How to route the track ball hole in a sheet of laminate?

[tylerwerrin]

Hi guys,

I have routed all of the joystick & button holes on my CP, as well as trimmed the laminate down so it is flush with my MDF. However my flush trim bit's bearing has a gap between the blades which is thicker than the trackball plate's thickness (or just about as thick. Because of this, I can't run my router along the race of the trackball hole to route out the laminate.

Is there a trick? A different bit? I was thinking of cutting a 3" hole in a piece of wood and sandwiching that to the bottom of my CP, but I feel like there has to be an easier way.

Any ideas?

[NickG]

You have probably already glued the laminate, but one method is to sandwich a 1/4 thick mdf (with hole as large or slightly larger diameter than trackball hole) between laminate and mount plate to use as spacer for the bit bearing gap when cutting.    If you have already glued and/or drilled all your other holes, another method is to do a rough freehand cut, leaving excess laminate, then trim with a sharp narrow blade, using only downward stroke into laminate toward and along the curvature of the mount plate, which may take a bit of go rounds to get clean edge.  Just a general laminate tip; you can use a black permanent marker to help mask any upturned or exposed edges to match the trackball plastic.

[tylerwerrin]

I haven't glued it yet, I figured I should wait til all the holes were drilled. I guess I'll pick up a 3" hole saw and cut a hole in a scrap piece of wood.

[lamprey]

I haven't glued it yet, I figured I should wait til all the holes were drilled. I guess I'll pick up a 3" hole saw and cut a hole in a scrap piece of wood.

Pretty much this. Unless you have the perfect hole in the underlying wood, then you could router it. Otherwise a hole saw works great.

[tylerwerrin]

done and done -- Milwaukee 3" hole saw into 1/2 inch ply as my template, lined it up under my Trackball hole, clamped and routered -- perfect.

Still debating on adding T-molding to my CP -- what do you think?

[lamprey]

pics?

I'm not sure how you have it laid out but, if you don't have rounded edges, I'd think t-molding is a nice way to go.

[yotsuya]

If you have ANY exposed edges,  you should ALWAYS use t-molding unless it's rounded off. Otherwise, it's jank.