corian

[marcros]

A couple of questions on corian...

I bought a piece on eBay to use as a base to a clock. What do I use to polish up the cut edges? They are not bad, but need finishing. I have available standard turning abrasive, various wet and dry, micromesh, Beale buffing system, some plastic polish used for pens. I probably am going to struggle to get anything else in the coming days but if I have to...

secondly, the clock is wooden (this isn't mine but same concept with a corian base http://www.craftni.org/products/oak-clock). how do I fix the clock to the base? screw through the bottom, glue or ?

 

[Steve Maskery]

PM distinterior, he is your man for Corian.

 

[Racers]

Wet and dry up to 1000 grit then Autosol.

New Shoulder plane by Pete Maddex, on Flickr

You can drill Corian easly so I would drill and screw for a revrsable fix.

Pete

 

[marcros]

Thanks Pete.

 

[D_W]

Cut, sand and polish. You can plane bevels on corian, scrape it or sand it.

I fabricated the counters in my kitchen in my garage shop, and when you build the edges on those, you have to decide how you'll finish them. I routed some, and hand planed others (corian hand planes OK, but it does dull cutters - however, a hand plane will not catch on something and create more work, so it can be equally quick).

Corian also tears out a little bit when being planed or cut heavily, so plan on sanding that out no matter what you do.

I finished my kitchen counter tops by wet sanding through 600 grit and then using a strong cut car polish (and then cleaned them off since it's the kitchen).

 

[Adam9453]

Commercially it’s generally just sanded up to circa 400 grit as going much beyond that makes it easily marked and the marks are more noticeable. Ultimately you can sand/polish it to whatever grit you like. It machines easier than you expect and I wouldn’t bother with any of the special router bits they sell for corian as it cuts fine with normal cutters. If you end up flying using the colour matched glue then just ensure your joints are very clean and tight before gluing. It can be used to produce very cool monolithic designs with relative ease.

 

[Lons]

What Adam said Marcros. The most I ever sanded a worktop was to 600g ( Abranet ) and it gives a polish finish. I do however go a lot higher when making pens so anything you like really on a small clock.
As said easily drilled if you wish and if you can avoid a glue line then normal epoxy glue works very well, the Corian colour match epoxy is ridiculously expensive and has a short shelf life.

As an aside I've drilled and tapped Mistral which is almost identical to Corian to accept 6mm threaded studs, easy with care.