Drilling through Formica laminate

[Jakedakat]

I am getting ready to mount my contols finally and had a couple questions. I am not the greatest carpenter which is why I took a shortcut and bought a Slik Stik Quad blank. I am gonna be using carriage bolts to mount the joysticks, what I was wondering is should I drill from the top of the panel or the bottom? The panel is covered with a Formica laminate. Also any special kind of drill bit I should use? Any advice would be great thanks!

Rob

[SNAAAKE]

You drill from the TOP !

[JAMMA Guy]

You can drill from the bottom as long as you sandwich the laminate between another piece of wood ... this way is won't leave a rough hole when the drill bit breaks on through the laminate.

[Hoagie_one]

sandwich, and clamp it

[SideShow Rob]

Drill from the top.

Use a 1/8" (3mm) wood drill bit for a pilot hole first, and then use the correct size wood drill bit for the hole proper.

Take your time and go slow, and you should get excellent results.

[Jakedakat]

Great thanks for the tips, gonna give it a try tommorow!

Rob

[spriggy]

Also, try putting some decent masking tape over the backside of the area you are going to drill.  Can help stop chipping/splintering the edges of the laminate whilst drilling...that is if that side is laminated!!

Game On!

[Mr. Dude]

I would definately sandwich the board with two peices of wood and then drill through.  This will give you nice clean holes without cracking the formica.

[Doc-]

I did my original static CP using black formica laminate before I converted it to modular.

I drilled it from the top using a spade bit - it seemed to leave a cleaner hole than the hole saw.  However, it also heated the drill bit a lot and dulled it rather quickly.  The hole saw I had had trouble getting through the laminate layer, so I used the spade for most of the holes.

High speed is a definite plus.  I had access to a drill press that ran about 3600 RPMs and it went through the laminate like a knife through butter (but also REALLY heated the bit).  The handful  I had to drill with a regular drill (around 1200 RPM) seemed to take forever.