Corian Router Table Top?

[Art Mann]

I just read in another thread that Keith Outten recommended Corian as a counter top surface. I have a question for Keith or anyone else who has experience with this material. I have a new 12 foot long sheet of 1/2 inch Corian that I bought for $50 at a Habitat for Humanity Restore (stealth gloat). The material seems ideal for a router table but I need a thicker top than 1/2 inch. Would it work to simply glue the Corian to a piece of 3/4 inch MDF or plywood? If so, what kind of glue should I use for the lamination? Will it stay flat? Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

[Ellen Benkin]

Yes, you can glue solid surface material to a subbase. Most often this is plywood.

[Keith Outten]

Art,

Ellen is correct, most of the time Corian is backed by half or three quarter inch thick plywood particularly when installed as a counter top. Whether you choose to do it that way depends on what design for your router table you feel will give you the best features. If you double up two thicknesses of Corian you can then machine a miter slot and have more options for attaching supports underneath IMO. You will also have more mass in your top which will deaden the sound a bit more than just a 1/2" thick top.

I use Corian glue exclusively in my shop but I own a Dupont Corian adhesive gun. You can use silicone adhesive but in your case the better choice would be epoxy unless you can find a Corian gun you can borrow. If you design your supports properly the adhesive will hold the top securely. If you use two layers you can imbed the fasteners for mounting your router in the lower piece before you join the two pieces. Machining a pocket for a router raiser is more stable if you use a double Corian top but it works great and is very stable since Corian is a very hard plastic. You can make your own drop-in base from Corian if that is what you want to do.

I expect to have my new Corian router table complete over the Christmas holidays. I have all my material on hand and a PC 3.25hp router motor but I haven't decided whether to use a stand, cabinet or simply mount it on shelf brackets. I have a Lee Valley Pin Router Arm (http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=43038&cat=1,43000) to install on my new table as well, I have a special need for this attachment which is used to edge route sign blanks.

Congratulations on the great deal you got on the Corian sheet. I would buy a train car load at that price :)
.

[Sal Kurban]

I am offering 2 inch thick Corian counter tops for FREE and I have at least 5 of them (St Louis area). No takers so far and they will go to the dump :( They are in the Classifieds section.
Sal.

[Keith Outten]

Sal,

I stuck your thread to the top of the Forum, maybe that will help. If I lived a bit closer to you I would pick them up myself.
.

[Loren Woirhaye]

I suspect a single layer of 1/2" will sag under a heavy router. Really for a router table it's ok to have the router be the high spot. It should be easy to see how you can mount the table on a base that allows you to push it up around the router if you need to.

[Bill Bukovec]

Sal,

I've been scouring Craig's List for years looking for free Corain.

Maybe you need to take a nice winter vacation in Minnesota this year (and bring the Corian).

One of he main pastimes is freezing your tail off.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Bill

[Art Mann]

I had not thought of gluing two pieces of Corian together. I certainly have enough of it. That might be the way to go. I had originally planned to do the typical 2 layers of 3/4" MDF with plastic laminate on both sides so I already bought a Kreg plate and mounting brackets which support the plate from the bottom up. I am not sure how I would fasten those to the Corian. Maybe I could just epoxy them in like Keith said. If not, I may just laminate a layer of Corian to a single 3/4" piece of plywood and use the screws that were provided. What I am building is an adaptation of the "Norm Abrams" style router table and there is plenty of support underneath, so I don't think sagging will be a problem.

I was delighted to have bought a sheet of Corian for $50 when I found out what the normal price is. The sad part is they had 8 or 10 more sheets for the same price and I could have bought them all. I went back a few days later and they were gone. All of it still had the heavy plastic sheet on the face but several had scratches on the surface. My original intention was to use it as practice making signs when I finally buy a CNC router.

Just as an aside, I would recommend to anyone to stop by their local Habitat for Humanity Restore occasionally. Mostly it is just junk but you can occasionally find some unbelievable bargains in new or slightly damaged materials donated by big construction companies.

[Curt Harms]

Here is DuPont's take on Corian & wooden substrates

http://www2.dupont.com/Surfaces/en_US/assets/pdf/fabmanual/Ch14-FasteningOtherProducts-to-Corian.pdf

[Art Mann]

Thanks so much for that link, Curt. It was very informative. I had been worried about the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion of the Corian and plywood because my shop goes from 40 degrees in the winter to 100 degrees in the summer. I was afraid of warping on that account. I may just use the Silicone they recommend.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I will be in St. Louis over Memorial day next summer if you still have them, I wold love to pick one up.

Doc

[Keith Outten]

A Router table can't get any more basic than this one. Its a simple Corian sink cutout with a couple of stiffeners glued to the underside but it has been used to edge route almost ten thousand door signs and a host of other projects the last five years.

I polished the top and put paste wax on the top every couple of days when we were doing door sign runs. It is slick as glass which is important when you have 400 signs stacked up beside the table.

I originally had this top installed on a Black and Decker Workmate in 2007 but our floor space kept decreasing and I had to mount it on the wall brackets to make space for a small band saw.
.

[Curt Harms]

Thanks so much for that link, Curt. It was very informative. I had been worried about the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion of the Corian and plywood because my shop goes from 40 degrees in the winter to 100 degrees in the summer. I was afraid of warping on that account. I may just use the Silicone they recommend.

As I understand it, the thing to be aware of is that wood moves in response to moisture changes, Corian - and I assume other solid surface materials - move in response to temperature changes.

[Keith Outten]

Curt,

The thermal coefficient of expansion affects all materials even wood. Using silicone adhesive to join Corian to plywood provides the necessary allowance necessary for the difference in thermal expansion between the two dissimilar materials. A hard epoxy adhesive might fail under certain situations.

There are tables that provide the expansion numbers for most materials.

A ten degree drop in temperature overnight can prevent your wood inlay from fitting the next morning if multiple species are involved.

Your right about Corian not being affected by moisture.

[Michael Mayo]

i had a beautiful piece of Corian that i glued to 3/4" ply using West Systems epoxy and learned a horrible lesson. Don't use West Systems to laminate Corian and Plywood. The plywood warped badly and i didn't realize the problem until i took the top off the cabinet I had made. Then it was all too evident what had happened. Really was a huge disappointment and hard lesson learned. I now have an MDF/Laminate top that works fine but more importantly it is flat. I am always looking for some cheap/free Corian so I can try to make another top as it was an awesome material for a router top.

[Patrick Grady]

Good inexpensive source of Corian or any other counter top material is kitchen/bath contractors. They often have sink cutouts for cheap (don't call, visit and hope you get a chance to talk with a shop technician). I have used West System epoxies and fillers for 16 years and almost all of my negative results have been on me and not the epoxy. Bonding different materials is always a challenge. Attention to cleaning and surface prep is important. One failsafe bonding agent is 3M 5200 Polysulfide 'caulk'. Many boaters and sailors (me included) will use it only in specific applications not because it does not bond, but because the bond is too strong and unforgiving and unbreakable. I am building a house sign with aluminum numbers to be bonded with a dock piling. I'm going to use 5200.

[Sal Kurban]

Sorry, I have "laminated" 2" thick countertops. My "corian" type countertops are between 1/2" to 1" thick. I have about 10 of them in various dimensions but all are suitable for router tables.