Can it be fixed?

[Dave Novak]

Hardly a woodworking question, if this should be moved or deleted please mods do what you think is appropriate. That said, SWMBO has a friend that asked me if I can fix her favorite cutting board, pic below. It's made of corian (or something similar), the same material as her countertops. It's sort of heavy and only about 1/2 inch thich. Would you guess epoxy would do the trick? Maybe drill for a small steel/brass dowel first?




217564

[Jerome Stanek]

They make an epoxy for gluing corian together. It comes in the color of the corian and once glued up you should not be able to see where it is seamed.

[Van Huskey]

You need Corian adhesive. http://www2.dupont.com/Surfaces_Commercial/en_US/products/corian/accessories.html

It can be found in the small bottles for about $10 all over the web, it is a color match adhesive.

The bond area will be small but this will give you the best shot.

CAs and epoxy will not hold, especially on that repair.

[Matt Meiser]

If it was me, I'd definitely pin it.

[Jeff Duncan]

Or you could do one better and tell her to buy a new cutting board that isn't horrible for her knives;)

just saying,
JeffD

[Bill Huber]

I agree with Matt, no matter what glue you use I would put a pin in each side, then glue it and I think it will last a long time.

[Dave Novak]

Thanks guys, I'll give it a shot as soon as I get my hands on that glue.

[Van Huskey]

Or you could do one better and tell her to buy a new cutting board that isn't horrible for her knives;)

just saying,
JeffD

Or build here one that isn't horrible for her knives... I do agree since I wouldn't let any of my knives close to a Corian cutting board.

[Ken Dolph]

First Corian is no harder than hickory so it is not hard on knives. However wood kills bacteria and Corian does not.

Second on such a small glue surface I would pin.

Third CA when properly used is 2 to 5 times as strong as a solid surface epoxy.

Wipe alcohol, assemble and clamp, make sure that humidity is above 35%, apply a wicking grade CA, allow to cure undisturbed for 24 hours, sand off excess adhesive.

You will have an excellent repair that will probably be invisible.

[Van Huskey]

First Corian is no harder than hickory so it is not hard on knives. However wood kills bacteria and Corian does not.

.

The question is not hardness it has more to do with the way the varied polymer cutting boards effect the interaction between the board/knife/user. It is a highly contentious area and whether the science bears it out 9 out of 10 chefs hate for their precious knive to touch polymer cutting boards. Anyone with good knife skills knows how much a polymer cutting board is slow and sticky. Wood has some back into good graces in professional kitchens since the anti-bacterial superiority of wood has been proven.

[Ken Dolph]

You are right about HDPE polymer boards but Corian is not as sticky as those. But we sell hundreds of professional carving board stations with Corian every year. They rejected HDPE but prefer Corian though it is much more expensive.

I think that wood is best over all.

[Van Huskey]

You are right about HDPE polymer boards but Corian is not as sticky as those. But we sell hundreds of professional carving board stations with Corian every year. They rejected HDPE but prefer Corian though it is much more expensive.

I think that wood is best over all.

I think we can make a distiction between a carving board and a chefs cutting board, the knives from the chefs personal bag will never touch that carving station board. the HPDE boards are indeed the worst but Corian is also bad about hanging and sticking a knife, harder polymers like Corian still handicap good knife skills and as a result put blades through a beating. No need to drag this out as I can agree just to disagree but we both agree wood is the king of food cutting surfaces.

[John Coloccia]

I would finish cutting off the handles to make it look symmetrical, and call it a day. :D

[Ken Dolph]

I think we can make a distiction between a carving board and a chefs cutting board, the knives from the chefs personal bag will never touch that carving station board. the HPDE boards are indeed the worst but Corian is also bad about hanging and sticking a knife, harder polymers like Corian still handicap good knife skills and as a result put blades through a beating. No need to drag this out as I can agree just to disagree but we both agree wood is the king of food cutting surfaces.

Amen, I agree completely.

[Neil Brooks]

From where I sit, that thing looks like two new ZCI's just waiting to be made ;)

[Matt Meiser]

Dave, let us know how it works out for you when you tell your wife's friend her favorite cutting board shouldn't be her favorite. ;) :eek:

[Jeff Duncan]

Dave, let us know how it works out for you when you tell your wife's friend her favorite cutting board shouldn't be her favorite. ;) :eek:


Yeah but maybe it's her favorite b/c she hasn't tried anything better.....yet!

I used corian as well as other less than appealing boards in my early years....(remember when glass was popular for like a week or two)? Now I know better and my somewhat nicer knives are not allowed near corian or any other less desirable materials. To me the feeling of a knife on corian is equivalent to nails on a chalkboard....can't stand it:( Go ahead and try a good knife on Hickory and corian and then come back and tell me there's no difference.

I say give her a nice wood board and let her try it, once one feels the difference, I can't imagine going back. And if she does still want it, then heck throw a pin in it with some glue and call it done. Not like your fixing an heirloom there:D

good luck,
JeffD

[Bob Landel]

The question is not hardness it has more to do with the way the varied polymer cutting boards effect the interaction between the board/knife/user. It is a highly contentious area and whether the science bears it out 9 out of 10 chefs hate for their precious knive to touch polymer cutting boards. Anyone with good knife skills knows how much a polymer cutting board is slow and sticky. Wood has some back into good graces in professional kitchens since the anti-bacterial superiority of wood has been proven.

I thought I was a plastics expert, but you got me wondering. Where did you read the study on wood being superior to plastics for anti- bacterial properties? One of the main reasons I prefer a HDPE board for cooking is the fact it can be placed in a dishwasher or easily cleaned in a sink with soap and water.

I always thought a wood board was a breeding ground for bacterial growth.

I am not a professional chef.

Corian is a mineral filled compounded acyclic trade name product. It is probably more abrasive than HDPE and could dull knives more easily. I believe CA's will be as good an adhesive as you can use, however even with pins, I do not believe it will hold if it is repeatedly moved or cleaned.

[Jim Underwood]

I spoke to the butcher at the local grocery store several years back, and he told me about studies that proved bacteria died on wood cutting boards and actually multiplied on plastic ones. They've pretty much gone back to the old wood boards, and just resurface them every so often...

As for the corian glue, isn't that stuff a solvent?

[Bob Landel]

Sorry Jim, but what a butcher's says is not a scientific study. "Hear say" doesn't work in a courtroom. I would like to see a reference to a study.

Solvents can act as adhesives for plastics. Sometimes in the plastics industry it is refered to as a "weld".

[George Gyulatyan]

Sorry Jim, but what a butcher's says is not a scientific study. "Hear say" doesn't work in a courtroom. I would like to see a reference to a study.

How about study from UC Davis?
http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/docliver/Research/cuttingboard.htm

Second paragraph:

We soon found that disease bacteria such as these were not recoverable from
wooden surfaces in a short time after they were applied, unless very large
numbers were used. New plastic surfaces allowed the bacteria to persist, but
were easily cleaned and disinfected. However, wooden boards that had been used
and had many knife cuts acted almost the same as new wood, whereas plastic
surfaces that were knife-scarred were impossible to clean and disinfect
manually, especially when food residues such as chicken fat were present.
Scanning electron micrographs revealed highly significant damage to plastic
surfaces from knife cuts.

And first sentence of third paragraph:

Although the bacteria that have disappeared from the
wood surfaces are found alive inside the wood for some time after application,
they evidently do not multiply, and they gradually die.

Glad I read this post. I was always uneasy about wooden cutting boards because of concern regarding bacteria. But from the looks of it, even something as "non-poisonous" as maple, works. I wonder what walnut or wenge would do :D

[Bob Landel]

Thanks George, shocks the heck out of me! I'm having a hard time believing a wet wooden board would stop/slow the growth of bacteria.

I still believe the dishwasher will do a satisfactory job cleaning a used plastic board. However in the future, I'm not going to use a hand cleaned plastic board after using it for raw meat even if the UC Davis study turns out to be flawed.

[Jim Underwood]

Sorry Jim, but what a butcher's says is not a scientific study. "Hear say" doesn't work in a courtroom. I would like to see a reference to a study.

I guess I'm not as skeptical as some. When I speak to a practicing expert in a field that has read the studies, and follows industry standards in a national chain, I tend to believe them...

Besides that, I was told the other day that Google was a great way to find such things as studies if you really wanted to know something... And lo and behold :D

[John Coloccia]

You will notice that a lot of chefs use plastic for cutting poultry, but it is a dedicated cutting board that will never touch any other kind of food, or at least not food that won't get cooked.

I believe further studies have been done and the exact mechanism is the bacteria get "sucked" into the wood where they can't multiply, they can't escape and they simply die. As Jim says, Google will bring up lots of info on the subject.

[George Gyulatyan]

I still believe the dishwasher will do a satisfactory job cleaning a used plastic board.In order to properly kill bacteria, you'll need to wash the boards in 180* F temperature (according to some Google searches I performed when I was looking up the UC Davies study). Dishwasher temperatures typically do not exceed 145 degrees. With small plastic boards, microwave may be more effective in killing bacteria, although you will need to be careful to not damage the boards while microwaving them :D

[John Fabre]

I would finish cutting off the handles to make it look symmetrical, and call it a day. :D
Or cut the rest of the handle off, sand it flush and call it good. How many handles do you really need on a cutting board?