You can plane corian!

[Lons]

Ok just to clarify Corian and Mistral.

I've fitted both though my own kitchen as said is Mistral as at 25mm thick ( 12mm splashbacks ) it's thick enough to avoid a fabricated front. It is bl**dy heavy and a 3010 x 625 x 25mm top is very definitely a 2 man job.

I find little difference between the 2 but as said Corian are very reluctant to publish specs. I also have a number of offcuts which I use for various projects and it's easy enough to work except that it produces static charged dust and shavings and you have to use TCT tooling or it blunts quickly. Just try some on a lathe and you soon find out!

It's easy to glue up especially with the correct, expensive, colour matched epoxy but if matching doesn't matter then std stuff works well.

I've also fitted many "Formica" type chipboard tops over the years and they are hardly maintenance free imo. I've replaced many a swollen and delaminated top in my time.
Solid tops by comparison are at least refurbishable and it's easy enough for a competent DIYer despite what the manufacturers might say.

 

[ED65]

Thanks Lons.

I've also fitted many "Formica" type chipboard tops over the years and they are hardly maintenance free imo. I've replaced many a swollen and delaminated top in my time.

Granted if water gets to the substrate you're in trouble, although that worry can be eliminated by sealing the back and any cut surfaces near the sink with epoxy just being very unsparing with the silicone seems to do the trick 99.9% of the time

 

[Lons]

Thanks Lons.

I've also fitted many "Formica" type chipboard tops over the years and they are hardly maintenance free imo. I've replaced many a swollen and delaminated top in my time.

Granted if water gets to the substrate you're in trouble, although that worry can be eliminated by sealing the back and any cut surfaces near the sink with epoxy just being very unsparing with the silicone seems to do the trick 99.9% of the time

Spot on solution ED but unfortunately not too many supposed kitchen fitters bother to even seal the exposed chipboard in the sink cut out with anything at all and if my missus, daughter and daughter in law are anything to go by, women in general seem to slop water all over the place. :lol:
A bead of silicone around or under a sink just isn't enough.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

First to Lons: here in the states, I believe the use of the Corian (and generic solid surface) as a 1/4" or so, laminate on particle board, is not "pushed" as it was a few years ago, as a lower cost alternative. As you stated delamination occurred easily and frequently.

We have had Corian in our kitchen for over 18 years. It was installed by a company from your neighborhood David, by the name of Vangura. Our kitchen has an island and a large, boxed in "L". It took the company several hours to measure, a month to fabricate, and when complete, about six to eight hours to install. The installer said to just use the finest "ScotchBrite" pad to clean up or renew surfaces. One issue was a stress crack on a long miter that occurred during a very cold stretch of temperature a few months after the install. Not enough of an issue to have fixed and only visible if looked for. After 18 years, the coutertops may appear just a bit duller than new, but otherwise look great.

A bit of a caution: I installed a 16" wide eating/drinking bar about eight inches higher than the island, with a section of support bearing on the island. I found Corian to be extremely brittle while drilling the holes for fasteners for the bar support. The corian cracked radially at each hole, but was hidden by the supports, so all turned out well. I would advise test drilling holes for proper drill bit type and speeds.

Final comment, after all those years, one has a tendency to tire of the look. When first installed, the price was very high, and today is about 1/3 of what it was, so I'm not inclined to change it just for looks.

 

[Lons]

Hi Tony

I've never seen Corian or similar material in 1/4" (6mm) to be used as kitchen worktops here in the UK it's normally a nominal 1/2" ( 12mm ) thickness and is glued to a substrate such as moisture resistant MDF with extra layer of Corian glued to the front edge and fabricated. The edge join is invisible. I know it is available in several thicknesses but would consider 6mm as suitable only as wall panelling or splashbacks.

Neither have I ever seen that material delaminate, I was talking about formica type sufaces when I said that happens.

In the UK, these worktops are certainly not cheap and never have been, quite the opposite in fact as they are sold as a premium product which in many cases equals the cost of granite.

Must be different in the USA.

cheers
Bob

 

[D_W]

Hi Bob - these worktops were sold at a price just under Granite in the US, but youtube has put pressure on the fabricators for DIYers with tooling.

After accounting for scrap and edges and backsplash (which a fabricator would probably charge extra for), I think it might be about 15-20 pounds equivalent.

No clue what granite is here at this point, but there's so much DIY tooling available that you could easily fabricate that, too. If you have an angle grinder, a bullnose profile and materials to sand and polish would probably be about $500.

I understand that most of the fabricators are now CNC and they have a lot of overhead and shop space that they need to account for (and software costs, etc, I'm sure), but that's their problem and not mine. I also understand that design houses that want to do everything cad may demand that they do it that way so everyone is working off of the same design.

I'm sure the cheap granite from overseas makes it so that the actual cost of the stone is a fraction of the cost of granite installation (not sure about quartz, but little of what I've seen looks like raw stone - it all looks to be resin bound dust and stone fragments to get a certain look).

 

[D_W]

First to Lons: here in the states, I believe the use of the Corian (and generic solid surface) as a 1/4" or so, laminate on particle board, is not "pushed" as it was a few years ago, as a lower cost alternative. As you stated delamination occurred easily and frequently.

We have had Corian in our kitchen for over 18 years. It was installed by a company from your neighborhood David, by the name of Vangura. Our kitchen has an island and a large, boxed in "L". It took the company several hours to measure, a month to fabricate, and when complete, about six to eight hours to install. The installer said to just use the finest "ScotchBrite" pad to clean up or renew surfaces. One issue was a stress crack on a long miter that occurred during a very cold stretch of temperature a few months after the install. Not enough of an issue to have fixed and only visible if looked for. After 18 years, the coutertops may appear just a bit duller than new, but otherwise look great.

A bit of a caution: I installed a 16" wide eating/drinking bar about eight inches higher than the island, with a section of support bearing on the island. I found Corian to be extremely brittle while drilling the holes for fasteners for the bar support. The corian cracked radially at each hole, but was hidden by the supports, so all turned out well. I would advise test drilling holes for proper drill bit type and speeds.

Final comment, after all those years, one has a tendency to tire of the look. When first installed, the price was very high, and today is about 1/3 of what it was, so I'm not inclined to change it just for looks.

Thanks for that summary, Tony - I remember the vangura commercials on the radio. They advertised heavily as a lower cost alternative to corian installers (but as much advertising as they had, it must've been not much lower). I agree on the look. I have true corian scrap that I got to turn to make bushings and such, and the look is a bit dated. The newer acrylic aggregate sheets are a little more interesting, but I must say that my sheets look different than the sample (what looks good on a sample can be a bit busy on a full sheet).

I'm fabricating these today. The mrs. had me putting in a paver patio (no pavers yet, but I had to do the digging, which ----of course was entirely by hand. Sharpened shovels and all to remove the turf and transplant it). Enjoyable work when you have the chance to make the tools work right and then don't have to rush the digging. A lot like woodworking.

https://s22.postimg.cc/wmqy6ds81/20180521_161121.jpg

Yes on the fragility. The fabricating manual advises no sharp corners and I noticed when I cut the sheets to get them off of the delivery truck (with a track saw), the back side of the cut was ratty (broken) at the back corner, so it appears that track saw with full support along the entire length is the only way to go (I cut those sheets four inches long, so it doesn't really matter - the damaged area was about 1/2 inch. I was surprised to see that fragility, though, and will follow the directions and make a radius in the corners and leave the seams away from the corners entirely.

We live in a wonderful time in terms of being able to get these (from colorado in my case) with lots of published information when local sources won't oblige ("sir, we only work with clients where we do the entire kitchen from design to install").

 

[ED65]

If you have an angle grinder, a bullnose profile and materials to sand and polish would probably be about $500.

I'm pretty confident you could lay in all the necessaries for around 100-150. This is starting from scratch, by buying a cheaper angle grinder and the bulk of the polishing stuff from AE, supplemented if necessary with one or two liquid polishes from the likes of Maguiars.

(not sure about quartz, but little of what I've seen looks like raw stone - it all looks to be resin bound dust and stone fragments to get a certain look).

Yep that's what it is; a much lower resin content than Corian et al but still a bound aggregate. This accounts for one of its chief selling points over a natural stone, since they can ensure much better uniformity for people who insist on that.

 

[D_W]

By the way, it also cuts well with a handsaw. I had to cut the built up lip off of a small section, and it didn't do much to dull a disston rip saw, other than to take a little bit of the smartness off of the teeth.

It seems that the biggest obstacle with it is heat, and there's not much of that with hand tools. It did finish off the blade in my track saw though, but replacements for those are cheap. Heat being the culprit there, I think. It will deposit a little layer of solid surface material on the side of a handsaw blade.

Just like wood, finish planing of the edges needs to be done with a fine shaving to minimize surface imperfections, but coarse planing works well before that.