Tips for finishing kitchen worktops

[TonyK]

Anyone got any tips or no-no's....

In the am I will be finishing the ends of several worktops. I've hired a "big" router and bought a straight cutting bit some 50+mm long (38mm tops). I need to clean up the ends one of which has a 45deg corner taken off it as well. So far I've trimmed all the tops within 1/2" with a circ. saw. The plan is to clamp up a sraight edge and run the router down, maybe two passes to remove 1/2". Then evo-stick the trim on the ends, let it cure overnight and trim up with a knife and some 800 wet&dry afterwards.

Anything glaringly wrong?

[Stuart Noble]

I've just cut 2 B&Q 44mm worktops with a batten and cheapo circular saw. Held my breath a bit but the cuts were perfection.

[Tony Eva]

Did my worktops last weekend - the only things I'd say is that (obviously) do the prominent edges first, because the cutter will get blunt and the laminate will start to chip slightly when it does.

Of course I may just be useless with a router - perhaps you'll be better than I was at keeping the cutter in good nick, though I'm pretty happy with the way my butt & scribe joints turned out. Not perfect, because of the very slight chipping, but 95% OK IMO.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I cut mine using a circular saw treated to a brand new fine blade. Cut with the worktop upside down starting from the front edge. Use a straight edge to guide the saw -- I nailed a thin strip of wood to the underside and pulled it off afterwards.

I'm not sure the ends really needed any further preparation, but I did run over them with a belt sander, vacuumed the dust from the edge, and fixed the trim on using a resin based glue to excess, such that it ozed out all along the edge to make sure it had sealed it. Next day, I sanded down the trim edge to be square to the worktop surface. I don't think my trim would have cut with a knife at all -- I used the belt sander to remove most of the excess, sanding along the edge so as not to exert any force which might snap it, and finished off sanding by hand with a wood block.