Looking for suggestions as to the best way to cleanly saw (straight, square, no tear-out) about 18 inches off the length of a 10ft Lowe's laminate coutertop:
Circular saw from the underside?
Typically plastic laminate is trimmed to final size with a flush trim router bit.
I would use an "L" shaped straight edge on the back side and straight bit using about 4~5 passes.
Is it a good idea to put masking tape above the line to be cut?
?
Could you ask them to cut it to your length-- like they do with lumber?
No reason to do so with a router bit as it is cutting horizontally. A saw blade - any saw blade - is moving perpendicular to what you are cutting so the teeth will tend to lift and tear out material along the saw cut on one side or the other depending on the type of saw and which side you are cutting from; in that case, tape can help.
IOW, make your cuts upside down, backup both cuts on the bottom side (and be sure to not let that cut-off tear the laminate as it falls, so hold on to it all the way through the cut).
Sounds like someone's done this before. :-)
Thanks for your input, Swing. I found a youtube vid shortly after my original post that somewhat echos your suggestion:
German ingenuity! :-)
I find it a little strange that Home Depot and Lowe's have been selling pre-made laminate coutertops for many, many years yet there is only ONE video on youtube (at least that's all I could find) that shows a way of cutting one to length.
gth.- Hide quoted text -
After I viewed your link, youtube automatically suggested a number of other videos related to cutting a counter top.
Another method was to cut the backsplash on a power miter saw and then use the saw cut to transfer the line to bottom. A circular saw and straight edge is used for the rest of the cut.
gth.- Hide quoted text -
FYI...I also found a series of 3 videos where a guy cut off the backsplash along the glue line, cut the flat surface down to a narrower depth and then reattached the back splash. Interesting idea. Unfortunately the videos leave out major parts of the cutting and don't include a close up of the new seam. I can't imagine it's even close to perfect.
That's one I've got to remember!
I cut one of those once. I didn't have a circular saw. I taped the laminate side, clamped 2x4s to it and used a sharp hand saw. It cut like butter. I measured from one side, marked several places, and connected the marks. My only problem was assuming the end from which I measured was square. It was not. Please check yours!
Bingo! Thanks for the link, Pat!
Since the laminate is glued to termite-puke I'm thinking about maybe sealing up the underside with a few coats of some left-over dark brown latex house paint I've got in the shop. Just to keep moisture out and maybe keep the particle board from shedding little flakes over the coming years. Anything wrong with this idea?
I've cut each and every one of the 30+ laminate tops I've installed in my building to length with my Makita circular saw.
I tape the laminate and turn the top upside down.
I clamp a 2X4 to the underside of the top and use it as a straight edge for the shoe of the saw to slide along. (This is a clear fir 2X4 that I had cut in a table saw to cut the rounded edges off of it for better accuracy)
I set up two stacks of three shims each to act as "ramps" to lift the saw over the front bullnose without changing the plane of the saw blade. I stack the shims up on each side of where the blade will go and put a piece of wide masking tape over them to hold them in place snugly against the back edge of the front bullnose.
Once I cut through the top, I vaccuum up the sawdust and release the clamps holding the 2X4 straight edge in place and clamp that same 2X4 across the kerf at the front bullnose to prevent the two sections of the top from moving relative to one another. I check that the kerf is of uniform width from front to back to ensure that the two sections of the counter top are in the same position relative to one another as they were prior to making the cut.
Then I use a hand saw to finish the cut through the back splash. I hold the blade of the hand saw flat against the counter top edge on one side of the kerf with my left hand, and move the saw forward and backward with my right hand, and it's not hard to extend one side of the kerf the remaining inch or so through the backsplash.
And, the only drawback to this method is that I always get a small chip right at the top of the backsplash. But, the cut edge is still flat and smooth enough to have no difficulty laminating the cut edge of the counter top.
Yes, circle saw with the top upside down. Make sure to support the fall off. Screw on an edge guide. It would probably be worth making a "scrap" cut for practice and to see all the issues before launching into the finish cut.
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