How to Saw a Board Along Hand Circular

Laminate flooring is a popular flooring because it has a chic design and a long service life. Products of this type consist of a wood base and a special decorative layer. The production technology of the laminate allows you to give it not only a different color, but also the structure of various types of wood. Laying this material is relatively simple, but almost always requires cutting boards. Therefore, before starting installation work, you should definitely find out what you need to cut the laminate.

Cutting methods

Installation of a laminate board involves fixing it to the floor with glue or special screws. But many beginning masters do not know how to cut a laminate to get a high-quality and even joint.

To cut a vinyl or cork laminate at home, you can use several tools:

• Cutter. This design resembles a guillotine. To saw the board, it must be placed under the knife along the cut line. After that, with a certain force, the cutter is pressed in, which causes the formation of rubber. If you have certain skills with this tool, you can cut the laminate even along.
• Jigsaw. Cutting with this machine is one of the fastest and most affordable. But for processing laminate it is important to use only special saws. To cut the desired piece, you need to measure the required dimensions and draw a flat fishing line. After that, the board moves slightly off the table so that the saw moves in the air and the cutting begins.

• Hacksaw. Laminate cutting with its help can be performed both on the floor and at a certain elevation. To do this, you also need to mark the line and gently start sawing. Here it is important to consider the divorce of the saw, as it can take a lot of laminate. This in turn can lead to inconsistencies.
• Knife. The top layer of the laminate is a thin layer of film that can easily be damaged with a regular stationery knife. The technology for working with this tool is quite simple. Along the marked line you need to draw the edge of the knife so as to cut through the top layer. If you need to get an even fishing line, then additionally the board should be qualitatively fixed.

When you cut through the top layer, you need to break off the extra piece. To do this, the laminate on the edge of the table along the cut and sharply press on one of the sides. This approach resembles breaking ceramic tiles or glass after glass cutting.

• A circular saw. Cutting with this tool is much faster. To cut a piece of laminate, you should also markup. After that, the board is fixed on the bed along the plane of movement of the saw. Place the product to the top with a laminated layer. In this case, the saw blades will enter the material, which will reduce the formation of chips and cracks. When everything is set, you need to slowly guide the board along the cut line with the circular turned on.
• Angle Grinder. This tool resembles a circular saw in principle. Similar types of cutting discs are also used here. But cutting can already be done almost anywhere. But to get an even cut, you need to fill in the hand that controls the angle grinder during processing.

Choose a tool

As you already understood, there is no universal way to cut a laminate. To do this, use a lot of tools, which have their pros and cons. It is impossible to say which option is better, since it all depends on the individual situation.

To choose a quality tool, several factors should be considered:

• The required quality of the end. If you need a minimum number of chips, use a hand torch or a jigsaw. In another case, all the considered cutting methods are perfect. They will allow you to correctly saw the board with minimal effort.
• Type of rubber. The simplest option is when you need to saw through the laminate across. The length of the thread is relatively small, which minimizes the risk of a large curvature. When you need to cut along one of the sides, then in this case it is better to use a mill and a circular saw.

Please note that you can perform similar operations with other tools. It all depends on your capabilities.

• The shape of the rubber. Almost all mechanisms allow you to cut the board only in a straight line. If you need to get a complex shape of the laminate, then the solution to this problem would be an angle grinder or a jigsaw.

A circular saw

Circular cutting is one of the most popular options, as it has several advantages:

1. Ability to use discs with different tooth sizes. This allows you to adjust the cutting process and the quality of the resulting surface.
2. The tool runs on electricity, which eliminates the use of fuel.
3. The processing of the laminate around is not accompanied by significant noise, which allows the processing of boards even in multi-apartment buildings.
4. High speed. The efficiency of a circular saw is one of the best. Therefore, it is used by many experts who are engaged in the laying of such materials.

The only drawback of this mechanism is that to obtain high-quality rubber you need to have some practice and experience working with it.

Electric jigsaw

Working with a jigsaw is pleasant and quick. The tool has a small weight, which allows you to hold it well during cutting. At the same time, the mechanism practically does not form dust, which makes it a unique option for private use.

A disadvantage of a jigsaw can only be an incorrectly selected file. Poor-quality products will simply tear the laminate, forming ugly ends, which will have to be further cleaned. To get a quality thread, the jigsaw should work at maximum speed.

Manual cutting of a laminate is relatively rare. For such purposes, they use both office knives and hacksaws.

When using the latter type of tool, it is important that it has very small teeth.

There are several disadvantages of this approach:

1. The cutting process with hand tools is time consuming. This in turn affects the installation efficiency of the laminate.
2. To get a quality cut, you need to act very carefully and slowly. To do this, you need to have a relatively large experience with similar materials and tools.
3. It is almost impossible to get thread without chips with a hacksaw. Therefore, often the place of cutting is additionally cleaned.

Angle Grinder

The grinder is a universal mechanism with which you can cut not only wood, but also concrete. For processing the laminate, special disks are used, on which the teeth are applied, like a circular saw.

Using an angle grinder has several advantages:

1. With its help it is possible to form both a straight line and a figured slice.
2. The ends obtained after cutting are of high quality.
3. Operation of the angle grinder is possible even without preliminary preparation of the material.

But this tool has several bad sides:

1. The weight of the structure is significant, which does not always allow high-quality control of the cutting process.
2. During operation, the angle grinder forms a lot of fine dust. It is not always effective in living quarters.
3. When cutting, the ends of the laminate begin to heat up, which leads to the formation of burning, which together with dust is very harmful to the human body.

Guillotine

The cutter is great for manual cutting. Among the advantages of this tool can be distinguished noiselessness, ease of operation and high-quality cut. To work with such mechanisms is relatively simple, the main thing is to observe safety measures, since the knife is very sharp. Guillotine cutting does not lead to the formation of dust, which makes it a professional tool.

A feature of such a material is that it is recommended to cut the laminate only in the transverse direction.

But if you train a little, you can process the boards and along. The cost of such a tool is quite high, so for a one-time installation of a laminate it is not economically profitable to buy it.

Other options

An alternative for processing the laminate are special machines with which to get a high-quality cut. They are intended only for working with such a substance. It is very simple to cut the laminate with their help, since they are equipped with special clamps and several types of knives for different layers. In everyday life, it is almost impossible to meet them, since the designs are very expensive.

Cutting features

The cutting technology depends not only on the tool, but also on the correct approach to the processing of this substance.

Therefore, such operations should be carried out, guided by a few simple recommendations:

1. All cutting tools should be equipped with a saw with very small teeth. This applies to both a conventional hacksaw and a jigsaw. Such an approach will eliminate the appearance of chips and ugly ends. Many experts recommend the use of metal saws for manual work.
2. If you get an ugly cut, then try to hide this board under the baseboard. Sometimes it can be trimmed again, but it is important that the length of the element after this is suitable for a certain row.
3. Try to take measurements several times. Thus, you will get more accurate data, and this will not lead to damage to the laminate.
4. Depending on the chosen tool, you should lay the boards either up or down with a decorative layer. This will eliminate the formation of large chips.
5. If you need to get a curly section, then the best option would be to use special templates. To simplify this operation, you can stick construction tape along the entire length of the rubber. The optimal tool for such processing is a jigsaw.

Laminate cutting is a simple operation requiring only the choice of a quality tool. It must be carried out adhering to the basic safety rules, since the work is carried out with very sharp blades and saws.

You can watch one of the ways of cutting a laminate from the below.