Circular Plaque and Stand - Completed

[Keith Outten]

I haven't engraved these yet but here is a picture of a plaque design I found on the Net somewhere. The 8" diameter disks are made from Pompei Red Corian and the stands are made from Everest Corian. The disks and stands were CNC cut then the stands were heated in a heat press so they could be bent. I haven't polished the stands yet, they should look as good as the red plaques when they are finished. The stands are 2" wide by 10" long with a 5.5" by 0.520" slot machined.

The first plaque should be in my laser engraver within the hour.


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[James Meagher]

Can someone tell me if I can buy these round plaques anywhere already premade.

[Craig Hogarth]

Can someone tell me if I can buy these round plaques anywhere already premade.

Or maybe Keith wouldn't mind posting something on the classified section ;)

pretty cool.

[Al Mutairi]

Nice work Keith , it's a damn shame that when it comes to corian laser capabilities are reduced to half , only engraving is possible on that kind of material :mad:

Those without a CNC like me can only watch & wish they can do that kind of work with their lasers .

[James Rambo]

Keith
I also would like to know if you are going to mass produce something like this for sale. They look great and I am going to have a show in November which these I think will sale well.

[Keith Outten]

I would be glad to cut these for anyone who wants them. Cutting the parts is quick and easy, its the routing, sanding and polishing that is so time consuming and drives the price up beyond what you would think. Even the bending is relatively painless, there is actually very little labor placing the stands in the press then clamping them to the pipe to cool down. There is some electricity involved as they have to cook for 20 minutes at 320 degrees F.

The time required to bring these to the high polished finish would make them too expensive for me to produce for general sale. I have some friends that might be interested in finishing these for sale, I will check with them and get back to everyone with their answer.

Here is the last picture before engraving and painting. The stands are made from Everest Corian and have a very nice speckle that doesn't show in the picture.

Al, these could be made easily with a couple of routing jigs and a band saw. Even fancy shaped plaques can be made by pattern routing, the CNC just makes things go faster and eliminates the need for patterns. What a CNC router will do in addition to cutting parts is deep engrave and v-carve which would be difficult to do with a pattern.

By the way the Pompei Rad Corian wholesales for $485.00 for a 30" by 145" sheet. It's one of the most expensive Corian colors that Dupont produces. Later this week I will make another batch of these using a dark blue Corian for the disks and Everest for the stands.

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[Keith Outten]

And here is the final product.

Corian is such a beautiful material and easy to engrave it opens up all kinds of possibilities for your customers. Even small scraps can make elegant desk name plates, your options are endless. Finishing doesn't require a spray gun or days of applying coats of lacquer or polyurethane. You can laser engrave it, spray it with paint and sand off the excess without even using a mask. Your text and graphics will be pristine. Polishing is the only procedure I know of that I haven't been able to do in a short period of time. The white signs were sanded with an ROS to 220 grit, they were not polished.

Simple shop tools like a band saw or jig saw, random orbital sander and a router are the basic tools necessary for most jobs and you have a project that is unique, suitable for exterior service and very attractive.

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[Michael Kowalczyk]

Hey Keith,
Very nice idea. That is so cool that the school gets you to do this stuff in house. I am thinking about making wall sconces and other lighting that will use Solid surface material, I like some of the Avonite, Dovae and Mysteria choices also, and was thinking about doing a lithophane and then heating and bending it like you do. I want to try to use 1/4" stock so the light penetrates better and is quicker to heat up and bend but I hope it is not too brittle then. Have you bent any 1/4" Corian? Is it half the time as 1/2"? Have you heated and bent any that look like salad bowl? on purpose that is:).

Thanks for continuing to stimulate the creativeness each of us has in us,

[Mike Null]

Keith

Beautiful work.

[Keith Outten]

Hey Keith,
Very nice idea. That is so cool that the school gets you to do this stuff in house. I am thinking about making wall sconces and other lighting that will use Solid surface material, I like some of the Avonite, Dovae and Mysteria choices also, and was thinking about doing a lithophane and then heating and bending it like you do. I want to try to use 1/4" stock so the light penetrates better and is quicker to heat up and bend but I hope it is not too brittle then. Have you bent any 1/4" Corian? Is it half the time as 1/2"? Have you heated and bent any that look like salad bowl? on purpose that is:).

Thanks for continuing to stimulate the creativeness each of us has in us,

Michael,

Actually these plaques were made in my shop for a local elementary school. I will be making another batch later made from dark blue Corian that will be used for desk name plaques for CNU.

I haven't had the opportunity to bend 1/4" Corian yet. I expect the bending times will be shorter for material that is half the normal thickness though. All the thermal bending I have done has been basic bends so far. I am looking forward to being able to bend more shapes in the future. Bending requires that you make both male and female forms for most jobs to hold the Corian securely until it cools below 180 degrees F. I wouldn't worry about Corian becoming brittle, when it is heat soaked properly is gets almost like a wet noodle and once it cools returns to its normal state like it was never heated.

I try to stay away from most other solid surface materials because many are resin based. Corian machines, bends and engraves well which makes it the premium solid surface material for signs and shop fabrication in my opinion. I recently purchased a sheet of 1/4" Glacier White Corian to use for lithophanes and some dye-sub projects I have coming up so I should have a bit more experience with the thin stuff soon.

In spite of the bending part of this project I hope that more people will see how easy Corian is to work and engrave. Actually heating Corian for bending can be done in a kitchen oven but I would suggest people purchase a small baking oven if they want to give it a try. Bring the temperature up real slow to keep from overheating the surface.

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[Thinus Rabie]

Thanks for sharing the corean idea with all of us! looks great!