Removing laminate?

[javeryh]

Will an iron heat up the contact cement without melting the plastic so I can remove some laminate?  Assuming I can get it off, what do you do with the cement residue?

[ubermick]

Heat won't do diddly squat to contact cement - in fact, if you listen closely, you'll hear it laughing at you. Only way to tackle contact cement is with some extremely nasty solvents. Basically, you have to start at the top (only works if it's vertical) and using a razor knife, cut in between the laminate and the wood. Once you have some space, you start pouring the afforementioned nasty solvents in there, waiting a little, peeling the laminate back gently, adding more solvent, etc. etc.

[mytymaus007]

i just started removing my laminate also So far i got one side off and cleaned ready to sand. I used a heat gun which worked great. I started in one corner and little by little i was able to pull it off. For cleaning of the cement i used adhesive stripper i rolled it on, let it soak in then scrap it off. Thats were I at now. The only thing is the side is still a bit sticky but smooth, i,ll let you know how it sands off. I think and iron could work but i think it will be a long process and fustrating one.

[ubermick]

Here's an article I found on removing laminate:

http://fixmycabinet.com/2009/01/04/remove-formica-from-cabinets/

[javeryh]

Jeez - seems like it would be easier to just rebuild the piece I want to de-laminate!  I'm disappointed because I laminated a box but the edges of the laminate are not the same color as the face so it looks pretty bad.  I guess I'll have to redo the entire box!

 

[mytymaus007]

Here's an article I found on removing laminate:

http://fixmycabinet.com/2009/01/04/remove-formica-from-cabinets/

Thats a great article but it says if you want to save the laminiate and use it again.

 Im not reusing my laminate so to make it simple 1. Heat Gun 2. Adhesive remover. 3. Sand 4. paint or relaminate

[Malenko]

Mark my words, we're going to see several threads like this once the BYOAC laminate cabinets craze is over.

and you'll be there to tell them to just cover the laminate with black marble contact paper

[leapinlew]

Mark my words, we're going to see several threads like this once the BYOAC laminate cabinets craze is over.

and you'll be there to tell them to just cover the laminate with black marble contact paper

Black Marble contact paper you say? Inexpensive, classy, easy to install... perfect! Where does one get this magical

[Bender]

Hay Jav,

I've had good luck with a heat-gun and a putty knife, then  just sanding the residue off
just wear gloves and goggles as the stuff cracks and is sharp as a knife
Trust me, I cut myself a couple of times before I wised up an put on some leather gloves, after that no problem

[Breaker]

Hi all,

When I made a couple of routing errors during the construction of my cab I used acetone and ubermick's suggestion
of slowly pulling the laminate back; it works great. The bigger issue is how to remove the glue residue on the base. I found
that saturating the glue residue with more acetone, and letting it sit for 10-20 seconds to softened-up the glue, and made it
possible to remove with a paint scraper. The acetone will discolour the wood surface but this will not impact the ability to re-laminate.
It's messy work but it can be done.

Cheers,
Breaker.