Anyone with experience bandsawing Corian?

Last weekend I attempted to resaw some slices about 1/16" thick from some 1/2"x4"x4" Corian pieces for use as some inlay. This is on a Jet 14" BS with a relatively new Highland Hardware Woodslicer blade. The blade choice was partially from impatience of not wanting to bother with a blade change for such a 'minor 1/2 hour' task, and not being sure I really had a more appropriate blade anyway. I was using a homemade MDF fence also around 4" high, and lowered the guides down to about 1/2" of clearance above the corian and fence. Blade was tensioned appropriately and I made several test cuts on scrap wood until I was getting good consistent thickness slices and blade drift seemed to be accounted for.

So I make the first Corian cut. Beautiful! Nice clean slice of consistent thickness. No burning, or screeching. And cut quality was good so I proceed to try for the next slice. Nothing I did from that point forward could duplicate that first slice. There was no barreling of the cut, but I could not stop the cuts from exiting early out of the face, so I ended up with a bunch of tapered wedges going from 1/16" down to 0". This was both using other factory-fresh pieces as well as using the disk sander to re-flatten the face of pieces I'd previously wedge-cut. Really stumped - I switch back to cutting wood scraps with the same setup and don't have any problem. Could that very first slice cut - which couldn't have lasted more than 30 seconds - dulled the blade that fast that it will no longer cut Corian without problems?? Still seems to cut both the wood and Corian cleanly, just not accurately on the Corian. Puzzled.

Doug,

Corian has many gritty particles in it. It wears on the BS blades fairly fast from my experiences with cutting a good bit of corian on the BS. You'll need to readjust for blade drift as the blade may wear more on one side than the other causing more extreme blade drift. Don't know if that's the technical part of it or what....but that's what I've done in cutting thin strips like that on my BS.

Other than that....I ain't gotta clue. :rolleyes: :D

Doug. I've never cut Corian, but I think that your problem is heat related.
The first pass of the Corian brought the blade up to xx temperature, then the blade was allowed to cool off a little and the second pass was a disaster due to the heat of the blade rising in temperature to a value above the first pass.
I think that if you were to shut off the machine and inspect the gullets of the blade, and the space immediately behind the tooth you would find corian deposits that have collected in the gullet area that are hindering the blade's ability to clear the waste, and generating more heat. When you cut wood, after cutting the Corian,you are probably able to clear this debris fairly quickly.
If you should ever have the opportunity to resaw a green 2x4 from the Borg on your bandsaw, and then try to cut some nice hardwood at a later time, without cleaning off all the pitch and resin from the BS blade, you will be met with similar results.Damhikt :rolleyes: That was the first, and last time I ever cut a 2x4 on my bandsaw. What a mess.

Doug

I do it all of the time. Each of the answers are somewhat correct.

Make yourself a half fence. This is one that stops 1/16" before the the teeth start. When Corian and many woods are cut there is a release of tension This causes a bowing of the material at the cut. Your fence, at and past the blade captures this expansion and presses the Corian farther and farther into the blade.

I have never had a problem with tracking once I started using the half fence. Even when adjusting the fence 5 degrees either way from square.

Heat not abrasion is what will dull your blade. Keep this down by slowing your feed. 2 inches a minute or less, seems best with a Woodslicer blade (3tpi). Each blade lasts me a couple of years. I do about 20 feet a week, up to 6 " wide.

I hope this helps
Ken

Thanks all. Ken - I hadn't thought about the 1/2 fence issue. The one I was using was a full fence. That sounds like the most promising fix. I'm going to try that next as well as slowing down the feed rate. My 30 second statement was a guess. It might have taken longer, but even double that would mean I was going about 4" a minute.

If you can see where the blade leaves the corain you will see a few sparks coming off of the blade.
Bob

Success! Thanks Ken. Just got done with making the 1/2-fence and trying it out on the Corian. Got a lot better results this time around.