Glueing Laminate

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yellofins

Ron
Corporate Member
Hi Folks,
I'm getting ready to glue a Wilsonart (like Formica) laminate onto an MDF desk top. The desktop is for a child's work area.
I have used 3m contact cement and Weldwood contact cement to do this in the past.
What have you found works best to glue up laminate?
I'm looking for an easier way to glue this up.

I currently use dowels to keep the laminate and top seperated and remove the dowels (middle first) to let the glued surfaces come in contact.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ron
 
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Jon

New User
Jon Todd
sounds like you got it under control. Do you use a paint brush to apply it with an adheisive roller.
 

yellofins

Ron
Corporate Member
I've used paint brush, roller and spray.
I use a small rolling pin to flatten and secure the contact area.
 

skysharks

New User
John Macmaster
Ron ,I have done allot of this.
You are on the right track. I use contact cement or the formica contact cement that Lowe's sells. Basically the same thing.
I use the 2" chip brushes from HF to spread it on both surfaces.
Using dowels is fine, and your procedure of starting in the middle is right on.
let both surfaces dry til you can touch both of them with your hand and it doesn't stick to you.
Starting from the middle remove your dowels one at time working your way out to the ends.
I will usually roll it out after I have removed my spacers.
Then trim off the excess laminate with a straight cutting router bit.

What are you going to use as the outside edges?
If these are to be laminate too, I have a laminte guide for the table saw so that you can cut thin strips for the edges. You can use it anytime you want.
If you are going to put on a wood edge, mount the wood edge first, apply the glue over it's top side. Apply and roll out the laminate, then route off the laminate and the wood edge all at the same time.
You can almost use any router bit to give you a nice profile on the wood edge that you want. Makes for a very nice custom job.
My shop work bench is done in this fashion.
i can post a pic if you would like.

Good luck.
Laminate is easy. I don't know of any easier way of doing laminate than what you said that you are going to do.
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
My only suggestion/comment is like the rubber roller to press down/ensure the top is adhered good. I tried the WB contact cement and had mediocre results. I hate the hard stuff, but it does bond well.
 

yellofins

Ron
Corporate Member
Thanks for the info guys.
I ended up buying Welwood's non flammible contact cement.
It went on nice and even and seems to hold like the old stuff.
It was thinner to put on so I got a real nice even coat on both surfaces.
8 dowels and a little patience, and it worked.

Thanks again,
Ron
 

DaveO

New User
DaveO
Ron, I'm a little late with this info. But I am going to offer it anyways :-D
I just did a bit of laminate on a project I am working on, and ran out of the can of Weldwood contact cement that I was using. So off to Lowes I went and grabbed another can. On the way home I noticed that it said GEL, and laughed to myself because all the contact cement I've used was pretty much a gel. Well when I opened it it was very different. It wasn't stringy or sticky. It was a yellowish color and you could scoop up a bunch on a brush and spread it out very easily. It was the most enjoyable experience I've ever had with contact cement:roll:.
You've already got yours but I urge you to try it next time.
MTCW,
Dave:)
 

Alan in Little Washington

Alan Schaffter
Corporate Member
One last bit of advice when laminating to MDF- after the adhesive has set don't let the tiniest section of laminate touch the mdf before they are properly aligned. You can lift the laminate relatively easy but it will lift a chunk of mdf at the same time and leave a nice hole. How do I know . . . . :BangHead:
 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
Laminate can be salvaged by using laquar thinner to release it from substrate. You might want to try some of the spray cans of contact cement on next project. I was amazed as to how far they went and how easy to use. Just be aware of overspray. It's a bear to clean up.
 

alleng

New User
allen
the formica brand works pretty well,used it on the last counter top we did.i wsa sceptical,cause it didnt smell bad like contact cement,but it actualy did a good job for me
 

Gofor

Mark
Corporate Member
Ref the Weldwood Contact Cement at Lowe's. I bought some the other day. Reading the cans, I saw there were three types: Original, Original Gel, Low odor water clean-up.

The only difference I could see on the cans was that the original said "Resistant to water, weather, and common household cleaners". The Gel said "Resistant to weather and common household cleaners", and the Low-odor water based was "Resistant to common household cleaners". Don't know if there really is a difference or not.

and yeah, I should worry when the stuff in Lowe's starts talkin' to me, but, heah, we speak the same lanquage and its like my second home lately, and you can never have too many friends.

Go
 
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