Corian for pen blanks?

[Joe Pack]

I saw the sticky here on SMC for predrilled corian pen blanks and am interested. Having never worked with Corian before, I have three questions...

1. How difficult is Corian to turn and smooth?
2. What is the best way to finish the surface?
3. How shiny can I make the final surface?

Thanks for the help.

Joe

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Joe,

When my manager got recalled to active duty 2 years ago, I turned to pens for him out of corian. The corian matched the desert camo they were wearing.

Corian is harder than wood but turns okay. I had to stop and resharpen my tools. Typically on a pen or even multiple pens, I can turn several before I have to resharpen my skew. With corian, to get through one I had to sharpen a time or two.

It sanded out nicely with a semi-gloss finish and I put nothing on it as I remember it.

It is more brittle and I had a tough time preventing blowout when I drilled the blanks. In the end, I made my blanks longer and if blow out occurred, I cut off the bad spot. I was using a sharp bit and I stopped and blew out the blank using my a/c. Still had problems.

As my manager was going to be in a live fire zone, I used a black pen kit that was non-reflective and I really didnt try to get a great shine on it.

Good luck!

[Don Carter]

Joe:
I have turned a bunch of Corian pens and I really like them. If you are getting predrilled blanks just make sure you kits to match the drilled blanks.
To practice go to a local countertop installer and asked it they have any cutoffs or scrap pieces. I had to glue up pieces to get the proper thickness. If you are drilling them, I began to put a small piece of thin plywood in the bottom of my drill press vise. It seemed to help prevent much of the blowout.
You can put almost any finish you want. I sanded using micromesh and used an auto scratch remover to polish. It makes great looking pens. :)

All the best.

Don

[M Toupin]

Corian is fairly brittle and will blow out easily. The best solution is to leave them 1/4" or so long and cut the blow out off. A scrap piece of wood to back up the underside helps when drilling as does clearing the swarf from the bit frequently.

While it's hard, it turns well with a scraper. Sand to 320 then use automotive buffing compound and then finishing compound to bring it to a full shine. Quick, easy and cheap.

Mike

[Keith Outten]

Joe,

I have a near inexhaustible supply of Dupont Corian in my shop, basically scraps from sign projects. Making Corian pen blanks seemed to be a reasonable way to use the excess material rather than discarding it or storing it for long periods of time. Most people can find a local source for Corian scraps, however I have found that many people have trouble drilling Corian pen blanks accurately and some have problems with blowout as mentioned above.

For those who either don't own a quality drill press or don't have it setup perfectly purchasing Corian pen blanks makes sense. I hired a friend of mine to help me in my workshop, he cuts and drills Corian pen blanks in between other projects and we are in the process of building a very large inventory of as many colors as we can. Our blanks are all cut to 2 1/8" long, they can easily be shortened to 2" for those pen kits that require that length. The 7 mm hole is drilled perfectly on center, this is a must since Corian material is 1/2" thick, the hole must be drilled perfectly straight from top to bottom as there is little room for error.

For a very long time I was giving Corian scraps away when people were willing to pay the shipping. This was very popular for awhile but the number of people who wanted Corian has declined, possibly because they had so much trouble with drilling blowout or could not drill their blanks straight enough. Our fee is based solely on the labor it takes to cut and drill our blanks and any profit we realize goes to support SawMill Creek.

Concerning your questions about ease of turning and surface finish we have found Corian to be very easy to turn, easy on our turning tools and a breeze to sand and polish to an extremely high gloss finish. IMO Corian is easier to finish than wood and provides a superior surface that will outlast all others. Most of the Corian pen turning in our area has been done by my oldest daughter Kathy and my friends wife Dale. These two ladies have made hundreds and hundreds of beautiful Corian pens.

Whether you decide to purchase Corian pen blanks or make your own I expect you will be very pleased with any Corian pen that you make. I have found that while woodworkers seem to prefer wooden pens the ladies will almost always select a Corian or acrylic pen over wood 95% of the time. Your mileage may vary :)

Visit your local top shop and offer to give them a few finished pens in exchange for some of their sink cutouts. They will almost always agree and you will most likely leave with a couple hundred pounds of free Corian....more than enough to satisfy your Christmas and birthday gift giving for years to come.
.

[Paul Douglass]

I've made lots of corian pens. I love to work with the stuff. Just follow the advice given here and you will have a great time. I sand mine with micro mesh to 12000 then use a plastic polish or Brasso to polish. Drilling is the hardest part. Heat is bad. Just go slow, clear often and leave extra length on the blank so you do not have to drill all the way through. Cut the blank to size after drilling.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Follow the advice above and you won't have any problems. One thing I do on my corian pens is when I sand I use auto wet/dry sandpaper wet. I cover my lathe bed and start at 220 to 600 and I keep dipping it in water. It makes a slurry and no dust. When I get to 600 grit I take it to the Beall buff. When I go thru the tripoli and white diamond it looks like glass. I also do this on my bottle stoppers that have the clear top with like ceramic roses and such embedded in them. It will actually magnify the piece. Ed Davidson put me onto this and it works well aka YoYo Spin who is well know for his corian yoyo's and pens.

[Joe Pack]

Thanks to all. I really appreciate it.

Joe