50mm square edged laminate worktops

[Guest]

Hello all,
i have a job to replace some work tops and have been told they are 50mm square edged laminate worktops and was wondering the best way to join them. Will a normal butt and scribe joint work or will they be better just butted up to each other or is there another way of doing these type of tops that i dont know about maybe cutting them at 45 degrees.

Thanks very much in advance for any helpfull replies.
(ps i will be using the big (900) trend jig, festool router and ts 55 saw to install)

[jonny round boy]

There are a couple of ways to join these. You can do a normal butt & scribe joint, but it's not really necessary as there's no postformed edge.

On the other hand, if you simply butt joint them, you'll have a line of edging through the joint which looks bad.

What you can do is effectively a very small, shallow butt & scribe - simply rout away the edging from your 'female' piece (to expose the chipboard front edge), sand the front corner of the edging on the 'male' piece to suit, and then join them.

The result is a nice, tight joint, and can look better than a normal butt & scribe joint, particularly if it's a woodgrain laminate.

[Guest]

There are a couple of ways to join these. You can do a normal butt & scribe joint, but it's not really necessary as there's no postformed edge.

On the other hand, if you simply butt joint them, you'll have a line of edging through the joint which looks bad.

What you can do is effectively a very small, shallow butt & scribe - simply rout away the edging from your 'female' piece (to expose the chipboard front edge), sand the front corner of the edging on the 'male' piece to suit, and then join them.

The result is a nice, tight joint, and can look better than a normal butt & scribe joint, particularly if it's a woodgrain laminate.

when you say a shallow joint do you mean just set the jig back a few mm on the female side then router off the male side square and just lightly sand the front edge till they meet.
thanks very much

[marc1106]

i think JRB meant just meant take 600mm of the edging off where your joint will be!

[jonny round boy]

i think JRB meant just meant take 600mm of the edging off where your joint will be!

Yes, that's what I meant!

I didn't want to write 'just remove the edging' as that would leave the adhesive on there, whereas you really want nice, clean chipboard to get the joint nice & tight, so it's best to rout it off (or peel the edging off & then go over it with a router to clean it up, at about 0.25mm depth).