Looking for a wear-resistant, carefree surface that offers limitless design options?
Easy-to-use and readily available plastic laminates are a great option for the home shop. You may have a plastic laminate dealer in your area with samples to see, but if not, shopping online lets you explore hundreds of patterns. When you have made your selection, the laminate is tightly rolled, boxed and shipped to your home — easy!
Plastic laminate is available in two thicknesses: thinner vertical grade for surfaces that are not exposed to heavy wear, and a thicker horizontal grade for more demanding areas such as tables or countertops. Typically, plastic laminates are sold in 4'x8' or 5'x10' sizes.
STABLE SUBSTRATES
Working with laminate starts with selecting the right substrate—that means one that doesn’t move with seasonal humidity, is flat, and has a smooth surface that promotes a strong adhesive bond. MDF is the clear winner as it has each of these three qualities, and it comes at a good price. When strength and resistance to long-term deflection are issues, use high-quality plywood such as Baltic birch.
Step 1. With an auxiliary rip fence fit tight to the saw’s table, use a push pad to help feed the thin laminate and keep it flat.
Step 2. You don’t need to be fast but you need to be thorough. It’s a good idea to double-coat porous materials like MDF.
CUTTING THINGS DOWN TO SIZE
The easiest way to cut laminate is at your table saw — with some preparation. Plastic laminate is brittle; to prevent a ragged cut use a fine-toothed blade, such as a crosscut blade, and a zero clearance insert. When sawing, laminate can “climb the blade.” Setting the blade at a height of about 1½" will help prevent this.
Plastic laminate is thin and can slip under the fence, binding as it is fed through the saw. Prevent this by clamping an auxiliary fence, held tight to the table, to your fence for a gap-free fit as in Step 1. Large and floppy, laminate sheets are awkward to handle, so clear the deck around your saw, set up supports and recruit a helper before powering up.
When sizing the plastic laminate, give yourself some extra room, allowing an inch extra on all sides. Edging can be cut ½" wider. This extra room means you don’t have to be perfect when gluing the laminate in place.
ADHESIVES FOR LAMINATE
Safe, water-based contact cement and convenient aerosol adhesives are good choices for the shop.
Most glues will adhere to laminate, but the best choice for ease of use and production efficiency is contact cement. Solvent-based contact cement is a time-proven choice for laminate work, but it must be used with excellent ventilation as the fumes are both flammable and toxic. At the Woodsmith production shop, we use water-based contact cement to avoid the fire hazard and fumes, but ventilation is still required. If you are building a small project and want convenience, consider contact cements that come in aerosol cans.
Before you apply the adhesive, take this advice — Keep Things Clean! A bit of sawdust or a laminate chip on any of the surfaces will prevent the laminate from laying down — and with laminate work, there really aren’t any fixes for mistakes, you just have to start over.
STICKING IT DOWN
Step 3. With the laminate aligned over the substrate, start at one end, removing the strips in order and pressing down on the laminate with your hand.
Step 4. Before flush trimming the laminate, use a roller to make sure it’s well adhered.
Step 5. A palm router is the tool for trimming laminate. Use a flush-trim bit for edging and a 15° bevel-trim bit for edges that overhang.
Contact cement is applied to both the laminate and substrate (see Step 2). A foam brush works for small areas; a foam roller is best for larger projects. Let the adhesive dry until it is no longer tacky. Small pieces of laminate and edging can be positioned on the substrate by eye. For larger pieces, we need some help to get the laminate in the correct position and not stuck down until you are ready.
Wood dowels spaced evenly over the substrate keep things separated and allow for accurate positioning of the laminate. Once the laminate is in position, pull out the first dowel starting at one end, or the center for large projects, as shown in Step 3. Press the laminate down gently with your hand. Now work towards the other end, removing one dowel at a time and pushing the laminate down and towards the far end to make sure there is no buckling of the laminate.
As shown in Step 4, use a roller and firmly apply pressure to the entire surface to completely bond the contact cement. If you don’t have a roller, tap down the surface with a smooth block of wood and hammer.
ROUTING & FILING
The final step is to trim and smooth the overhanging laminate. Edging can be trimmed to size with a flush-trim bit while face sheets should be trimmed with a bevel bit to ease the edge and prevent chipping. Finally, use a smooth cut mill file to smooth any overhanging material and soften the edges.
Downward and outward strokes of a flat mill file create smooth edges.
Plastic laminates are easy to apply and readily available. So if you haven’t worked with them yet, give them a try and expand your workshop’s capabilities.
