Shopsmith Forums

I have an upcoming project that requires 14 pieces of laminate each being about 7" x 33". They have to be cut as just laminate and will be placed on existing surfaces and need to be clean edges.

In the past I have ruff cut the laminate then stuck it down and trimmed usually with a router which gives really nice edges. The ruff cut method will not work in this case........

I was looking to use my guided saw system but the desired blades are out of stock and not due in until July 6......... And even then I have no idea how clean they will cut a loose sheets of laminate.

I have also thought about making a pattern and then routing each piece to size but again I've never tried to cut loose laminate. Sill have to ruff cut them and hold them somehow.

Any ideas?

Ed

Ed,

By "laminate", I assume you mean countertop material like Formica brand, is this correct? I ask because there also is laminate flooring which is different. How are the laminate pieces going to be used? Will they be glued down? The primary reason for rough cutting laminate is to allow for margin when gluing down with contact cement (to allow for movement), then trimmed to finish size with a trim router afterwards. Sorry for the explanation, but I am just trying to make sure that I understand how you intend to use it before offering my thoughts here. If a laminate blade for your guided saw system is out of stock until July, what about cutting it on your Mark V with a good quality plywood blade? I haven't done this myself, but I believe you can get a very clean edge with this method. Some use a straight edge and sharp knife to pre-score the line before cutting with a plywood blade and claim to get a very good nick free edge in doing so. I have heard of mixed results of using tape on the edge to prevent nicks when cutting, but it might be an option as well. Whatever you use do you have enough material to do some trial cuts first to test?

Routing "could" give you the cleanest edge but you will need some method to stabilize the laminate so it doesn't lift and/or move around while making the cut (because laminate is so lightweight and sawing has an advantage as the sawblade pulls the laminate down to the table to hold it there). In my mind it would be harder to control this while routing versus sawing, but maybe someone has a better method.

How accurate do the final dimensions need to be? The conical sanding disk might be an option for the long edges.

How about double sided tape to a piece of plywood and then cut to size and then remove the laminate.

Make an MDF template. Use double stick tape around the edge. Stick down a rough cut piece of laminate and trim it with a flush trim bit in a router.

The material is Formica Sheet Laminate. Either a - Vertical Grade - 4 x 8: Brite White. The vertical grade will give a hint as to how it will be mounted. I've never worked with vertical grade and didn't even know there was such a product until I started looking around. The other idea, my first thought and still might be what I will do is a Writable Surfaces White Gloss Laminate Sheet, also designed for vertical appications.

I understand that they don't stock these sheets locally so they will have to ship. I understand that they do a tight roll to ship so it will have to rest for a while to get back towards flat, another thing I have not had to deal with. I expect this can be a bit of a pain if it doesn't become really flat afterwards so another point of worry.

A 4'x8' sheet size is all they ship and it looks like I can get 15 pieces out of the sheet and I need 14 so not much room for messing things up without it costing me a second sheet.

I can not picture cutting up a floppy 4 x 8 sheet on the shopsmith. I do have a "U" channel fence attachment somewhere in the shop I think but I don't recall if I made it for the 500 or the 520. If you don't have that the laminate slips under the fence, been there and done that with smaller pieces and I do have a special laminate blade and yes it cuts clean enough for what I would need but again a floppy 4 x 8 sheet, just don't see that going well. If it were on a sub-straight this would be fine but it is not.

If I can not get nice edges I could frame the pieces but that would be a LOT more work, I really don't want to go there.

If I could sandwich the laminate and then run by the router with a pattern bit would work but at best you could only do two sides at a time.... Like wise using double sided tape on a pattern might or might not hold well enough to get clean cuts, even some minor flutter of the material will spoil the edge, it would be nice to test this and perhaps find a bit that would shear towards the pattern.

My latest thought was to use the festool rail with a guided router to do the cuts. Yes it would waste a 1/4" of kerf but still might be another option. I will have to have a solid surface to work on and clamp to, a waste board but that still might be a cheap enough way to go. I might even get by doing some of the raw cuts with the saw then have more workable sizes of laminate to route.

Ed

any way to change the edge profile to a router bit you have ?

reible wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 1:56 pm The material is Formica Sheet Laminate. Either a - Vertical Grade - 4 x 8: Brite White. The vertical grade will give a hint as to how it will be mounted. I've never worked with vertical grade and didn't even know there was such a product until I started looking around. The other idea, my first thought and still might be what I will do is a Writable Surfaces White Gloss Laminate Sheet, also designed for vertical applications.
Ed

Ed,

Yeah I bought some Formica from Cabinetmaker's Warehouse for the first time last year that they shipped to me rolled up. It does take a bit for it to want to lay down flat again when you take it out so maybe TS isn't a great idea. I was really happy with how they shipped it, etc. so I recommend them if anyone is looking for online laminate. IF you are doing this for a whiteboard application as it sounds like you might be, there are quite a few options for this. Several years ago when I was setting up a new Design Center for work I researched and found there are many products for doing this. The cheapest is a special paint that you can apply to any smooth surface to turn it into a whiteboard. Then there are some roll-on stick-on film products and of course you are looking at a full on laminate product as well. Then of course you can buy a full pre-made whiteboard. Don't forget you can also do a clear glass solution for writing on too if transparency is important. I don't know if any of these give you a better option but just wanted to point out that there are a few different ways to go on creating a whiteboard surface. Good luck with it.

Thanks for the additional ideas. Some of which I have already explored but nice to here again as it reminds me of the reason I'm on the path I'm on.

This project was to start last fall but things often don't go as I planned. This is like take 10.

I actually purchased paint but the uncovered wood turned out to contain a lot of flaws like knot holes etc. I started thinking I would fill the holes but some of them are quite large so that along with having to do a lot of sanding kind of put me off on that idea. Plus trying to get it to be a really flat smooth finish was unlikely.

I did buy some of the self stick white board as well. It is not thick enough to cover the holes without showing and my next though was to stick it on some other material like hardboard but then it starts getting thicker then I can tolerate.

Next I found a reasonably thin vinyl sheet that was reasonably inexpensive but markers leave what is called "ghosting" on it so that was out. I for a while thought it still might work with the self stick vinyl but not sure how well without spending the money to test it.

So buying the real thing, ie a white board Formica is a more safe bet except for processing it.

I was more into this laminate stuff years ago and it is like starting over since there have been a lot of improvements in tools and processing.

I should also mention that I hope that the clingy vinyl that can be cut with machines like a cricket will stick to it, another thing I don't know is going to work well enough or not. One of my sons and his wife have one of these machines so I can get things cut out as soon as I lean the software to produce it.....

Ed

Ed,

Yeah, I kind of figured you had probably already explored most of these options, but I just wanted to reiterate them perhaps for others benefit. I certainly didn't know of all the options available when I went searching. I tried a couple of them but couldn't convince our cheap a$$ CEO to fund replacing all of the worn out whiteboards in our leased office space. Some of these whiteboard options work better than others and if you buy a complete one you definitely get what you pay for so watch out for low cost ones. I found the cheap Costco whiteboards to be almost garbage to what I was used to at previous companies I worked at. Even a 20 year old used, high quality whiteboad is better than what I bought at Costco brand new. You can tell the cheap whiteboards when you go to erase them right away and ghost images are still there. They clean up with cleaning liquid but this only works for so long. Let us know how it progresses...some of us would definitely enjoy learning what you find that works/doesn't work for this.