Laminate flooring cutting jig.

[John Pollman]

A few days ago I made a post asking for advice on a new miter saw purchase. I got some good information that I really appreciate but soon came to realize that I didn't want to spend another $300+ for another saw. I've got a HUGE job installing about 1300 square feet of laminate flooring and a possible additional 500 square feet. I didn't want to have to drag my DeWalt 708 up into the loft to cut and didn't want to trek back and forth to the garage for every cut. Well I put my brain into gear and came up with a quick, simple, and CHEAP alternative. I just made a jig that allows me to use my existing 7-1/4" circular saw to do the same job. It's great because I can have the jig right there where I'm working. I had planned on just clamping it into my Workmate but it turns out that it works just fine sitting flat on the floor. I installed a good chunk of the flooring today and it performed great. I get a good square chip free cut quickly and easily. Here are some pictures...

http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejpollman/jig1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejpollman/jig2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejpollman/jig3.jpg

I just thought I'd share it with you in case someone else out there is in the same situation and needs to save a few bucks. Sometimes when you're not independently wealthy, you have to make due with what you've got. ;)

John

[Jim Becker]

John, that's a great idea. A special purpose "guided circular saw system"!! ;)

[Russ Massery]

Great idea! John, I've made a few of those over the years to cut vinyl siding never gave it though to use it to laminate flooring.:rolleyes:

[Lee DeRaud]

Wish I'd thought of that when I was doing the floor in the family room. It's the one time I've wished my CMS was a slider: a 10" CMS won't handle the 8" Pergo plank width. Ended up using the tablesaw for all the end pieces.

That sawdust in your picture sure is a funny color though.

[John Pollman]

Thanks guys !

Lee,
that had to be a pain in the neck. These planks that i'm using are 11.5" wide so I could cut them on my 708 but again, just too big to drag around. This works out much better and I can cut right there where I'm working thus saving a lot of wasted time going back and forth to the saw.
Oh yeah, you noticed the sawdust too ? I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. :D

Russ,
I made a similar unit a couple of years ago to cut my vinyl soffit material to length. It worked pretty good for that application too.

[Steve Clardy]

Super!!
I've seen vinyl siding installers use about the same thing.

[Tony Falotico]

Great jig John, hope it works well for you..........
I'm in the middle of laying 1150 sq ft of laminate flooring in our house, make sure you have plenty of SHARP saw blades because that laminate will dull a blade in no time !! :eek: Looks like you got the same flooring I have..........

[John Pollman]

Tony,
It's Dupont "Elite" line. It's the Beech Block pattern. It looks great so far. I installed about 200 square feet of the same stuff only in Cherry a few months ago for another customer. After having fits trying to install some Pergo glue type flooring about 7-8 years ago I swore I'd never use laminate again. I ended up subbing out that install. I was following the directions to the letter and just couldn't make it work. I was there and watched the installers that I hired do it and they did it a completely different way and were done in no time. This new style "click lock" stuff is sweet ! What I like about the Dupont brand is the size of the pieces. They cover 11-1/2" x 47-1/2" for each full piece. It makes it go down FAST.

This job is one that I was supposed to do last March. It was on the schedule as the next one to do after I was finished with the basement job I was doing. Unfortunately an accident put it off for a while. (Broke my shoulder and two surgeries and months of PT later I was finally able to get back to work) Luckily the customer understood and told me to take my time and heal. Boy I'm glad about that. Because I got started about three weeks ago and did the ceramic portion of the job and once I got started there they liked my work and got inspired with the changes going on and decided to completely redo their kitchen too ! (The cabinets are scheduled for delivery on Friday :)) Then a couple of weeks ago she decides that she wants some new doors. Well I ended up replacing EVERY door in the house except the main entry door. It ended up being 21 interior, one exterior, and two storm doors. Originally I was doing basically all new flooring on the entire first floor. Then last week they decide that they wanted me to do the "loft" and the stairway leading up there and to the basement. And from what she said today, it sounds like they're going to want me do do the two upstairs bedrooms also. They're both HUGE rooms too. Oh yeah, new marble floors in both of the bathrooms. When all is said and done, there won't be a room in the house that I haven't done something to. Heck as long as their checkbook holds out I'm willing to take as much work as they're willing to give me ! :):)

John

[John Pollman]

Great jig John, hope it works well for you..........
I'm in the middle of laying 1150 sq ft of laminate flooring in our house, make sure you have plenty of SHARP saw blades because that laminate will dull a blade in no time !! :eek: Looks like you got the same flooring I have..........
You've got that right Tony ! I started with a brand new thin kerf carbide blade. I'm just in the early stages of the project and that sucker is getting dull already. I just went to the DuPont web site looking for some info on another issue and ran accross something else while there. In the installation instructions they recomend a diamond blade to cut this stuff ! That laminate is very hard. I noticed a couple of times while trimming for a door opening I could see tiny little "sparks" coming off of the blade when I started my cut. I'm going to head over to HD and pick up a diamond blade. Bosch has a 7" for about $30. With the amount of material that I've got to cut I'm sure it'll be much cheaper to drop $30 on a diamond blade than replace 6 or 8 carbide blades ! :)

Good luck with your project.

John

[Brett Baldwin]

The industrial finish on laminate floors has aluminum oxide in it. Same stuff that does the cutting in your sandpaper. Makes a great wear surface but sure is hard on the cutting tools. We were just laying some laminate last week and wore out two blades so far. I hadn't thought of diamond blades. I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time. Thanks for sharing your solutions John.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

John, the diamond blade should work great. I had one and we used it on about 6 floors before it became dull enough to need replacing.

[Mark Singer]

I used my Festool plunge saw with the guide acting like your jig...and wore out a blade doing about 1000 sf...I really like your jig! Great idea!

[John Pollman]

Update on the diamond blade....

I went to HD this morning expecting to have to pay about $30 for a Bosch blade but found that they carried several different diamond blades. I ended up buying a DeWalt 7" diamond blade for about $17.50. It's not a continuous rim but does have what resemble teeth but not really. I'm sure a continuous rim wouldn't work at all but the one that I did buy didn't do much better. :( It was a waste of money. After making about a half dozen cuts I took it off and reinstalled the carbide blade which worked MUCH better.

John

[Brett Baldwin]

Bummer. Well, at least it was only $20 and you're set for your next small stone laying job.:rolleyes: Thanks for letting us know.

[Per Swenson]

John,

Her ya go, for next time.

http://www.freudtools.com/whats_new/rls12.html

Per

[Allan Johanson]

If you don't want to deal with dulling your saw blades so quickly, try a jigsaw. I've installed over 600 sq ft of laminate using a jigsaw and that's what I'll reach for next time too. Less mess as well.

Cheers,

Allan

[John Pollman]

Well I haven't tested it out yet but I probably will get the chance to tomorrow. I hope I've solved my blade problem. As I said earlier, the recommended diamond blade was a bust. But I went out the other day and dropped down quite a few bucks for a Freud blade. It's a "Diablo" series blade but it's the 7" 54 tooth triple chip grind that is specifically designed for cutting laminate flooring and melamine. It was $75 so I hope it's worth it ! :) Actually I did make a couple of cuts with it today but not in the laminate. I was cutting some 1/4" birch plywood that I'm using to make new covers for the risers on the stairways that I am doing in the laminate. It cuts AWESOME so far. But I'm anxious to see how chip free it will cut the laminate. I'll report once I've tested it.

Have a great day !

John

[Greg Pierce]

Hey John- I can relate to the customer starting out with one simple project then you wind up staying for a month. I'm in the landscaping business and it happens to us on most jobs. Go to look at just seeding the lawn, end up with irrigation, concrete walks, decks, driveways, I even extended a sewer system line last summer. What ever they want.

The laminate, I installed 1300 ft in our house, It ate up two blades. I thought I just had a dull blade on the first one, went and bought a new one, by the time I was done, it wouldnt cut a pine 2X4.

Good luck on the job.

[Craig Kershaw]

John - Many thanks for the jig idea. I'm putting in about 1100 sf of laminate flooring in my house and the jig lets me cut nice square cuts using cheap blades from the borg. I was going to use my compound miter saw but switched to your jig idea when found out that laminate eats up blades.

[Vernon Taylor]

I have made a similar jig to cut vinyl siding,remember to put the blade on backwards when cutting vinyl. Another handy homemade jig is the sawboard on allans' woodmiser website. Just a scrap piece of ply with the factory edge to which you attach a straight piece of lumber e.g 1X4,using that as a guide,trim the plywood to width. You can now align this edge with the desired cut line,great for breaking down sheets of ply and can also be used for angle cuts as well,just be sure to use the same saw and blade.