Why melamine is unforgiving
Melamine is particle board or MDF with a heat-fused decorative laminate on both faces. The face is hard, brittle, and chips easily - one bad cut and the whole panel is scrap, because chipped melamine cannot be sanded out. That makes accurate cut planning more important than for raw plywood: you want every dimension right the first time, and you want to fit as many parts as possible per sheet to keep material costs down.
Use the calculator to map out your full project before touching the saw. Enter your panel size (most melamine ships in 4x8 ft or 49x97 in for North American kitchen modules; 2750x1830 mm in European TFL stock), the kerf of your scoring blade, and the parts list. The tool returns a layout that minimizes both sheet count and the total number of cuts.
Common melamine panel sizes
| Panel | mm | inches |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (US cabinet) | 2440 x 1220 | 96 x 48 |
| Cabinet shop oversize | 2440 x 1525 | 96 x 60 |
| European TFL | 2750 x 1830 | 108 x 72 |
| Long-grain panel | 3050 x 1220 | 120 x 48 |
Tips for melamine cuts
Score before you cut. If your saw does not have a scoring blade, run a shallow scoring pass first - about 1.5 mm deep - on the bottom face. Then make the through-cut. This stops chip-out on both sides.
Use a triple-chip blade. 80T TCG blades made specifically for melamine cost more but pay for themselves on the first chipped-panel rescue.
Keep the good face up on a table saw. Tear-out happens on the exit side of the blade. Track saws are the opposite - good face down.
Plan for edge banding. Cut parts slightly oversized if you will be edge-banding both long edges - the iron-on tape adds about 0.5 mm per edge.
Do not rotate freely if the pattern matches. If your melamine has a directional wood-grain print, lock parts to one orientation in the optimizer, or it will suggest rotations that look wrong on the finished cabinet.