John Miliunas
03-19-2003, 11:04 PM
Hey folks, don't mean to beat this one to death, but I promised an update to my Corian thread a few days ago and here it is.
First, let me thank all the folks who came in with recommendations. All were read and considered and some put into practice. *Effectively, I might add!* You guys are GREAT!
So, what did I find? First, the problem with blowing out the material at the end of the bore. I took Scott's suggestion and cut my blanks longer than necessary. Set the depth on my DP to adequately cover the tube. I drilled at @1200rpm w/DC extracting the debris. After boring the hole, I simply cut the solid end off, exposing the bore. The rest of the procedure follows the usual steps in prepping and turning as one normally does for wood. Almost. As our resident pen king, Ken S. stated, a heavy hand on the lathe tool(s) is not the proper protocol here. Nice, steady, light passes do the job quite well. I found a sharply honed skew does the best. I finished up with light wet-sanding, up to 2400 micro-mesh (I know...Probably overkill, but nice results.) Then polish and assembly.
As an aside, before trying the stopped method of boring, as suggested by Scott, I took two pieces of matching Corian and used some of the medium CA glue ("Gap Filling") to bond them together. A nice even coat and clamped overnight. I ran my bore, right square between the two the next day, trimmed to size and turned. After careful inspection from, at least, four people, no seam could be detected, so the CA does indeed do a nice job.
All in all, a nice experience with a new (to me) medium and I plan on doing a fair amount of it, as long as my free material supply doesn't dry up. Again thanks to all for your advice and for those who may have been contemplating giving a try, I heartedly encourage it! :cool:
First, let me thank all the folks who came in with recommendations. All were read and considered and some put into practice. *Effectively, I might add!* You guys are GREAT!
So, what did I find? First, the problem with blowing out the material at the end of the bore. I took Scott's suggestion and cut my blanks longer than necessary. Set the depth on my DP to adequately cover the tube. I drilled at @1200rpm w/DC extracting the debris. After boring the hole, I simply cut the solid end off, exposing the bore. The rest of the procedure follows the usual steps in prepping and turning as one normally does for wood. Almost. As our resident pen king, Ken S. stated, a heavy hand on the lathe tool(s) is not the proper protocol here. Nice, steady, light passes do the job quite well. I found a sharply honed skew does the best. I finished up with light wet-sanding, up to 2400 micro-mesh (I know...Probably overkill, but nice results.) Then polish and assembly.
As an aside, before trying the stopped method of boring, as suggested by Scott, I took two pieces of matching Corian and used some of the medium CA glue ("Gap Filling") to bond them together. A nice even coat and clamped overnight. I ran my bore, right square between the two the next day, trimmed to size and turned. After careful inspection from, at least, four people, no seam could be detected, so the CA does indeed do a nice job.
All in all, a nice experience with a new (to me) medium and I plan on doing a fair amount of it, as long as my free material supply doesn't dry up. Again thanks to all for your advice and for those who may have been contemplating giving a try, I heartedly encourage it! :cool: