philduba.com

First, I did what every DIY person does, I Googled what I was trying to do. I saw a bunch of posts, but this one was the closest thing to showing me what I needed to do. Now, I only needed the sink part because the rest was already done at the factory, including the mitered angle of the countertop.

Well, as the post above said to do, and the directions that came with the new sink, I flipped the sink over onto the countertop to trace the outline of the sink in the location I needed (after about 30 minutes of double checking measurements). Here's what I quickly learned, pencil does not show up on the black marble-like pattern we orderred. So what to do now? I decided to trace the sink out on a piece of cardboard, like the top of the box it came in, and cut the cardboard along the traced line. Next, I measured in the 3/4" that the directions for the sink required and drew another set of lines, but I wasn't concerned with rounding the edges for this line. I then used masking tap to tape the new cardboard template in the desired place. I used about 5 or 6 strips that went over the entire width and to the underside of the countertop.

Next up, I followed the posts suggestion and lined up my 2 1/2" drill saw bit so that the 3/4" line was tangent to it. Then, I drilled through the countertop. The countertop definitely gets stuck in the saw bit, so just put a screw into it and yank it back out. Next up was cutting the countertop itself. I didn't have the room or resource to flip the countertop so I was not cutting from the backside like the article suggested. I made the cut using a 10 teeth/inch fine cut jigsaw blade. It went very smoothly and the laminate didn't rip. Coincidentally, I had to trim the backsplashes because they were too long, and cutting the way the article suggested, laminate face down, resulted in the laminate tearing.

Finally, when we get to move the countertop tomorrow, I will put a few extra pieces of scrap wood I have as cross braces in the cutout to give it extra support. Overall, it was relatively simple once I figured out to use the cardboard as a template instead of trying to trace directly on the countertop and trying to read the faint pencil lines. Just thought I'd share my experiences.