if you've ever installed laminate
flooring then you know it can be a Dusty
Endeavor if you'd rather work clean and
cut out the dust then stick around and
check out my shopmade
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solution hey guys and welcome to another
episode of DP shop talk and today we're
going to be taking a look at my dust
free setup for cutting laminate flooring
with a circular saw now I know that you
can get the snap type Cutters that will
cross cut your laminate flooring and not
make any dust but I don't do enough
flooring work to really make one of
those worthwhile plus that only takes
care of your cross cutting your ripping
and your notches you still need to make
with a
saw so I chose to make my system around
a circular saw since that's a tool that
a lot of people have and it's really
portable so with this setup I can make
all of my that's right where I'm
installing the floor rather than going
outside saves me a ton of time and
ultimately makes me more profit so I
have a cross cut jig a ripping jig as
well as a solution for cutting notches
so I'll go through each one and show you
how they
work a lot of you have probably already
seen the circular saw Crosscut jig if
you haven't make sure you check out that
video as well it shows how to make your
own as well as uh more information on
the dust Port that I made uh for the saw
and just U how it all works now for
cutting laminate flooring I added a
subbase and a sub fence I did that for
two reasons one is that I usually use a
a cheaper coarser blade for cutting
laminate flooring it's a little bit more
disposable since it is hard on blades
and that blade is a little bit wider
curve than the fine cut blade that I
normally use so I didn't want the curf
in the the main jig to get widened and
lose that zero clearance accuracy so
that avoids that from happening and also
it brings the flooring that much closer
to the saw which helps improve the dust
collection so it basically works like a
sliding miter saw where the slide or S
the saw slides back and forth on these
rails and uh makes a very accurate and
clean
cut so The Jig can be set up right on
the floor right beside where you're
working which is a huge timesaver so you
make the uh the mark you want for the
length take that Mark line it up with
the curf line in the fence and that
gives you an accurate cut every time now
I use a ivac switch to start and stop my
dust extractor uh so that lets me easily
control that without having to go to the
vacuum to turn it on and off so I'll
start up the vacuum and we'll make the
cut
so The Ripping jig is the newest
addition to my setup it's basically
designed for the saw to sit in and the
saw is held in place with these two
entric discs the same as the jigsaw scry
base so it's made 1 in thick basically
two layers of halfin Baltic birch
plywood so that the depth setting on the
saw doesn't have to be changed when
you're switching back and forth between
the cross cut jig to The Ripping jig so
there's a a slot in it for the the blade
to come through but the slot is small
enough that it holds the guard back out
of the way so you basically take the saw
pull the guard back set it in turn the
two
discs to lock the saw in place so now
it's all one unit and uh so the the
blade basically protrudes through the
base just far enough that it'll cut
through the thickness of the flooring
and not much more and then it's backed
by this piece of sacrificial foam
insulation now I set up a metal plate
here on the back of the jig and then a a
Bosch fl12 work light magnetically clips
to it and so that really lights up your
cut lines you can see uh your line
really well especially when you're
working in Darker
rooms so again this jig can be set up
right on the floor beside where you're
working so I've marked out my cut cut
line on this piece of laminate so I'll
go ahead start up the dust extractor and
make the cut
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so to make noted or curved Cuts I use my
Bosch jigsaw which has built-in dust
collection which works really good for
this application since you need some
dust collection capabilities there I use
the Bosch
t503 uh jigsaw blades that are meant for
cutting laminate flooring they stand up
really well uh through cutting the
laminate and they're also shorted enough
that they won't cut all the way through
this foam insulation so it works as a
sacrificial backer which helps contain
the dust so once again I'll fire up the
dust extractor and we'll make the cut
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now switching back and forth between the
jigs is quick and easy which is key so
to go from ripping to cross cutting it's
just a matter of turning those two
Ecentric discs that I mentioned earlier
and taking the saw and moving it over to
the Crosscut jig and it registers on
those rails
now I've been using these jigs for a lot
more than just flooring the Crosscut jig
I've had for a few years now and I use
for lots of different tasks in the shop
and on site now the uh The Ripping jig I
just recently designed specifically for
doing flooring but I've been using that
for a lot of other things as well like
the last kitchen install I did I used it
for ripping down the kick bases in place
and making all sorts of different trim
Cuts since you can work right in the
space that you're installing in and not
make any mess now if you'd like to see a
couple videos of me using both of these
jigs on my last flooring install on site
I'll put the links in the video
description below now both of these
videos are on my Instagram account and
if you don't already follow me on
Instagram I would highly recommend it
since that's where I put a lot of my
updates tips tricks and what's coming up
now as I've mentioned before I'm not a
huge social media fan but I have really
come to like Instagram it's got a lot of
really helpful information on there
especially for
Woodworkers so that's a look at how my
dust free laminate flooring setup works
it lets me do flooring jobs much faster
than I used to be able to when I did all
my cutting outside and when time is
money that really matters now it's not
just limited to lamin flooring either if
you're doing hardwood flooring you could
use the same Jigs and accomplish the
same thing so I hope you found this
video helpful if you have don't forget
to like share and subscribe and as
always make sure you leave your ideas
questions and thoughts in the comments
below if there's something that I
haven't covered in enough detail let me
know what your questions are and I'll
make sure I answer them so thanks for
watching and until next time let's talk
shop
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