WWA Info Exchange

Hey folks, I have a good friend from my days with the Antarctic Program, who is building a stand for a huge fish tank for his home. He's not much of a WWer, but knows enough that he has the stand built and structurally sound. However, he wants to laminate the top panel, 3/4" cabinet grade ply, with a 12mm sheet of Corian, (high dence plastic that looks like marble). His sheets are 30" wide but the top will have to be a total of 37" wide, so he decided to join the two sheets together with a seam down the middle. To do this, I'll have to rip the 2 sheets down to 18.5" wide and end up with a factory edge after the cut. My plan is to cut this to within 1/8" of finished width on the TS, and then take it down to finished size with a router.

So here are my questions:
1. What type of TS saw blade should I use for this?
2. What type of router bit would be best?
3. What speed should I set the router for?
4. Would it be better to make these cuts with a BS, since I can adjust the blade speed with that?
5. Since I don't have a Jointer, nor ready access to one, is it possible to joint an edge on Corian with a handplane without destroying the iron? I have a LV #7 Low Angle Jointer plane as well as Wood River #5 and #6 planes.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

_________________
Frank
WWACOAUX#1
"I love the smell of Sawdust in the morning, it smells like, victory."
WWA'ers I've met: Popeye, Ed Avery, Stephen Wolf, Rockfish, Rodedon

ICE PIRATE: It seems to me that almost any carbide tip blade for the t/saw should do OK. I might try to find a good rip blade but since there is no grain in that type of material a good cross cut blade of say 40+ teeth should be OK.
Once the pieces are ripped to size, I might consider clamping the pieces very close to parallel about 1/8 inch closer together than a straight bit for a router. By running the router along a straight edge for the length of the pieces and in the slot between the pieces you should get a seam which matches both sides regardless of a wiggle or two.
Alternately, you could joint both edges with a belt sander with the two mating pieces clamped together face to face so both edges could be sanded at the same time just as you can hand plane a mating jointed edge with timber.
Also, I'm not sure I would cut both pieces to 18.5". If you cut only 7.5 off one piece and join that to the regular size piece, you have allowed for some wiggle room if there is a fail somewhere in the fabrication process. Of course this method would depend on the pattern or character of the surface finish of the sheets.
The router can run at the normal speed for the size bit you choose.
A quality carbide router bit from almost anywhere should be OK for the project. You can also use profile bits to give the edges character ie. bullnose, ogre, a chamfer etc.
Since CORIAN type products tend to be heavy, I think I would want to move the tools over the product rather than product over the tool ie. bandsaw
Although I believe it is possible to work this type of product with hand tools I don't think it advisable from both time and accuracy and fail safe standpoints

_________________
Everything was new once.
newtooth 311
Rochester, MN

Thanks Newtooth. My big concern here is the melting and gaulling of the plastic on the blades. Heat and friction will be the real enemies here and because of this, I need to keep the blade speed and feed speed to a minimum. I've had some experience turning plastics and have seen what happens with high speeds. Even razor sharp tools can cause friction and melting of the material. The sander could also be problematic due to the friction and heat build up, that and I don't have a hand held belt sander .

I'd first recomended going for a full sized piece and then a smaller one with the seam towards the back, but my friend will be setting this like a penninsula sticking out from one wall so that you can walk around it. Because of this, he wants the seam right down the middle. As the seam will be visable towards the edge, he wants to keep a semetrical look to the thing.

So, if I read this right, you are saying that rather than take these long cuts on the TS or BS, that it would be better, due to size and wt. of the material, to do this with a Circular Saw or jig saw, then clean the cut with a router. That's probably a good way to go. I have good straight edge jigs for both my CS and JS. I'm going to play with it a little on the waste end to see for sure.

Thanks for the info.

_________________
Frank
WWACOAUX#1
"I love the smell of Sawdust in the morning, it smells like, victory."
WWA'ers I've met: Popeye, Ed Avery, Stephen Wolf, Rockfish, Rodedon

ICE PIRATE: Rather than a hand held circular saw, I'd use the table saw. Much more accurate and with a larger working surface than a band saw I think with a little help or extra support a better choice.
Experiment with some scrap, and I think that melting galling etc will not be a problem with either a saw sander or router.
What is the pattern in the material? Many times after sanding the seam just disappears but then it does depend on the pattern.
Could this project be a reason to get a belt sander? Maybe your friend who put this idea in motion has one you could use.
Also have you or the friend thought of doubling the top at the edges to give it a look of some mass?

Just some additional thoughts

_________________
Everything was new once.
newtooth 311
Rochester, MN

Corian cuts, sands and routes very well, you will have no problem with any blade you choose to use. I would however use a spiral flush trim bit when using the router, it should leave a better finish.

Thanks Newtooth, I'll go ahead and try the TS. Not sure I want to risk my Forrest WW II blade though. I may switch out to an older but still good blade.

Paul, thanks for the tip on the spiral bit. I have a 1/2 spiral that I'll probably chuck up for this one. How about round overs. Is it better to make several small passes? Slower speeds?

_________________
Frank
WWACOAUX#1
"I love the smell of Sawdust in the morning, it smells like, victory."
WWA'ers I've met: Popeye, Ed Avery, Stephen Wolf, Rockfish, Rodedon

Corian works a lot like wood. Easy to cut, sand, and turn. I have cut many pieces with my table saw. Almost any blade works well. Table saw will give a much better straight line finish. I have sanded with a belt sander and a random orbital sander. Never tried routing. I have turned many pen blanks from Corian. Turns easy. Keep tools sharp since it dulls tools a little faster than hard wood. Never had a problem with heat. Even sanding the pen blanks at high speed no heat problem. However, it doesn't take long to sand a pen blank with one grit before moving to a higher grit.
I cut a 24 X 36 piece for a child's desk top. Sanded the edge with a random orbital sander. No problems. The top was already finished when got the piece.