Drywall Cutter V

A variety of designs are created from drywall. When designing all kinds of boxes, you often have to bend sheets at an angle of 90 °. To perform this and other operations, a cutter for drywall will help you in quality.

How to bend drywall at right angles?

To carry out this operation, for example, in the manufacture of a box for placing the backlight, a V-groove is made in the gypsum plaster. In this case, the cardboard layer on the back side remains intact. Therefore, for example, with sheets 12 mm thick, the maximum groove depth (where the top of the right angle passes) is 10 mm.

After such a treatment, GCR is easily bent at an angle of 90 ° and glued with foam. Get an even and reliable connection.

Milling reduces the consumption of drywall and improves the quality of the outer or inner ribs. To process such an element will require significantly less effort than with the overlap.

GKL milling video series

Tool Requirements

To form the groove, you will need a special device - a milling cutter for GCR. It is not necessary to purchase an expensive professional model if the master is not involved in the processing of drywall constantly and he needs it for personal needs. You can get by with the budget option, especially since the requirements for the router are not so strict:

• The power of the device is not less than 1 kW.
• The unit must be equipped with a dust removal device. Otherwise, in a matter of minutes after the start of work, the whole room will be filled with gypsum dust.

A disk device is suitable for creating straight grooves and cutting GKL. The milling cutter has great functionality, with its help you can make grooves of any shape, as well as holes.

Types of Milling Cutters

Milling cutters for shaped devices perform different tasks.

• A V-shaped fillet groove cutter is needed to obtain a right angle. This is the most popular type when working with GCR.
• A straight groove cutter is used to create grooves and holes (point and complex shapes) located at an angle of 90° to the drywall plane.
• A T-slot mortise cutter is used just like a straight cutter, but it can be used to drill point holes of large diameter.
• The groove fillet U-shaped cutter is needed for grooves with a rounded bottom and different holes.
• Edge - to create chamfers along the edge of the sheet.

A high-quality European instrument can cost decently: $ 45–70 per unit. Chinese-made products have a lower price, but not always high-quality. However, professionals claim that recently in the market you can find Chinese products of acceptable quality.

When choosing a cutter, focus on the diameter of its shank: it should fit your router. A cutting tool with a shank of 8 mm is not suitable for a device designed for 6 mm.

Milling cutters can be sold individually or in sets. Beginners are recommended to buy a starter kit at a budget price. This will allow you to learn how to handle the milling cutter, as well as use it for other types of work. And then to supplement the kit, buying the necessary tools individually.

Additional devices

Drywall milling is carried out only on a flat and hard surface, excluding the slightest deflection of the sheet. Professionals prefer to use workbenches, often specially made independently for these purposes. But you can do without them, performing the operation on a flat surface of the floor or a stack of sheets of drywall.

The V-shaped milling cutter used to select the groove we need is a curved tool. Therefore, to obtain smooth bending lines you can not do without the use of special guide rails or various patterns. They are made from improvised materials: it can be plywood or a metal profile. To get a smooth cut, the milling cutter abuts against a template that can be fixed on drywall using self-tapping screws.

Another option: the template has an emphasis on a special side of the workbench. But if you need to create several rectangular corners on a drywall sheet, which is not uncommon, then for each bend line you will need your own template.

GKL milling and fixation of a right angle

The operation of forming a groove to obtain an angle of 90 degrees is quite simple:

• Drywall sheet is placed on the work surface.
• The template is fixed. Its value is selected so that the cutter is at the required distance from the edge of the sheet after the tool rests against the template.

Beginners usually use the smooth edge of the milling cutter to slide along the template. Professionals prefer to use a semicircular. This is explained simply: in this position, the tool, even if it rotates a little along the axis, will still go in a straight line. If you rest the flat edge of the device in the template, any deviation will cause a curvature of the cut.

• Milling is in progress. The tool is guided and driven smoothly, without jerking.
• Plaster dust must be carefully removed from the resulting furrow.
• Foam is applied to the V-groove with a gun. It’s not scary if a certain amount of it will appear: the excess is easily cut off.
• A right angle is formed. Before the foam hardens, it is recommended to fix it with masking tape, and the whole drywall construction put on the end.

Thus, using a V-shaped cutter, you can form a right angle from drywall without much effort.