About MDF in most retail stores

[wizer]

I've never known homebase useful for anything but vegetable plants. Their tomato plants were very cheap, organic and grew better than my seeds.

Other than that I can't think of another reason to go in there.

 

[HawkEye]

Thank you for the replies. I will consider all.

Thanks Wizer especially for his kind offer to help in person. Pm sent.

As far as wastage/offcuts go, I do have alot of MDF lying around already so I may join it all up to required sizes using biscuit joints which will take care of the shelfs. Apart from that I'll ponder on a couple of things. Cheers

 

[devonwoody]

The fellas at my local builders wont cut mdf, the last time I wanted a piece cut to fit inside my car, they gave me a hand saw and ran up the other end of the warehouse.

So are there H & S laws regarding cutting this stuff or are my locals a bit wimpy?

 

[jasonB]

Do they have a table/vertical saw? and a person able to operate it?

If you do need a cut to size in London then South London Hardwoods will do it, not sure of costs, probably nothing if its just to chop a board in half so you can transport it, but I would expect a charge if cutting to finished dims.

Jason

 

[CNC Paul]

Hawkeye,

what part of London are you based ?


Paul

 

[chippy1970]

As most here will already know those sizes are designed to make you spend more on boards and there is an enormous amount of offcuts/wastage that you don't need which your spending money on. I worked out that I'm actually using around half of the wood I'm buying which is totally rediculous.

8 x 4 sheets have been around for years they were not designed to make you buy more sheets :roll:

Most people in the trade would not use B&Q etc we use builders merchants or specialist sheet suppliers and you can usually cut up an 8 x 4 economically to get what you need and any un-used offcuts get used on the next job.

If you are anywhere near a Champions timber they are quiet good, not the cheapest but very good quality timber and sheet material they can also deliver free to you. They do charge to cut up sheets but you get the first 2 cuts free. They can get 18mm mdf in 5ft x 10ft if you need a bigger sheet.

 

[devonwoody]

Isnt there some software around for download for cutting sheets the most economical way?

 

[CNC Paul]

Cutlist Plus

 

[wizer]

I use Optimik. Which is a bit harder to work but gets the same results and it's free version has more cuts per board than cutlist plus.

 

[kmhphoto]

If you do need a cut to size in London then South London Hardwoods will do it, not sure of costs, probably nothing if its just to chop a board in half so you can transport it, but I would expect a charge if cutting to finished dims.

Jason

I bought a sheet of oak veneered board from them last week and they charged £10+ vat to cut it into 7 pieces - that was the only way I could get it into a Smart ForTwo car!

 

[wizer]

I bought a sheet of oak veneered board from them last week and they charged £10+ vat to cut it into 7 pieces - that was the only way I could get it into a Smart ForTwo car!

Another ForTwo owner. Isn't is amazing what you can get into those things? I love mine, but I treat it more like a van. If I won the lottery I'd still buy a ForTwo. or Two

 

[pren]

I'm a bit confused here - B&Q do sheets of 18mm (2440 x 1220) for £14. First 4 cuts for free. No brainer really.

Why, oh, why am I only learning this now?! :roll: ](*,)

I've been spending £10 for a 1220 x 606mm sheet of 18mm MDF from B&Q!!

My local one doesn't do the 8x4 sheets, so I had no reason to think a sheet 4 times the size would be anything less than 4 times the price!

So a 2440 x 1220 sheet, cut into four would cost me £4 more than a single 1220 x 606?!

Note to self: Research saves pennies!! :roll: :lol: :lol:


Incidentially; how accurate are the cuts from B&Q? Would I need to allow for a few mm for errors?

Cheers
Bryn

 

[wizer]

Check different stores too. We have a few warehouse stores local and their prices differ. Sometimes 18mm 2440 x 1220 sheets are as low at £11

 

[Steve Maskery]

Incidentially; how accurate are the cuts from B&Q? Would I need to allow for a few mm for errors?

B&Q come in for a lot of stick. OK, some of it is justified, but, here, at least, B&Q sell things that no-one else does. The Strieberg (or whatever it is called) does an excellent job. The quality of the cut is mainly dependent on the bloke using it. B&Q regularly have the machine serviced and more than once I've had all my cutting done for free because they used my board to calibrate the machine.

I'de say that if the cut had to be perfect, then allow only 1mm mm and then you can plane it yourself. But like as not, you can ask for dead sizes and get them. They will be square, too.
S

 

[wizer]

I also forget the company the make those wall saws, but it's true, they come out every 3 months to re-calibrate the saws. The only problem is if you get grumpy guy or a guy who doesn't know his inches from his kilometres.

 

[Old joiner]

One of my customers bought some mdf, which I am supposed to do something to, sometime...
When he told me the companyname, I had to have a Google,
http://www.mdfcuttosize.com/index.php
Seems a bit pricy, but could be useful to some one.
Regards JohnB

 

[wizer]

That's not a bad site at al actually. Not cheap. But if you need something to your own specs and don't have the tools...

 

[HawkEye]

Well I went into B and Q today and decided to go ahead and get the sides and shelves cut. It worked out that I would be using two boards. So that's 14 pounds a board, worked out at 28 pounds odd. A women came along while I was with the guy and we got chatting. I said that I'd be paying for half of the wood and the rest I wouldn't be using. I said she could use my offcuts to make some shelves for herself, so she did. About 9 shelves out of 18mm MDF from my offcuts she was very pleased about. I said I may aswell take her load back to the till save her slogging aswell.

Shortly before I left for the till the guy took pity on me and decided to only charge me for the one sheet. So I got a little under 2 sheets for the price of one. So that is my money back from being ripped off at homebase. Funny how the world works...

I still have the door and back to take care of which are not transportable in my car. At 1600x750 I could barely change gear. The 1000+ for the back would have my head out the window. Still thinking about how I'm gonna do this last bit.

 

[wizer]

B&Q are brilliant at correctly totalling up what you have on your trolley 8) :lol: :wink:

 

[Derek Willis.]

I have got to admit that I do pay a little more than you guys are quoting, albeit I will only use moisture resistant board and I do buy from my local Joinery shop where I can have any size I like to say plus the offcuts, and the accuracy is as you may expect when coming from a scource like that.
I pay for 18mm. board, remember this is cut to size or whole and delivered, 18 is £23.33, 12 is 18.97, 9 is, 16.53, the price suits me down to the ground because of the quality and the service I get.
Derek.