Can Laminate Sheet Be Cut Precisely?

[porkweez]

I've installed a few laminate countertops before, typically cutting the lam with a scoring knife, gluing on, then trimming with a router with lam bit. Now I'm working on a bathroom countertop for my mother-in-law, and she's not satisfied with how the lam edges were glued/trimmed. [I think they're as good as any I've done, and tiny flaws aren't usually seen by folks.] She wants me to cut the laminate for the top to a precise fit, so there's no need to router the edge afterward. I'm very uncomfortable trying that, as it sounds too risky. Note, there's also no backsplash, just wall tile, with a 1/8" opening under the tile that she wants the lam to fit into. Even IF I could cut it precisely, sliding into the back edge opening and fitting all around perfectly sound impossible to me.
What do you think?

 

[johneh]

That material tends to chip unless you use a backer .
Getting it to fit in that groove and gluing it down is
going to be a pain . usually we use a contact cement
that bonds on contact so what you want to do would
be practical impossible . to remove the small chips
on your install use a block of wood with 220 sand paper
and sand on a angle until chipping is gone and you have
an even line. That's how the pros. do it

 

[bholler]

to remove the small chips
on your install use a block of wood with 220 sand paper
and sand on a angle until chipping is gone and you have
an even line. That's how the pros. do it

we always used files not sandpaper it gave a smoother darker line.

It can be cut exact but it is not easy and sliding it under the gap with contact cement on it will not be easy either.

 

[johneh]

we always used files not sandpaper it gave a smoother darker line.

A file cut at 11deg. is the way that many people do it but there is a learning curve
and if you don't do it all the time the sand paper and block is less intense

 

[bholler]

A file cut at 11deg. is the way that many people do it but there is a learning curve
and if you don't do it all the time the sand paper and block is less intense

Yeah I guess so.

 

[Buzz Saw]

Assuming you are doing this as a labor of love vhave your mother in law get an estimate of someone else doing the job to her specs. Have her decide based on the dollar.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[maple1]

I think I would bow out.

 

[Batman]

I think I'd tell her to go pound sand...or at least fantasize about doing so. i like my morher in law.

 

[johneh]

My Mother- in -law told me to call her Mom.
then told me what it stood for Mean Old Mother- In- Law

 

[porkweez]

Thanks guys.