 Hi everybody, I'm Leah of CJ Drill and today I'm going to show you how to cut a laminate post form countertop. Now, post form means that the back splashes build right into the countertop, okay? The technique that I'm going to show you today is going to be a way to cut a countertop, straight cut, miter cut inside or outside doesn't really matter the technique, still the same. Now, I'm going to do an outside miter cut today and demonstrate how that's done with just a hand saw and a circular saw. Let's get started. So to get started, we're going to take this countertop and we're going to flip it over. So what I have here is a speed square and this is what's going to help us get our 45-degree angle cut, our miter cut here, okay? Because 45 is built into the speed square, that's what this is, this is 45. So I've got my speed square and I'm resting it up against the lip of the counter, all right? Now the counter is upside down, right? And we're going to hold this speed square firmly in place and we're going to mark our line. So that's 45 and we have to continue this line. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my, I have a framing square, I'm going to lay it up against the 45-degree angle there and I'm going to continue that line. There we go. So I'm at the opposite end of the countertop and I'm taking my speed square here and I'm just checking to make certain that that 45 is on the money, slide it in so you can get a good look at it. See it's right, right on the money there. Now that I have my countertop marked, now it's time to set up the cut. I'm going to set up a straight edge on this side to give my circle saw something to arrive, make certain I make a precision cut. Okay, so I'm getting my straight edge set up here. Now you need is a piece of lumber that has a nice clean straight edge. Okay, so if you don't know how to set up a cutting jig because this is really what it is, it's a cutting jig, make certain that you get a perfectly straight cut. You can go to the C, J, drill, video, call to how to make a perfectly straight cut in wood. It will show you the setup that I'm showing you right now. So I've got my straight edge set, all right, again this is what the saw is going to ride against to give us this nice straight cut. Now I need to clamp this down but I don't want to damage the countertop in doing so. So if you come around to the back end, I'm going to show you how that's done. What I have here is a piece of scrap wood in a C clamp. And what I'll do is I'll take this piece of wood, I'll put it underneath and what the scrap wood will do is it'll protect the laminate countertop from getting gouged by the C clamp because we've got to secure this board in place and this is the only way to do it. Now what I have here is I have blue masking tape and what this is going to do is it's going to help the laminate from chipping. And what we're going to do is we're going to take this blue masking tape and we're going to run it along this line, okay, but underneath, underneath. Okay so we're almost ready to start our cut but I want to show you that what I've put in here, I've got a fine tooth saw blade. Okay so I've got my blade set at the maximum depth because I've got to get through the back splash. I'm still going to be left with, I don't know maybe about an inch and a half of back splash. I'm not going to be able to cut through but that's why I've set the blade at its maximum depth. Okay so we're ready to go. Our straight edge is set exactly where we want it. You have to make certain that this side that we cut is supported because once we cut all the way through the back splash and through the countertop, it's only going to be hanging on by an inch and a half. And you don't want undue stress to be put on the joint over here. So just make certain that the second, just make certain that part you're cutting off is also supported. Now I want to say one last thing before we start to make our cut. The most important thing that you can do is to make certain that your straight edge is set up on the money because a miter cut is a precision cut. It's got to be exact. The next thing folks is keep in mind that our shoe is riding up against the edge of this piece of straight edge, this piece of wood. It's got to stay up against it. You cannot allow the blade to wander. Make certain that you start the saw off the countertop. Don't pull the saw blade right up to the countertop, back it up. But make certain, you have to make certain that your shoe, that's what this is. This is the shoe. It's snog up against your, this is an artificial fence. Snog up against the straight edge. Here we go. As you can see we've made our cut, but we're not all the way through here. Now I'm going to show you the second part to take in a handsaw and making a precise 45 degree cut all the way down. Now to do this, it's time to remove the C-clamp. That's what I'm going to do. Let's see, what you want to do is you want to take a piece of scrap wood and what you want to do is you want to cut a 45-minute. See, it's the 45. Now how can you make that cut? You can make that cut with your circular saw just by adjusting the shoe. Let me show you where. Every circular saw has a shoe adjustment. On this particular saw, the adjustment is made right here by this wing nut and you're able to tip the shoe at different angles. In this case, you want to tip your shoe to the 45 degree angle so you could cut a piece of scrap wood at 45 degrees. We've got our scrap wood and what we're going to do is we're going to take the scrap wood and we're going to lay it right here on this ledge. We have to make certain that it's lined up perfectly because this wood is going to serve as a guide for our handsaw. Okay, so I've got my first block set up and I want to make certain that I test it first, make certain that it's precisely where it needs to be. So I'm going to be using a Japanese handsaw. The reason I'm using a Japanese handsaw is because it's a fine tooth saw. Okay, and it's made just for this kind of application, a very precision cut. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to insert the saw into the curve here. All right, and make certain that that's lined up well. And it is. It's lined up right on the money. Now the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to take the other piece and I'm going to put it snug in there, snug. But it's still leaving a gap for the blade to travel. Okay, so I've got my pieces of scrap wood with my 45 degree set up. The curve is the gap in the wood, which is going to allow my saw to pass through. Now when you set up your C-clamps, make sure that you do it the same way. You set up your C-clamps for the straight edge. Just make sure that you protect the lamina from the other side. Then I'm going to tip my saw a little bit and I'm just going to make steady, gentle, strokes. Now, make certain that this side here is supported because once you cut through, maybe you want to have somebody holding the other side. Here we go. Okay, so what? It's cut all the way through, so we're going to slowly just remove it. Okay, so we're going to flip it over and we're going to see the fruit of our labors. Okay? Okay, so that's it. We're just going to remove the tape. If you come in close, I'll show you where the tape has protected. I'm going to take my time here. Ready? Let's prevent it from chipping. There we go. And that's it. That's a perfect 45 degree miter cut using a circular saw and a hand saw.