working with laminate

[Tim Bueler]

All great advice. So a couple thoughts.

1) I'm not really sure can assemble to top first and them offset the laminate. Reasons is its 16' long and would have an extra seam. Is it worth it?

Cut one of your substrates in half and put the extra seam where it won't be seen. 4'-8'-4'. Glue your substrate seams and sand everything flat before applying laminate.

Interesting to see how many use a table saw to cut laminate. Most of my laminate experience has been on a job site, cutting down a 5' x 12' piece of laminate with the only table saw in sight being a 8-1/4" Makita in a Rosseau(sp?) auxiliary table (and let me tell you, that was the cat's meow back in the day). Scoring is quick, easy, quiet and accurate. No, it doesn't leave perfectly clean edges but those get flush trimmed anyhow. I have cut laminate on a table saw but I wouldn't use a good blade for it. It's just dulls blades too quickly. And all those little shards flying everywhere were sharp. But, as I said earlier, the edges left from scoring are jagged and razor sharp.

[andy bessette]

Laminate is oversize; plywood is usually 96"; the seams don't need to line up.

[Ryan Becklund]

Do you order your laminate someplace online? I notice that some get it from a local countertop maker, but I don't have one nearby (that I know of)

[andy bessette]

I get mine from a nearby lumber yard, Anderson Plywood, who carry the common colors I normally use and orders the rest. They also have a great selection of euro hinges plus a large tool store that carries Festool.

[Jerome Stanek]

How so? Flush trim bits are carbide, so are table saw blades (though I don't use saw to cut my laminate - too flimsy). I just clamp my laminate to the substrate with overhang by 1-2" on 2 sides then flush trim bit off the rest. Use saw horses to hold up the off cut. Once you're ready to glue, you have play all around to flush trim again the final product.

Yes I cut a lot of laminate and trim it our carbide bits get dull pretty quick but that is when we are cutting 10 or more sheets at a time. We are a trade show display house and figure about 1 to 2 bits per normal jobs some of the bigger ones take 3 to 4 bits

[Bob Cooper]

one more question.

If I arrange the particleboard such that I have an 8 foot piece in the middle and 2 4 foot pieces either end, I'm concerned that it will be difficult to get the seams of the laminate to be flush. I can put the first piece down by working from the middle out, but the second piece I need to be super careful about starting at the edge and I'm worried that it will be difficult to get the seams to fit right together given the aggressive nature of contact cement

any suggestions. My goal is to do this today

[jack duren]

I'm late to the party, but will vote in favor of scoring. In the past I did a lot of laminate and tried lots of methods, table/radial saw, steel scoring knife, carbide scoring tool, router with straight edge, circular saw with guide, a Porter-Cable slitting attachment for there little router. The winner: carbide scoring tool. Just flop it good side down on the floor, grab a straight edge, score and snap.
Most people can do that faster than you can wrestle a 8-12 foot piece to the table saw without even mentioning the hassle trying to keep the part near the blade flat to the table and finding clearance for a run off of 12 feet without sagging..

The above is true for full sheets, but once reduced to narrower pieces, those I do on the table saw using an 80 tooth triple chip blade that I've had for 20-25 years.

Cuts to length are Radial/miter saw for narrow, router/guide for wide pieces.

For the professional it's easier to cut it on the table saw. But for non experienced a router and a board of needed length works best..............

[Ken Combs]

For the professional it's easier to cut it on the table saw. But for non experienced a router and a board of needed length works best..............

Every shop I've been in or worked with use a carbide scoring tool to reduce or cut full sheets. Much faster that saws, esp 144"x30" material.

[jack duren]

Every shop I've been in or worked with use a carbide scoring tool to reduce or cut full sheets. Much faster that saws, esp 144"x30" material.

You couldn't cut it fast enough to keep up with me on a saw. I've worked with everything made for laminate. But when it comes to keeping several guys busy especially on the edge banding machine, the saw is king.

I wish I could agree, but I've used them...

[Mel Fulks]

You couldn't cut it fast enough to keep up with me on a saw. I've worked with everything made for laminate. But when it comes to keeping several guys busy especially on the edge banding machine, the saw is king.

I wish I could agree, but I've used them...

Yes saw is fastest....but the problem is some will try to handle 12 foot stuff alone. I once saw a guy ruin TWO of them in one day. And it was an expensive pattern. He was the foreman. He did not offer to pay for them. Took the boss several more years to fire him. I'm sure the incompetent are careful with their own stuff and get someone to help,even if it is a neighbor out walking his dog.

[jack duren]

It can happen especially trying to get under 5' to lift it. It can crack..Especially with "non post form"

[Warren Lake]

its easy enough to get a run and have a sheet crack. If I did really large on a saw then I would have support 4 x 8 one person are fine you can sort of roll them. I never had any one way for lam. If I did a top with a variety of angles I might lay the sheet on the top of the job then sort of trace onto the top surface just eye ball it, it was not accurate but I could have taken more timebut didnt matter that much, more overhang just used more care. Id trim it with a 1/4 carbide bit in a laminate trimmer on some of those jobs scoring and breaking was not possible. just did it however suited the job the best. I just logged on and Mels post and Jacks are not here now that I am online some glitch in how this runs have asked no one knows so not sure where this will end up. Tops that worked laminate had a number of specialized trimmers set up, ones that did bank work and hospitals. I always had a number of set ups as well, one trimmed it off almost flush on a bearing, then another that ran without a bearing that left a slight angle before any hand work, then different if it was a solid edge.

If you do a lot of laminate work and have a final trim trimmer say a quarter inch two flute bit, you can trim your lam then grind the end of the bit off and now have a fresh clean bit. this works great, you only use 1/16" or so bit more to make removal amount easier. You grind you have a fresh bit then after a number of grindings you throw away the stub.

Just logged on to check post of Mel and Jack duran are on the second page, logged off Jacks was the last post i could see ??

[Bob Cooper]

Well the hard part is over. Getting the seam to line up wasn't an issue. It experimented on some scraps first. I ended up cutting it on the table saw and that worked well. Dowels worked well. Also I appreciate the advice to split the plywood into three pieces so that no seems lined up. Here's some picture. Once I finish I'll show some more.

Thanks for for all the help

[Ryan Becklund]

wow is that your shop? I thought I liked drawers! You must have a small fortune in drawer slides, mind me asking which ones you used?

[jack duren]

You can get them for about $6 a set.........