[Travis Harper]

I have been doing laminate for yeas, however I have never offered a pie cut at a 45 degree lazy susan( on post form tops ). I would like to learn how to do it.

I really looks like a pain and I have seen allot of seam failures do to this type of cut

Anybody got an idea of how they are done?

[Tom M]

Hi Travis,
There are two approaches to double miters on angled front Cabinets.

One, where you have two 22.5 degree cuts (two right, two left) which allows the easier assembly (simply double and adapt what you would do in a standard miter assembly), but you will then have to make a triangle shaped piece for the back, usually set on a ledger at the top of the splash with possibly a baby tee molding to overlay the splash.

The other is to make a home plate shaped piece to intersect into a standard miter cut. Because this is harder to get level, usually you want to mess around with splines – which gives you time to glue the joint with an adhesive caulk.
This allows you to have the top go right into the back corner.

Personally I like the double miter the best by far. It also gives the customer a nice shelf for a vase or whatnot in an area usually not worth much. If the wall is out of square, or the cabinets depths are dramatically different, neither way is great, but the home plate piece is more forgiving.

If you wish, I can make a few CAD drawings and .jpg them up here. Say the word.

[Travis Harper]

Tom, I have traditionaly used the raised shef. Unfortunatly this customer does not want that so I ony have two options. 1. Figure out how to do the pie cut myself or outsource those tops. One other note. It is a big orange job and the customer picked the Valencia (ogee) edge that apparently only VT can supply.

A cad Drawing would be awesome. Could you email be the DWG? If so make sure to save it in ACAD 05 or earlier.

Thanks for your help

[Travis Harper]

Tom, One other concern I have. If I make a template to do the pic cut it seems that you would not be able to exit with the router without blowing out the laminate. I would have to assume that the last little bit would have to be belt sanded.

Yes?

[Tom M]

Travis,
What do you use to cut your miters now?
I thought you had a horizontal panel saw or a counter saw n(like an Evans, or similar) IIRC.

[Tom M]

Travis,
Here is a jpg. I can email you a DXF if you wish, but this should do.
Note that I am showing several different stop points for the insert piece. All of them terminate on the already cut miter.

I would recommend the closest two to the front, unless there is a cut out or something to make the further back points make sense.

I’m not sure what you are worried about with the router. The only thing we would use the router on here would be for the tite-joint fasteners.

You can probably see the advantage in using splines as well as the dog bones here.

[Tom M]

Oh, and what is your email addy?

[Travis Harper]

Tom, I have a midwest cutting station for cutting post form tops. Cutting the top is basic but it seems as if you would have to clamp a template to the top and rout out that shape and the rout the insert peace.

I really feal stupid now. Am I way overthinking this?

travis@mynewtops.com

[Tom M]

Travis,
I would say that if you had a decent volume, or wanted to create a standard to use in the future, a routing template would be fine, but you need to design it to stop before you over route the inside corners.

With the Midwest, which has a lift function to the blade if I remember right, you can make the cuts so much quicker, because it is a set stop (I think). Either way, your belt sander is your buddy here. Either the router or the saw will need to stop before the cut is fully smooth or sharp. Belt sanders rule!

I sent out an email.

One thing I mentioned there and have not yet here is that you always want to make sure that the front edge miter cuts go into the flat of the laminate a 1/4″ or more. It is absolutely essential to have some flat beyond your cut, so the laminate will be inclined to stay flat.

[Tom M]

Oh, and I suppose this goes without saying, but you need to cut this out of a length of blank. The width of the points of the front edge miter is the minimum blank length.

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