The Framers Forum

Hi

A general question - what do you use to cut MDF backing, say 2mm -> 2.5mm? I am debating whether or not I should bite the bullet and spend on a used but quality cutter or if there are any other realistic methods. Bearing in mind that it's a small workshop!

Thanks in advance

A wall mounted panel cutter like a Keencut or a Fletcher. Glass, mountboard, mdf etc etc etc very useful bit of kit.

For years I used a 48" HD Rotatrim which I made a wall mount for. It has only one wheel though so you get
a clean edge and a rough edge which has to be trimmed off for the next cut. So more work and more waste.
In the long term a cutter with all the bells'n'whistles will pay for itself very quickly.
I'm using a Keencut Excalibur at the moment.

I've got a Fletcher Terry cutter, it's extremely well made and easily refurbished up to as new standard at any time quite cheaply and you can't necessarily say this about all cutters, but with the Fletcher Terry it looks like it is meant to last a life time.

If your workshop is small there's even more reason to get a wall mounted cutter, as it will free up a lot of bench space.

I completely agree with Jeremy! It is very easy for your bench space to get cluttered up, but a wall moulted cutter does not have any space where you can dump your clutter and so I usually stay clear and ready to the tasks for which it is used. If you don't mind shopping around there are usually very affordable secondhand older wall mounted cutters to be had and they are really great for efficiency and pruductivity. Because they have easy to set stops, you can cut your glass, backing board and the ouside size of the mountboard all at the same time, using the same stop settings.

I started with a £30 bench end guillotine which cut MDF nicely. But as others have said the workbench soon gets cluttered so I switched to a cheap used keencut system 4000 about eight years ago which has been fantastic, so well built and just does the job nicely even though it's ancient. I cut a lot of 2-3mm MDF as I also use a lot for packaging and it cuts with ease.

The Keencut System 4000 is an amazingly built like a tank piece of kit and if you are an ex-engineer like me, there is almost nothing which can fail on a System 4000 which cannot be replaced which cannot be obtained, because so much of it is made from standard parts of one sort or another which can still be source from one place, or another. Secondhand System 4000's can still be picked up really cheap and with a little bit of tender loving care will still go on for years and years.