Mark ziegler's laminate flooring....

[jseiler]

There were some posts from last year about routing laminate flooring. I just wanted to follow up on this. It works great! I've made coasters using foam backed laminate, small signs from standard laminate flooring, and bigger signs by using conabond 90 contact adhesive and 3/8" baltic as a substrate for multiple slats of flooring. Dollar general shelf liner works great as mask on this stuff too, and its dirt cheap. The only hit is the gap between slats will channel liquids so you have to be careful with multislat signs so you don't get lines between slats.

There are even some laminates that have a grey/black substrate underneath so you don't even have to paint. I found some like that at lumber liquidators for $1.29/sq foot.

One technique I've done is using deft gloss spray lacquer on the laminate before cutting, then using a foam brush to color the mdf core under the laminate after vcarving. The excess just wipes off the top. When the stain dries, hit it with another coat of lacquer. deft dries to the touch in 30 minutes and seems to stick really well to the laminate plastic I've tried without sandpaper roughing.

Next...engineered hardwood and prefinished hardwood flooring. Often available in small quantities at a great price. I bet helmsman poly would seal well enough to be used outside, but I haven't tried that (yet).

I'll try to get some pix this week.

John

[dmidkiff]

John,

Helmsman poly will not last outside very long. I finished a cedar yard sign a few yeaers ago and the finish looked bad in less than six months. Sculpt Nuvo (sp) make a lacquer that holds up great outside. Can't think of the name but it has been talked about before. Bill Pulumbo will know.

Dave

[jseiler]

so much for outdoor uv protection. thanks for the heads up. I'll search their site.

John

[billp]

The sealer which Dave mentioned above is produced by Sculpt Nouveau ( www.sculptnouveau.com (http://www.sculptnouveau.com) )
It is called their -"Water based Sealer OD (Outdoor) with inhibitors". It works VERY well with almost ANY material, and has a slight "matte"finish to it, (so it doesn't look like you have laminated your project with some liquid vinyl....).
When applying it (I use the basic Harbor Freight HVLP spray gun) and apply it in light coats. If you don't you get "puddling" which will have a slight "rainbow" appearance and then it will take much longer to dry. But when it DOES dry it's a great sealer/topcoat !

[Brady Watson]

John,
This is also sold by the folks at Sculpt Nouveau: http://www.permalac.com/ I like the water based stuff that Bill mentions. It's a great product. The Permalac is a little stinky (lacquer) but it's top notch.

-B

[jseiler]

Bill, thanks for the info. I have the same gun (HF 43430 I think) and am looking forward to trying it. They don't sell different sized nozzles for it, but according to my sources, porter cable hvlp nozzles fit and work well.

Brady, I really like deft lacquer mostly because its reasonably good and available everywhere. Is permalac better?

John

[Brady Watson]

John,
Permalac is made for outdoors with UV inhibitors & I believe it is gauranteed for 10yrs+. I'm not sure if Deft has UV inhibitors in it or not.

-B

[jseiler]

Deft is indoor (I realized I wasn't being clear about using the lacquer indoors) so the bet would be a "absolutely not" on UV protectant. I guess I must give it a try as well since I'll be putting in an order with scupt for other items.

thanks for the info, you learn something new everyday.

John

[dmidkiff]

John,
Permalac Lacquer is the product name I was talking about, as Brady and Bill said.
I hate to be negative on Deft because I used for years without a problem. It sometimes sticks to itself when finished products are atacked on each other. I now use Sherwood Fast Dry Vinyl Sealer (T67 F6) clear a with Sherwood Cab Lacquer UniCoat (T77 FT33), made by Sherwin Williams,or Mohawk EZ Vinyl Sealer (M610-8008) with Mohawk Dura Coat Pre Catalyzed Lacquer (M610-24407) Satin. So far these do not stick together when stacked. The Sherwin Williams is very sensitive to temp., humidity and even air pressure. The Mohawk products do not seem to have this quirk. For more info on the sticky Deft send email. And as always, you mileage may vary.
Dave