Blind/stopped dado question

[Paul Coffin]

Hi,
I am working on a sharpening station that will support my grinder and my wolvewrine lathe tool sharpening jigs. The table top of the station is to be covered with plastic laminate. I want to dado/mortise in two T-tracks to hold down the grinder yet allow me to loosen the grinder and slide the grinder to the rear of the station. What is the best way to clean out the corner radii at the end of a stopped dado without damaging the laminate? I could let the T-track run all the way across the table and not have this problem but I really do not want to. Can I cut the corners out with chisels without damaging the plastic? I have not worked with laminates before, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanls
Paul

[Doug Shepard]

I think if you take a straight edge and sharp knife and score it first you shouldn't have any problems using chisels to square up the end. I think I'd even try to go over those score lines enough that you completely go through the laminate then lift that out with the chisel first before chopping out the ply.

[Rick Fisher]

Not sure about the laminate, but I have used a hollow mortising chisel and a mallet to square up a dado.. A corner chisel would be ideal..

[glenn bradley]

I'm with Doug on the method but, I have found after the fact on a couple of occasions that I wished I could get the bolt heads out from the trapped end of the t-track. I have since been using a Forstner to drill an access hole at the end of my stopped runs. This resolves your current issue and perhaps a future one.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=104036&d=1229718579

[Doug Carpenter]

I agree a sharp knife wil give you a nice clean sharp corner.

But that not what you want. If you have ever noticed laminate guys always leave a small radius at corners because a straight corner encourages a crack. In this case I agree with Glenn in that you may want the option of removing the bolt at that end so use a forstner bit and kill two birds with one stone.

[Tony Shea]

I really like Glenn's idea. Great solution to a problem I was having on my reloading bench outfitted with T-Track. Time to pull it up and drill out the ends.

[Paul Coffin]

I also like Glenn's solution, I had been planning on machining the t-track at one end to remove enough of the t-track lip to be able to remove the bolt if needed. This looks a lot easier. One concern that I have is that if I someday become wealthy:) I would like to purchase a Tormek wet grinder to sit next to the dry grinder. So ther may be water in the area. I was going to brush slow drying epoxy into the dado then install the t-track to seal the MDF and prevent water damage. I guess I can do the same thing with the pocket for the bolt removal by continuing the epoxy coating in the pocket.

Thanks for the help!

Paul