I tried that cheap laminate floor cutter everyone raves about and it was garbage

Everyone in the flooring groups kept saying that $50 manual snap cutter is just as good as a $400 electric saw for click-lock laminate. I bought one from Home Depot last month for a 300 sq ft living room job in Denver. First 10 cuts were fine but by row 6 the blade dulled and it started chipping every edge. Switched to my old circular saw with a fine tooth blade and finished the room in half the time with zero chips. Has anyone else had better luck with those cheap cutters or did I just get a dud from a bad batch?

2 comments

2 Comments

clark.faith5d agoMost Upvoted

Nah I gotta push back on this, I've had the exact opposite experience with those cheap cutters. I did a 400 sq ft basement with one of those yellow Kobalt ones from Lowe's and it cut clean from start to finish, never needed a blade swap or anything. You probably got a bad batch or were pushing too hard on the handle. The trick is to score it light a couple times then snap it, not try to cut through in one go. My circular saw always leaves microchips on the locking edge no matter what blade I use, but the manual cutter gave me perfect factory edges every time.

the_charlie6d ago

300 sq ft and it dulled by row 6? That's brutal. I had one of those yellow manual cutters from Harbor Freight and it chipped on the first cut out of the box, didn't even make it past the first plank. I honestly think they're only good for like 50 cuts tops before the blade starts messing up, no matter what brand you get.