Corian question

[James RS]

I was wondering corian be run through a thickness planer? And has anyone done this

[fwharris]

James,

I have not done any but do know others that have. As reported by them, you have to make very small passes and the noise will drive you out of the shop. It is very hard on the blades also..

[Sallen1215]

Yes i have done this and it does work but light passes for sure. Faster way is to use a router and sled to plane it with a flat cutter

[Canemaker]

Just a question, why would you want to plane corian to begin with anyway?

[badbert]

You can also plane it in the carvewright. But don't go too deep too fast. make the whole thing a carved region and set the depth to .125.

[James RS]

Just a question, why would you want to plane corian to begin with anyway?

I got some 1/2 inch corian, and I want to make some lithophanes

[Ken Dolph]

I once used a hand held Power Planer on Corian. Most of the tome it went well. However I set it a little deeper and shattered the carbide blades when I hit the edge. For thickness I usually re-saw on a band saw or use a router with a sled.

Keep the feed rate slow. This will keep the temperature down and reduce the tendency to cup the Corian. Another tip is to start in the middle of the piece and spiral out if using the router sled or the CW.

[lawrence]

I got some 1/2 inch corian, and I want to make some lithophanes

have you considered just carving your lithophanes deeper? It would have the same effect (allowing light through) but you wouldn't have to worry about planing it. Just add .25 to what you'd normally carve at.

Lawrence

[cnsranch]

I've been using 1/2" Corian all along. In fact, just completed two this last weekend. Lawrence is right - just add .25" to the depth of your normal litho.

However, the height can mess you up. I've been carving mine at between .400 and .430 deep, and the height at 100.

Two tricks - one, set up your virtual board as if you were going to carve a 1/4" piece. The "book" says that you should set your depth at .180 and height to 400 (as I recall). Zoom in close, look at the detail of the carve....then change the board thickness to .5, change the depth of the carve to .400 - .430 and look at the detail again. The height of the carve certainly needs to change, the question is how much. Mess with it until the detail looks basically the same as the shallower board.

Second, I've found that when setting the depth of your carve, regardless on the thickness of the board, the deepest part of the carve needs to leave around .12 - .13 of board remaining. Thicker, and the light won't come thru. Deeper, and too much light.

For me, the biggest benefit of using 1/2" Corian is that you can leave a nice 1/4" edge of 1/2" all around the piece - allows for placing it into your frame much easier.

[James RS]

Ok I think i get what you're talking about, here's where I'm at. Well I can't upload a mpc. Anyway when you speak of adding the .25, would this be at the image import section or when I've
saved the photo as a pattern?

I've been using 1/2" Corian all along. In fact, just completed two this last weekend. Lawrence is right - just add .25" to the depth of your normal litho.

However, the height can mess you up. I've been carving mine at between .400 and .430 deep, and the height at 100.

Two tricks - one, set up your virtual board as if you were going to carve a 1/4" piece. The "book" says that you should set your depth at .180 and height to 400 (as I recall). Zoom in close, look at the detail of the carve....then change the board thickness to .5, change the depth of the carve to .400 - .430 and look at the detail again. The height of the carve certainly needs to change, the question is how much. Mess with it until the detail looks basically the same as the shallower board.

Second, I've found that when setting the depth of your carve, regardless on the thickness of the board, the deepest part of the carve needs to leave around .12 - .13 of board remaining. Thicker, and the light won't come thru. Deeper, and too much light.

For me, the biggest benefit of using 1/2" Corian is that you can leave a nice 1/4" edge of 1/2" all around the piece - allows for placing it into your frame much easier.