When refurbishing the galley on Eolian, the freezer lid presented special problems. For the main part of the counter tops, I simply pulled the fiddles, removed the old simulated woodgrain stuff, and applied new formica over the substrate in the traditional way with contact cement.
But the freezer lid had a decorative teak surround which made it really difficult to get the old formica out.
To get it out, I used a router set to cut only the thickness of the formica to relieve the central portion (all but the teak) of the freezer lid. This is a little tricky, since the area is larger than the router base, which means that you lose your support for the router base as you do the job. The trick? Work from one side to the other, and when the edge gets too thin on that far side to support the router base without wobbling, use a scrap of new formica laid into the newly routed area to support the base from both sides.
Then I cut and carefully trimmed (using a plywood blade on a table saw) formica to fit the relieved area and installed it, using contact cement.
To make it possible to lift the lid, I again used the router to relieve an area now in the new formica to accommodate a brass D-pull and installed it.
After varnishing the exposed teak on the edge, and installing some foam tape for a gasket on the bottom, it looks really sharp!
(Well at least *I* think so...)
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