Steve Goes Shopping......Part 4

[Steve Clarkson]

So I finally went shopping for a countertop man.....and I found one in like five minutes.

I stopped in and told him I was looking for a new supplier for small quantities of Corian and asked if he had any sink cutouts. Well, he takes me back into his shop and shows me two pallets of sink cutouts....there were about 20 piles that were each four feet high......literally hundreds of them. He offered them to me for $3 each, so I took 33 and gave him a hundred bucks. Each piece is about 18"x12" (what's that work out to...$2/sq ft ?) and I took a rainbow of colors.

Unfortuneately, they were all 1/2" (actually, I picked up 3-4 that were atleast 1" if not more).

I knew I would be able to engrave the Corian, but I had no idea if my laser (45 watts) would cut through the 1/2"......but it did! It took two passes (with my 2" lens), but got through relatively cleanly. I only cut one piece.....and it was a straight line cut.....and it was slooooow (I tried 5s and 100p).....but it DID get through.

The sides are sharp and rough to begin with, so obviously I need to sand them down and then polish them. Assuming I cut some intricate shapes (lets say an 8" high cursive letter "B"), what's the best tool to sand and polish this stuff? I think a dremel will be too small, but I would need to get into small spots. Any other suggestions?

Oh, I asked him about the Corian adhesives for color filling that was suggested on earlier threads.....and he told me he would sell them to me for like $15 a tube......but that I would need a $300 specialty caulk gun to actually get the adhesive out of the tube! So it looks like auto paint for me!

Hopefully, I'll be able to make something good enough to get my hundred bucks back (any suggestions are welcome).

Maybe tomorrow I'll write Part 5 describing what I found on my shopping trip yesterday to make ANY glass simple and easy to engrave.

[onur cakir]

Steve hi !

Can you please post pic of corian ?

[Steve Clarkson]

Sure.....I'll cut something out later today and post a picture.....unless you want to see a picture of the straight line that I cut out........

[onur cakir]

well i never had chance to take corian to my hands. So it will be a progress for me to see one cutted with laser

Only corian piece that i saw was 2" thick (5 cm ) and it was installed on kitchen top.

[Belinda Barfield]

The sides are sharp and rough to begin with, so obviously I need to sand them down and then polish them. Assuming I cut some intricate shapes (lets say an 8" high cursive letter "B"), what's the best tool to sand and polish this stuff? I think a dremel will be too small, but I would need to get into small spots. Any other suggestions?

Oh, I asked him about the Corian adhesives for color filling that was suggested on earlier threads.....and he told me he would sell them to me for like $15 a tube......but that I would need a $300 specialty caulk gun to actually get the adhesive out of the tube! So it looks like auto paint for me!

Hopefully, I'll be able to make something good enough to get my hundred bucks back (any suggestions are welcome).

Maybe tomorrow I'll write Part 5 describing what I found on my shopping trip yesterday to make ANY glass simple and easy to engrave.

Steve, DUDE you are the shoppingest man I know! (Okay, that's probably not a word)

Use a hand router, or table mounted, with a round over bit to soften your edges. Sand with a random orbital sander. Depending on the quality of the surface you are starting with first use 80 gr or 180 gr sandpaper, followed by 220 gr, 320 gr, 400 gr, then green Scotchbrite. (All available through 3M or a millworks supply store) This will give you a nice matte finish. My recommendation - do try to go high gloss. You'll just end up with a scratched product.

I'm not sure if your guy was pushing Corian adhesive, or another brand. Price adhesives by Integra - www.integra-adhesives.com. Many countertop companies use Integra adhesives instead of Corian adhesives.
Using the adhesive allows for a smooth surface, and you can't get that with paint. It gives you a much better "finished look" to the project. One issue with filling with adhesive is air bubbles.

I'll send you a PM/e-mail with some product suggestions. Keith Outten will probably have a better method for sanding, etc.

[Steve Clarkson]

OK, these aren't much to look at......but Onur asked......

Oh, and I took these with my new digital camera......I may have to go back to my old one!

EDIT>>>>>>> I typed this whole long post and clicked on preview and it disappeared.....and when I clicked the back button it wasn't there.....so I'm not very happy right now! Anyway, back to my post.......

So the first picture shows the size of this sink cut out (one of the smaller ones) and then what I vector cut this morning (the thin piece in the middle is the base). It actually took three passes this time......not sure what I did differently. Each pass took just under 20 minutes.

I engraved the guy's name and contact information.......and man, did it ever create alot of dust in the machine! I have to clean it now......that's throwing me off my bi-annual cleaning schedule!

Hopefully after I sand it and polish it, it will look nice. I assume I'll have to use a dremel to get in all those nooks and crannies......hopefully it won't take toooooo long.

I made this to go on the guys desk.......what do you think a reasonable retail value for this would be?

Oh, and thanks for the PM Belinda.....it was very helpful.

[Jacob Hebert]

Steve:
Bi-annual?! Our M-300 hurts inside after hearing that...

Excellent work on these! "Not much to look at"...You don't give yourself enough credit.

[Belinda Barfield]

Oops! I forgot to warn you about the dust, which is pretty abrasive. Sorry. You'll probably have to clean your lens a lot more often if you're going to run a lot of Corian. If the Corian dust bothered you, don't even think about engraving Ikonmetal.

You're welcome.

Nice work! And isn't that going to look so much nicer than plastic in a metal frame.

[onur cakir]

OK, these aren't much to look at......but Onur asked......

Oh, and I took these with my new digital camera......I may have to go back to my old one!

EDIT>>>>>>> I typed this whole long post and clicked on preview and it disappeared.....and when I clicked the back button it wasn't there.....so I'm not very happy right now! Anyway, back to my post.......

So the first picture shows the size of this sink cut out (one of the smaller ones) and then what I vector cut this morning (the thin piece in the middle is the base). It actually took three passes this time......not sure what I did differently. Each pass took just under 20 minutes.

I engraved the guy's name and contact information.......and man, did it ever create alot of dust in the machine! I have to clean it now......that's throwing me off my bi-annual cleaning schedule!

Hopefully after I sand it and polish it, it will look nice. I assume I'll have to use a dremel to get in all those nooks and crannies......hopefully it won't take toooooo long.

I made this to go on the guys desk.......what do you think a reasonable retail value for this would be?

Oh, and thanks for the PM Belinda.....it was very helpful.

Thank you Steve !

well i'm impressed by the thickness of the material and the result as well...here in Turkey they sell corian only in 150 cm x 300 cm (60" x 120") and costs around 1500$ !!!!!

have to find a small piece to buy

[Steve Clarkson]

That's the whole point.......find a company that makes countertops and ask them for the sink cutouts,,,,,,you might even get them FOR FREE!!!

[Steve Clarkson]

Bi-annual?! Our M-300 hurts inside after hearing that...

Hehehe.......I hope my Epilog rep doesn't read this...........

[Jim Good]

I have a granite countertop company that lets me go through their pallets of waste. It's all thick stuff but the price is right! I don't have a corian supplier for their drops. I'll keep looking!

Hey, good job, Steve!

Jim

[Frank Corker]

Thanks for posting the pictures Steve. I'm the same as Onur, I've never had chance to use this stuff and it's still relatively newish type of material, most kitchen work surfaces are still made with chipboard covered with formica here.

[Steve Clarkson]

How do you cut/shape it Jim? And what are you making with it?

[Keith Outten]

Steve,

The Dupont adhesive guns come in two sizes. The large gun is really best for counter top shops and should be about 50 bucks, the small gun I own is about 20 bucks from your local Corian Distributor. The small adhesive cartridges are 7 bucks each, I got 6 colors today for an inlay project I'm planning.

Contact your local Corian Distributor, you can purchase adhesive and the guns from them as well as 1/4" thick Corian without being a certified installer. I will post a picture of the gun and the special tips for them tomorrow with some information about what you should expect.

As far as sanding Corian it is really a lot like wood, use your ROS and a variety of sanding grits depending on the condition of the Corian surface....whether it has scratches that need to be removed. Cut Corian with your band saw, table saw, scroll saw, jig saw or router. I prefer to use my band saw whenever I can. If you need to make a lot of intricate plaques make a routing template and cut them out in two passes at 1/4" deep per pass.

You can also use 3M Scotchbrite pads to sand and polish Corian, get the 5" round disks that fit your ROS and you can hand polish small or intricate areas with the 3M pads. An old fashioned buffing wheel and compound works well on edges and intricate details, you need to smooth out any deep scratches before buffing. I have an old 1/2 HP motor with a chuck mounted on the shaft that I use to buff large pieces and I use an air grinder with small buffing wheels as well.

In a pinch you can use silicone adhesive to glue pieces together and CA glue for small parts works really well.

Use solid surface polish with the white 3M pads for a very high polish.

Paint fill engraving projects with any type of paint you prefer, I use Testors model paint on small plaques and swab the paint into the engraved areas with a Q-Tip. I also use rattle cans for large jobs, spray the whole surface then sand with an ROS after the paint dries.

What else can I tell you about Corian......I love the stuff
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