sheet from moving

I like the idea of leaving a skin on the bottom and using a trim router to remove the skin after the Shopbot does its thing.

What is the best way to remove the skin with the trim router? Do you remove the sheet from the Shopbot table and turn it over and use a spiral down cut bit to prevent chipping? I am concerned that removing the sheet from the table might cause the sheet to crack at the areas that have been routed and beyond.

If I use a trim router while the sheet is still on the Shopbot table, then I cannot envision myself crawling onto the Shopbot table to reach areas that are unreachable from standing on either side of the Shopbot.

[richards]

Larry, the method that I use is to cut through the melamine coated particle board sheet leaving as little material possible - about 0.025-inch or so - and then I use a laminate scoring knife to score the web of material that is left. After scoring the material along the midpoint of the kerf, I snap the individual parts into separate pieces, which are trimmed at the router table using a 1/2-inch spiral downcut bit. The scoring cut makes the pieces break apart in the middle of the 0.435 kerf that I use for a 3/8-inch cutter. The method works great for me.

[larry_r]

Thanks Mike. That makes a lot of sense