Particle Board

[Tdog]

My wife 'had' to have a closet organizer that she saw in Lowe's. It is construced of particle board with a white finish. I want to notch out a section for the baseboard to make the unit sit flush against the wall of the closet. However, I'm afraid this stuff will flake off when it is sawed. I'm thinking about clamping on a wood backing & cutting with a fine tooth blade in a jig saw. Any thoughts? Am I being overly cautious?

thanx

jack

 

[PineRidge]

You shouldn't have any problems cutting it. If you want a nicer finish sandwich the piece that you need to cut between fiberboard and cut through all 3 thicknesses. It will keep the edges from chipping while cutting. Have also used duct tape stuck to painted particle board and simply cut through that but the results vary.

 

[turnkey4099]

Right. The particle board won't flake but the cut line will have small chips in the finish. Tape, sandwich help, also you can scribe the cut line with a sharp knife before cutting.

Harry K

 

[EddieWalker]

Pay attention to the cut of the blade. Depending on what type of saw you decide to use will determine which side to cut. One side will be perfectly smooth, the other will have some minor chiping. The finer the blade, the smaller the chips. But even with an aggressive blade, one side will be allot smoother than the other.

Eddie

 

[slowrev]

Sears sells some nice holloow ground jig/sabre saw blades that cut super smooth and have virtually no splintering on any wood.
Try some you will like them /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
The teeth look like hollow ground X's from the front edge rather than regular teeth, cut fast and smooth.
Others might make them , but I found them at sears many years ago and love em. I use em to cut nativity siloutes from plywood and require no sanding on the edges /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Ben