Perhaps I can shed some light on working with laminates. Lay the plastic laminate sheet on top the item to be covered. From the bottom side, trace around the item to be covered with a felt tip or pencil. With the tracing on the back side of the plastic laminate, use a jig saw with a fine tooth blade to cut the plastic laminate piece about 5/8" larger than the tracing. Next, gather several dowels, or slats so you can place them between the plastic laminate and the item to be covered as you position the new laminate prior to making contact between contact cemented surfaces. You should have 1 dowel about every 4". I prefer to use strips of wood about 1/4" thick and 1/2" wide but 3/8" or 1/4" dowels work fine.
Next, make sure the new plastic laminate back side and the surface to be covered are perfectly clean and smooth. Any irregularities will telegraph thru the new plastic laminate. Coat the back side of the plastic laminate with contact cement. One way is to use foam rollers and a paint tray available at Marine Stores. You can also brush it and, you can also pour some on the surface then use a strip of wood to spread it around. Then coat the surface to be covered with plastic laminate. If the surface is porous, like wood, after about 10 minutes give it a second coat. After the final coat on the surface to be covered has dried about 10 minutes, place the dowels out across the surface in a parallel layout.
Dowels should be placed about 4-6" apart. Next place the new plastic laminate on top the dowels with the cemented side toward the item to be covered. Separating the two contact cemented surfaces with dowels allows the new plastic laminate to be carefully positioned prior to removing the dowels. Once the contact cement surfaces are touched together they can't be repositioned. Once you are satisfied you have positioned the new plastic laminate so it will completely cover the item below, carefully pull one of the center dowels out a bit, then make contact between the two contact cemented surfaces. As you remove the 1st dowel, continue to press together the two cemented surfaces. Next remove one of the dowels that was next to the 1st dowel and press the cemented surfaces together. From the center, move toward the outside edges, pulling dowels as you proceed and pressing the surfaces together.
With all dowels removed you next need to make sure the new plastic laminate is firmely pressed against the surface to be covered. You can use a rubber mallet and gently pound the surfaces, or you can put a rag in you hand and firmly pressing on the rag, rub the top of the new plastic laminate.
To "final" trim the plastic laminate to fit the surface below, use a router and a flush trim bit. This will give you an excellent perfectly matched edge. After routing the perimeter, very sharp edges will be left, use a file, or a piece of fine sand paper and a block to slightly ease these edges.
When applying plastic laminate to countertops, do edges and ends first, then do the top.
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Again, do the edges first, then do the top, otherwise items slid across the top can catch on the edge and damage, chip, or dislodge it. If the top overlaps the edge, there is nothing for things to get caught on.