Mistake with laminate - can I pull the old laminate off and apply a new piece?

[leapinlew]

I had a problem with the laminate I installed today - it cracked. I pulled it off before the glue fully set and now I have a piece of wood that has glue on it.

Can I brush more glue on it and another piece of laminate? Should I let it cure and take sandpaper to it? I'm thinking I can just apply more glue and it will reactivate the glue but I'm worried that either the old glue will cause the new glue not to stick or will cause imperfections in the surface. Anyone have experience with it?

[Knievel]

Haven't had that happen but I did recently reactivate some glue on a piece of laminate I had originally glued nearly a year previous. Worked great.

I guess the only issue is if you have a really rough surface there from the old glue. Big globs of glue will transfer through laminate as a bump after you roll it down.

I think that glue would be difficult to sand off there.

[bfauska]

As Knievel said the only problem putting it over the old glue would be if the old glue is too bumpy.  If the old glue is bumpy enough that you are worried about it I would try to remove it with some lacquer thinner before trying to sand it off.  We use solvent based contact adhesive at work so the lacquer thinner works great, but I have heard that it also works well with the less toxic types of contact cement. Hopefully it works out for you.  Good luck.

[mountain]

I had this same problem with the coin door panel on my cabinet. I tried to sand it off but it immediately clumped up the sandpaper. I used DAP Weldwood Contact Cement gel formula. The back of the can said to use Xylene for clean up. It is the main ingredient in Goof-off. I brushed it on, let it sit for a minute and used a putty knife to removed the majority. I went over it two more times but used a towel to scrub the rest off. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Check out the label of the glue you used and see what they recommend for clean up.

Good luck

[Fozzy The Bear]

I had a problem with the laminate I installed today - it cracked. I pulled it off before the glue fully set and now I have a piece of wood that has glue on it.

"Lable Gum Remover" will eat the glue from the laminate and you should just be able to wipe it off the surface.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[squirrellydw]

You can't really sand glue, I have tried it and it clogs up really quick

[leapinlew]

Thanks for the info.

The glue I used was water based - not sure if that matters or not. I'll pickup something tonight to clean it up first. Thanks for everyones input.

[moriartyds]

If you have a method of heating the glue (hair dryer perhaps) or heating the laminate side with a iron ... most glues will break down under heat and you can scrape it off.   Just don't catch anything on fire.

[mountain]

That will work to break the laminate loose, but not to remove the glue...I tried