Corian (and other solid surface) questions

[ScooterX]

I own a sign shop, and purchased a bunch of Festools (saw, sander, router) with an eye towards eventually trying out some signs from Corian. (I usually work with aluminum, cedar, acryllic and plywood.)

I guess I'm just looking for some pointers or tips on where to look for information about working with solid surface materials, etc (beyond just needing better router bits and a different saw blade). If anybody here is working with it, I'd be grateful for your insights.

 

[Sam Blasco]

You will become extremely familiar with your router, ultimately the best way to cut and shape solid surface.  You will also be making lots of neat router bases along the way.  You can use saws, but be very wary of a jigsaw, and never use a saw for any final dimensioning, always let the router do that.  And depending on your level of gloss you will be doing alot of wet sanding, and I have noticed the Festool sanders don't like that as much, say, as an open body RAS, like the PC right angle sander, though for the dry sanding stages you will really appreciate the D/C capabilities of the Festool sanders.  And your router, I hope you got the most HP they make, solid surface companies don't recommend any less than 3hp.

Solid surface is relative easy to work with, and most woodworkers have the tools, but it does require different approaches than wood.  I highly recommend you get yourself into a certification program with one of the major companies (most recognize each others' certifications), one for the education, and two you will be able to provide the warranties if you plan on doing this professionally.

And get yourself a good respirator system, too.

 

[LaserGecko]

www.specialtytools.com will become your friend, especially their "Micron" sandpaper punched with Festool holes. My Corian installer used the 30 Micron paper on the Rotex for most everything. I don't recall seeing any wet sanding.

Rough cut with the saw and always square it up with a router. That's the trick to a perfect seam. Of course, they made it look easy and had the special suction tools, but man, it looked fun, too. Watching them glue a sink to the bottom of the countertop and clamp it through the world's ugliest rough cut hole while the glue setup, then seeing it magically transformed into a perfect surface by a router...it's just cool. I got that same feeling that I used to get when I would put a round edged, fugly set of 12" shaper blades onto the platform of the grinder, flip the switch to hold them in place magnetically, then watch as a perfectly flat, single steel surface emerges.

Once I feel like I've got the "chops" for it, I'm going to fabricate a few smaller countertops for the garage and laundry room out of the Corian leftovers. It does make a different kind of mess, though. Check out the Freeform Furniture episode with the outdoor tables/chairs with solid surface tops and bottoms and glass tile sides.

Look into Samsung Staron, Formica, and WilsonArt's solid surface material, too. I think they're a bit cheaper, but you'd be hard pressed to tell any difference especially for sign work. My main bathroom's countertop is Staron with a vacuum formed Corian basin. I forget what color it was, but they're virtually identical except for the surface finish of the basin.

You can get some good practice pieces at a decent price from eBay. There's always someone on there selling blanks or scraps. Heck, we bought our two bathroom sinks there and got the deal of the century. Two (TPD Brand???), vacuum formed basins for thirty five bucks, shipped. Dealer cost is about $700 each. A big "Thank You" to whomever ordered those and then changed their mind!