Butt Hinge Mortises on Plastic Laminate slab door

[Ray Frederick]

Hello all, I always find great help here so wanted to see if anyone had any ideas on a new project.

We are doing a bunch of wood veneer window sills and other items for a restaurant.

They asked us to laminate a few new 1 3/4" slab doors with plastic laminate, face and edges.

The laminating part is easy I do that all the time with spray contact cement from the laminate supplier. I was wondering if I should route the butt hinge mortises (slab isn't mortised yet) after laminating the side of the door like normal with a router and a jig?

Or should I route the hinges in the slab and then notch out the hinge mortises with a multitool from the laminate edge piece before laminating it onto the slab.

Thanks for any input!

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd apply laminate to the edges first, then rout out the mortise for the hinges. I'd be sure to use knuckle hinges with a rounded corner that is the same radius as your router bit. That will save you from squaring up the corners of the mortise. That's easy in wood, but more challenging in laminate.

[Ray Frederick]

Thanks for the input, will unfortunately have to use square corners as metal frame already in place uses those but I will use a router jig with the smallest radius possible so chiseling is a bare minimum. Was a bit worried about laminate blowing out as I mortised in but with a good sharp bit and good adhesion of the laminate it seems it should be fine.

[Paul F Franklin]

You can get hinges with one leaf square and the other rounded. In general you want to avoid sharp inside corners in laminate as they are often starting points for cracks.

[Wayne Lomman]

Router with a 1/4" cutter after laminating. This leaves almost nothing to trim out or else knock the corners off the hinges with a grinder or linisher. Cheers

[Tim Bueler]

You can get hinges with one leaf square and the other rounded.

These are pretty common from a commercial hardware supplier. I saw them a lot when I was trimming out commercial spaces. Steel jambs with wood doors.