Laminate - Cutting The Lip Off

[leevis]

Hi All
In my kitchen i have an island and need to cut the lip off of a board but i cant work out how to do this so that it looks straight

I have tried it with a jigsaw using a laminate blade but it wasnt entirely straight.

I have a circular saw and a rail saw, i am guessing that the rail saw would be the best but i will have to clamp in down as my rail doesnt appear to stick particularly well on laminate.

What is the best method for this?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

You need to clamp the rails down if at all possible. Failing that you can get a good hold by applying double sided carpet tape to the underside of the rail and using that to attach the rail. Beware! Doing this msy mean that you need to replace the rubber grip strips on the underside of the rail afterwards, but they are only a few quid (if the maker of your saw doesn't offer spares, look for Makita spares on eBay)

To do the cuts the plunge saw will need a highish tooth count blade (for a 160 to 165mm saw that would be around 48t). It should be new or little used

The first cut is made by setting the cut depth to about 2mm, placing the saw at the far end of the rail, plunging in then drawing the saw very slowly backwards to the start of the rail, making a scoring cut through the laminate. This reduces chipping

Next tape across the post formed edge of the worktop at the far end where the blade will exit the cut using something like gaffer tape. This is to reduce break out where the saw blade exits the cut.

Set the saw cut to about half the depth of the worktop and repositioned at the far end of the rail again. Very slowly make a plunge cut to depth, withdraw the blade, reset the depth to the full depth of the worktop then cut again. What you are trying to do is to cut through the laminate on the exit edge so that the edge doesn't break away when you do your through cuts, potentially taking a chunk of laminate with it

Now make your through cuts. I'd suggest a half depth cut followed by a full depth cut

 

[leevis]

Many thanks, i will try that

 

[foxhole]

I just run a Stanley down it , only thin mdf.