MDF is one of the most processed wood products in the world. We also can see various kinds of MDF CNC cutting projects in our daily life. This article here will introduce several MDF CNC cutting projects popular in both cutting MDF industry and customers, and recommend our MDF CNC cutting machine for your business.
I.Introduction of MDF CNC Cutting
What is MDF?
MDF is the abbreviation of medium density fiberboard. It is made of wastes—wood chips. Break down the hardwood or cork residues into wood fibers, combine with wax and resin binders and then apply high temperature and pressure, the result is MDF. It is similar to the particle board, but with stronger and much denser structure. As a type of engineered wood products, MDF has many advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
- Generally more cost-effective than plywood or solid wood
- Smooth surface, perfect for painting and gluing various wood veneer, light metal sheet, melamine sheet etc.
- Consistent in structure, and free of voids or splinters
- Easily cut with a CNC router, scroll saw, jigsaw and other tools with no splintering
- Good machinability
Disadvantages:
- Hard to be stained, because it will absorb the stain
- Poor moisture resistance
- Contain volatile organic chemicals, such as urea-formaldehyde, and generate large amount of dust when cutting and sanding
- Unable to hold screws well because of its fiber structure
Best way to cut MDF
MDF boards have wide applications, so what’s the best way to cut MDF? The answer is CNC MDF cutting machine, which mainly includes MDF CNC router, CNC milling machine and MDF laser cutting machine. The MDF CNC machine has characteristics of high automation, high efficiency and high productivity. It is capable to cut MDF boards and engrave various CNC patterns of MDF surface according to your requirements as well.
Solid carbide double spiral flutes up-cut CNC router bits are good choice for cutting MDF. Two large grooves can easily remove chips and keep bits in balance during rotation. They are also high temperature resistant. Cutting MDF with CNC routers greatly improves the productivity while reduces the waste of raw material.
II.MDF CNC Cutting Projects
Applications of MDF board involve in many industries, such as furniture, advertising, decoration, mould, toy, etc. Common MDF CNC cutting projects include cabinets, coffee tables, stools, bookshelves, doors, flooring, advertising signs, 3D letters, crafts and so forth. This article lists 8 commonly seen MDF CNC cutting designs, hoping that they are helpful for your MDF board business.
Furniture
MDF is primarily used for indoor applications due to its poor moisture resistance. So the most common MDF CNC cutting project is furniture, such as cabinets, sofa, tables, etc. Compared with wood furniture, the MDF furniture is more cost-effective, and has small processing difficulty. Furniture making companies usually adopt MDF CNC cutting machine to conduct MDF sheet cutting or patterns engraving, assemble the CNC cut MDF board and carry out the following processes. As MDF board is easy to be painted, all kinds of paints and varnish can be evenly applied to the MDF surface. So the MDF furniture can be colorful and fashionable.
Flooring
Another MDF indoor application is laminate wood flooring. MDF board is used as the basic material of flooring due to its features of smooth surface and fine texture. Compared with the MDF furniture, MDF flooring seems easy to process. Cutting MDF board with a wood CNC router or a MDF laser cutter and then carrying out the following polishing and painting process, you’ll get MDF flooring with smooth surface. Thanks to the stable performance and firm edge connection, the MDF flooring is a good choice for your indoor decoration.
Doors
MDF CNC cutting doors are a common purpose of MDF board. Due to its smooth surface and fine texture, the MDF board can be used to conduct various shapes. In addition, due to good toughness, MDF doors are less prone to fracture even its thickness is small. So MDF doors are quite popular in household decoration. And the most popular door color is white, so door makers usually adopt white MDF board to make MDF CNC cutting doors. The CNC patterns on such doors also have plenty of options.
Wainscoting
The indoor wainscoting wall in house also adopts MDF material. The MDF CNC cutting wainscoting wall has smooth surface and various CNC patterns, and has high performance cost ratio. The MDF wainscoting is installed on lower part of the wall, protecting the wall from scratch and contamination. Besides, the the CNC patterns on the wainscoting panel play a decorative role. White and burlywood color is the most commonly seen color of MDF wainscoting. So white MDF board and burlywood color MDF board are most often cut and engraved for the wainscoting.
Decorations
MDF CNC cutting decorations have many categories, such as advertising signs, 3D letters, wall artworks, desk ornaments etc. In advertising industry, MDF board also often proves to be a useful material since it can be refined and processed without much effort. For example, if you own a restaurant, you may need a decorative panel partition, CNC router cut advertising sign with your restaurant name on, some 3D letters decoration on the wall, wall artwork decorations, desk napkin holders etc. All these things can be made of MDF board by a MDF CNC router. MDF decorations have wide applications, and as long as you have good ideas, you can make them come true with a MDF CNC cutting machine.
Crafts and toys
Craft and toy designs are one of the most popular MDF CNC cutting projects in customers. Many hobbyists like to use MDF board to make their craft works and toys due to its good machinability. For example, souvenirs, jigsaw puzzles, mini dressing table, mini bicycle ornaments and so forth. Since Christmas and New Year is around the corner, you can also make some MDF CNC cutting hanging decorations or ornaments, like MDF Christmas tree, hanging bells, reindeer ornaments etc. I bet these MDF products are quite salable at this time.
Moulds
Some customers select MDF to produce deep drawing moulds. For this purpose, MDF material is extremely suitable because it is permeable to air. Besides, the MDF CNC cutting mould is ideal for cabinet manufacturing due to the cost benefits and ability to manufacture to design and architectural specifications. MDF Moulding is a low-cost alternative to solid wood and is widely used for unfinished or primed surface which requires painting. MDF moulds can be processed by a wood CNC router and milled by a CNC milling machine.
Speaker enclosure
Nowadays, a large amount of speaker enclosures on the market adopts MDF boards. MDF is quite suitable for loudspeaker construction because it can absorb resonances well, due to its strength. The solid wood is very prone to resonance, which could generate standing waves. In other words, the solid enclosure will also make a sound when the speaker is sounding, which will damage the original sound. However, the MDF CNC cutting enclosure can keep itself as non-resonant as possible when the speaker is sounding. What’s more, the MDF speaker enclosure is cost-effective and durable in use.
III.MDF CNC Cutting Machine Recommendation
After seeing all these extensive applications of MDF, do you want to try to do some MDF CNC cutting projects? As the saying goes, good tools are prerequisite to the success of a job. To develop mdf cnc cutting projects, in addition to good MDF CNC cutting designs, suitable MDF cutting tools are also required. Compared with the hand saw, jigsaw or other manual tools, the best way to cut MDF is MDF CNC machine.
The following is three categories of MDF CNC machine suitable for MDF sheet cutting.
MDF CNC router
Blue Elephant has many models of wood CNC router suitable to engrave and cut MDF boards. For MDF craft lovers, we have hobby/desktop wood CNC router, which has small size but high precision. For MDF furniture making enterprises, the ATC or multi-process or multi-spindle wood CNC router which has high speed and stable performance can meet their needs. Here I recommend 3 types of MDF CNC routers, which are respectively suitable for hobbyists, small MDF products making factories and large output furniture making enterprises.
CO2 laser cutting machine for MDF
Except for the foregoing MDF CNC router machine, we also have MDF laser cutting machine or MDF laser cutter. Laser cut MDF products are very commonly seen in our daily life, for example, laser cut MDF 3D letters, MDF photo frames, fixture and exhibition booth, children’s jigsaw puzzle etc.
The MDF laser cutting machine uses a high-power-density laser beam to irradiate the MDF without touch. So the machine will not scratch the board surface. The MDF laser cutter has the characteristics of high precision, fast cutting, smooth cut, and low processing cost.
IV.Concerns of MDF CNC Cutting
As I mentioned in the first part of this article, MDF has certain drawbacks. Therefore, there are several concerns when develop a MDF CNC cutting project.
Firstly, when cutting MDF with a MDF CNC router, a large quantity of dust particles is released into the air. The dust will make the CNC MDF cutting machine operators hard to breath and open their eyes. Working under such dust environment for a long term will definitely cause some diseases. So the MDF CNC router operators must properly wear personal protection equipment like dust musk. In addition, you’d better to choose a bigger and better dust collection system for your MDF CNC cutting machine.
Secondly, MDF usually adopts formaldehyde resins to bind together the fibers in it. There are tests that have consistently showed that MDF products emit free formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds into the air even after several years of manufacture. Therefore, the MDF CNC cutting projects may pose health risks to human body at concentrations considered unsafe. So before using the MDF products, it’d better to put them in a well-ventilated place to let the formaldehyde emit for some time. Besides, when painting, coating all sides of the finished MDF piece is a good practice to seal in the free formaldehyde.
Thirdly, when exposed to water, MDF will sell to twice its thickness and will crumble if consistently exposed to water and damp conditions. So the MDF CNC cutting projects are usually for indoor applications. If you want to use MDF products in bathrooms or laundry rooms and other areas with humidity, you’d better to do some moisture-resistance treatment in advance.
V.Conclusion
Now that you have learned several good MDF CNC cutting designs and had a suitable MDF CNC machine to cut MDF board, it’s time for you to develop your own MDF business. The MDF CNC cutting projects can be very profitable due to the cost-effective feature of MDF. But be sure to pay attention to the concerns mentioned above when you cut MDF board. Besides, if you plan to produce MDF CNC cutting products but have issues with selection of a MDF CNC cutting machine, feel free to contact us.
