Tips For Installing Carriage Bolts W/O Cracking New Laminate

nerdygrrl

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Hi guys, I am about to install the brackets in my new T&F cab build with laminate. When I drilled the holes out the laminate chipped, kind of expected. I am worried about what is going to happen when I install the actual carriage bolts given the square on the head. I was concerned that either hammering those in or tightening them down and in would crack the laminate. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts?
 
Dremel open the holes. Loose fit the carriage bolt until it fits and doesn't hang on the laminate. Treat it like opening holes on a clearcoated playfield to prevent clear from getting jacked up.
 
I drilled through slowly increasing in size until the hole was the right size. Then, 1 size up from that, I went from the outside in(not all the way through though). This accounted for the square head, and fits snug enough to keep the bolt from spinning as you tighten it.

And for sure don't go crazy with tightening, no matter how you do it
 
If you didn't drill all the holes yet what I like to do is drill slowly from the inside with a small ( <1/8") bit to mark the location and then drill increasingly larger holes from the outside.

The last bit can be slightly larger than the hole in the cabinet drilled carefully just through the laminate. (Run the drill backwards to not bite into the cabinet)

If you really want to make sure you can use a small triangle file to square out the corner for the carriage bolt to seat in to.

If the laminate is well supported under the bold head it shouldn't compress and crack but yeah don't go hulk on it.
 
agreed big time. these games aren't airplanes or high-speed industrial machinery, and i'm sure we've all stripped our share of screws or encountered impossible-to-remove bolts, nuts, etc because a previous Op torqued the hell out of everything when assembling.

please be gentle!

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You also don't need to crank down insanely hard on the bolts.
 
this is exactly what I was going to say. Small pilot hole drilled from inside, larger bits drilled from outside.
Only thing I would add is put down masking tape on laminate before you drill, it helps stop chipping.


If you didn't drill all the holes yet what I like to do is drill slowly from the inside with a small ( <1/8") bit to mark the location and then drill increasingly larger holes from the outside.
 
this is exactly what I was going to say. Small pilot hole drilled from inside, larger bits drilled from outside.
Only thing I would add is put down masking tape on laminate before you drill, it helps stop chipping.
Painters tape / masking tape first gets upvote from me too. Makes a huge difference.
 
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