Drilling 5mm holes in melamine

[bstern]

Any tool recommendations for drilling 5mm through holes in 3/4 melamine? 4hp HSD spindle.

Thanks
Bob

[paco]

Peck drill (step down of as much as the tool can in one plunge) until 0.04" (or so) left then final slow plunge. It still can chip a little but less than if you plunge to fast.

I cut melamine with 1/4" straight edge tool carbide tipped so I personally opted to peck trice with the final plunge. Maybe an optimized tooling (drill head/2nd Z axis with a more appropriate tool/drill bit) would do better.

Most people I ask for this said they deal with the chipping or flip those parts. Flipping cabinet parts is time consuming in this competitive market...

[bill_lumley]

I have had a recommendation from another cabinet maker to use a 3/16" downcut spiral bit and do a spiral plunge with it . He clames nice results . I will be trying it shortly .