Hello, I’m a student at a university and we resently got a huge stock or Corian in, free to the students. I’m interesting in using it for sculpture and installation and I’ve heard it can be worked with using woodworking tools, but I also hear that it tends to wear down blades faster. Using a communitive shop, what I do affects everyone else, and if we have to get new blades for the saws every week because one person is cutting Corian it simply won’t fly. So, from your expierences, how much faster does Corian tend to dull a blade compared to standard hardwoods?
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Replies
In addition to asking here, I'd go to the manufacturer on this, there is a lot of technical information available.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
I agree with John that the material manufacturer could provide a wealth of information. Not only is wear an issue but so is heat. A solid surface blade typically has a triple chip grind (alternates between trapezoid top teeth and a flat teeth) for durability and the grind is usually modified slightly to reduce heat build-up. If you attempt to use an alternate top bevel grind (standard wood cross cut blade) you will wear the blade significantly faster than a TCG solid surface blade.
Freud America, Inc.
Thank you both very much, I'll look into that.
you must use carbide blades and bits, high speed steel will not work and will be an exercise in frustration. diamond tooling is even better but naturally more expensive.
Expert since 10 am.
It will dull even solid carbide quite quickly against timber especially if the extraction is poor and the cutter is allowed to "regrind" waste - it generates a lot of heat and you need to have good breather masks and dust extraction as it generates a huge amount of dust. When sanding start low down on the grits (say P100/P120 after machining by hand - P180 off a CNC) then work up through the grits making sure that you blow off the workpiece and vacuum out the sander at each change. Don't skip grits or it will take you much longer to obtain the best surface finish. P320 grit will give you a semi-matt (kitchen worktop) finish, whilst P600 and above will give you a high gloss finish.
Scrit
If using a 10 inch saw, buy a Piranha (sp?) 40 tooth carbide in a 7 1/2 inch blade. They are cheap and essentially a throwaway. I believe the kery is about 1/8 inch. Feed slowly and the cut will be very smooth!
Go to the DuPont Corian site- they have detailed instructions and recommendations for tools. If the blades and router bits you have a re good quality, you should be fine. If they're already dull, you'll know it pretty fast.
Why replace them when they can be sharpened? Good sharp jig saw blades work fine but that's because they're usually making short cuts- the table saw will be what you use most for cutting to length and width.
Carbide tipped cutting tools only. Wear is reasonable.
Also, the router bits that commonly have a bearing on the shaft are available in parallel versions with a plastic ring of some kind instead of the steel bearing surface. Amana (Dimar) has a full line of them.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
How much faster are they dull compared to normal? Without knowing all the variables- difficult to answer. Plan on sharpening as much as twice as often as a base line and take it from there. I just completed a smallish Corian job which took 3 sheets of material (30"x144"). Not really a whole lot of wear on the saw blade with this much stock in a typical sizing operation. Where I noticed the bigger wear was on the router bits that were used for seaming, trimming ,and edge details. These were sharp when I started but went into the "dull" bin when I finished. It is just not a good idea to use dull tools, especially with solid-surface. If you are in a community shop you may want to look into getting your own blades and bits for this purpose.
A side note. I don't want to discourage you in any way but, personally I find the material is miserable to work with. It is incredibly dusty, heavy, and smells bad when milled. You may want to invest in a quality respirator to wear when you work this stuff. I don't mean a paper mask. Especially when you use the adhesive. The first time I worked with Corian I didn't use a respirator. I swear I could taste that stuff a day later.
Work smart and good luck,
-Paul
Couple of questions for you (or anyone else), I have a potential job coming up calling for some Corian work.
Where did you get your material from? do I have to go through a fabricator or is there somewhere I can order from directly?
This project calls for a solid 1" slab & I know they only sell 1/2" and 3/4". Am I crazy thinking that I can laminate 2 pieces of 1/2" together? would this just be insanely heavy? I'm talking about probably a 3' x 8' piece, pretty big -
this also calls for some fairly detailed cutting - I essentially have to make big dovetails in the edge & join it up with a solid wood base. will corian machine cleanly enough that I can do this without chipping corners off, etc?
thanks a lot - i've learned more about corian in the last week than I really even want to know, but I'm curious to get some input from people who have actually worked with the stuff -
We get Corian and other solid surface brands through our cab. supply co. here locally(Orlando, Fl). Check the yellow pages for a similar supplier in your area. Corian is just one of many brand names of solid surface material. Each seem to have there own set of rules about how they want you to join the product. Mostly small differences. Things that , I assume have more to do with product warranty that anything else.
I've never tried to "slab" glue two pieces as you suggest but can't think of a reason it wouldn't be O.K. Only that you would need to hustle with the glue before it starts to kick. It would be very heavy at 3'x8'x1". Probably granite heavy. In a typical counter top arrangement you would build-up edges/critical areas only.
The material will machine as fine as your set-up will allow. In fact you need to watch freshly cut edges as they will cut you back.
Be careful with that wood to solid surface connection. Seems like movement could be an issue there.
Just like any material it has it's own personality in terms of workability. A little trial and error should bear that out if you are doing something out of the ordinary.
Hope this helps,
-Paul
It's been a little while since I've bought any Corian, so maybe things have changed, but at the time, Dupont only sold to distributors. Distributors only sold to certified installers. I became an installer by setting up an account with the distributor. They interviewed me to see if I knew what I was doing and provided some informal training. Dupont has a lot of training information available.
I found that cutting Corian with anything other than a router was a mess and risky. Corian is really hard. It is an acrylic compound (methyl methacrylate) filled with mineral powder for color, body, weight, etc. The impact of each tooth on a saw blade smacking the plastic at high speed tends to fracture the material rather than just slicing it.
A router bit cuts the material quite nicely, whether for making a straight cut or for decorative edging. For cutting, I use a solid carbide 1/4" bit. I know Freud make them. Maybe Amana, too. A router and router guides can be used for just about any cutting pattern.
Good Luck
Jim
I have a friend who, with his brother in law, put in a kitchen of corian. In order to even get the stuff, one of them had to take a course (two or three days, I think). Now they can do it commercially. It welds so you cannot even see the joint. He really likes the stuff but it is rather expensive.
You can laminate 2 pieces of 1/2" thick to get a seamless 1" thickness, but this is done only at the perimeter where it will be seen.David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
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