Posted by Bill Epstein [ 12.75.71.221 ] on March 31, 2004 at 18:00:26:

In Reply to: Re: follow-up posted by Bill Fitzmaurice on March 31, 2004 at 09:38:43:

We've all seen the wavy edges on MDF and some have experienced the 'wedding cake' edges on Melamine panels. What we do in the shop is run the panels over the saw to cut an eighth off, then flip it around so the cut edge is against the fence and make another pass.
Now the 2 long edges are roughly parallel and smooth. You won't have the big capacity sliding table (neither do I anymore) so you take your best shot at pushing the 49" edge against the fence and repeating the process. That's prety square on all four edges but, for a box, remember to over cut the panel that meets the edge slightly so you are always trimming edges and never sanding down panels.
Squareness is a virtue but eliminating dips, depressions and waves from sanding is a necessity. The best possible workpiece would never be touched by a plane or sander.

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