Thread: Help with rounding out edges on MDF!

I'm pretty sure you can just use a router or jigsaw for making the edges rounded and then sand down with a sawing motion....
I'm not expert carpenter though.

Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

I was wondering what I have to do to make all the edges rounded? Keep in mind this is MDF, can I sand it the same way I would regular wood? I am very lazy and want to take a electric sander to it, but dont want to mess this thing up. Does anyone have any dealings with working on MDF?

Regular wood tools work fine with MDF, but they dull much faster. Carbide bits and blades are best, and are used by cabinetmakers who use MDF.

To make corners round, you could use a sander, but routing works well to remove a lot of material relatively fast. Practice on some scrap, like your old console. Before you use the router, be sure all the joints are glued well, and take out the metal fasteners so the blade doesn't try to eat them.

If you want large radius corners, you can glue a triangular corner block on the inside of the corner; that gives you the ability to make a huge radius, more like the radii in the rest of your vehicle.

If you don't have a router, hit Harbor Freight and get a cheapy; spend your money on a good router blade the shape you want. Go slowly with the router so you don't tear up the bit or the workpiece, or burn out the cheap router's motor.

Be sure to use goggles. The router will throw little MDF chips everywhere, and those little buggers are hard and hot. Eyes don't like 'em. If you have hearing protection, that's good too. The router makes a helluva loud whine.

But you won't whine at the result. It'll be sweet.

Originally Posted by rdholtz

Regular wood tools work fine with MDF, but they dull much faster. Carbide bits and blades are best, and are used by cabinetmakers who use MDF.

To make corners round, you could use a sander, but routing works well to remove a lot of material relatively fast. Practice on some scrap, like your old console. Before you use the router, be sure all the joints are glued well, and take out the metal fasteners so the blade doesn't try to eat them.

If you want large radius corners, you can glue a triangular corner block on the inside of the corner; that gives you the ability to make a huge radius, more like the radii in the rest of your vehicle.

If you don't have a router, hit Harbor Freight and get a cheapy; spend your money on a good router blade the shape you want. Go slowly with the router so you don't tear up the bit or the workpiece, or burn out the cheap router's motor.

Be sure to use goggles. The router will throw little MDF chips everywhere, and those little buggers are hard and hot. Eyes don't like 'em. If you have hearing protection, that's good too. The router makes a helluva loud whine.

But you won't whine at the result. It'll be sweet.

MP3Car is acting up, darn thing didnt tell me that someone replied! A router most def sounds like the way to go. I still dont understand the triangle block thing!

Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

MP3Car is acting up, darn thing didnt tell me that someone replied! A router most def sounds like the way to go. I still dont understand the triangle block thing!

He means that you can sand away more metarial than the width off your mdf.
The bigger the pice of mdf you glu on the inside, the more metaral you kan sand off.

This is my subcasing, also of mdf, and i did use the traingel pieces. (sory, don't have a picture of the inside.

Always wear a mask when working with MDF indoors. That fine dust will make you really sick.

How you can reinforce corner, and then make a bigger circle radius of edge.


Round corners you achive profiling cutter head.
For single time usage this one will do:


Profesional



Advice: Go to you local hobby shop and ask them if they can help you with roundig of edges, with some profesional cutter machinery and blades.

Originally Posted by miko55

How you can reinforce conrner, and then make a bigger circle radius of edge.

Round corners you achive profiling cutter head.
Advice: Go to you local hobby shop and ask them if they can help you with roundig of edges, with some profesional cutter machinery and blades.

In the first image, look at the triangular piece labeled "corner block". Now imagine a solid piece of wood that's much longer, not just a 1/2 inch deep, but instead running the full length of the joint. We could cut away much of the outside of the corner and thus make it round.

The cutter head you pictured is fine, but it's more complex and expensive than necessary; that's a universal profiling head capable of all sorts of intricate work. For corner rounding, we can use a simple router bit with a 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch radius, depending on how round we want the corner. Such bits -- with carbide blades for MDF -- are available at hardware stores and Home Depot.

get yourself a router with a bullnose bit

or buy this tool called the fastbreak My dad invented it. Its a sander in a V shape and it has sandpapper on the inside and you run it up and down the edges of 3/4 inch mdf

Tools on pictures are semi profesional or profesional. They were ment as guideline.