I am not into woodworking but my in-laws recently had their kitchen renovated. The carpenters cut the plywood first before putting the laminate. It looked great. You might as well do away with your short cut method. A circular saw would not in any circumstance cut a very smooth edge.

, whatmentioned is correct ... if your using ordinary plywood, it's better to cut it first and then glue the laminate after cutting and use a utility knife and an edge trimmer knife to cut the laminate properly aligned to the plywood's edge ... cheers

Boo!

you need to change the blade that is suitable to cut laminates but this blade are expensive it can be half the price of your saw.

is right, you need to change the blade, preferably use fine blades, 80 or more.

are you going to cut in a straight line or curve cuts? if the plywood has a laminate already, for straight cuts, nothing beats the circular saw...as you know, the plastic laminate is unforgiving to the ordinary hand saws..for curve cuts, id recommend a jigsaw but with a carbide blade which is hard to find locally but i know of a store that sells this type of blade and which can cut thru gypsum or cementitious boards...and of course thru laminated plys.
hth

i have tried using my circular saw outfitted with a new blade and it does fine...if chipping is a problem, tape the cut line using a masking tape..i dont think there is an 80 tooth 7 1/4" blade available.

i had tried cutting laminates just using the stock blade of my makita circular saw

@ rad. Since you already stick the laminate with your plywood. try to do a double pass with your circular saw. First pass, just deep enough to cut thru the laminate then the second pass to cut the plywood.
Hope this helps.