To see all of our information on Corian^® please visit us at DiscoverCorian^®. There you will find free Manuals, repair information and prices. You will be glad you did.

We have a new website up. I have added the full manual "How to work with Corian in the home workshop" by duPont. In addition I have made notes with additions and changes to the original manual.

I will be adding many new features there. http://sites.google.com/site/coriartinc/

Enjoy

Ken

This chair is one of many made for Grand Central Station by Sterling Surfaces. Yes it is made of Corian. Corian is more than countertops. Sterling Surfaces is the premier fabricator in the United States for making extremely high end furniture and accessories from Corian, Their forte is thermoforming Corian and bringing into reality the visions of many designers. In this case David Rockwell.

If you would like to see more of their work, may I suggest the following link:

http://flickr.com/photos/sterlingsurfaces/page1/ . It will lead you to more than 350 pictures of their genius at work.

If you would like to try working with Corian in your home workshop or for manufacturing, give me a call at 1-800-724-4008

Ken

P.S. This is the first of many design idea pages I plan to post over the next month. If you would like your Corian design ideas posted here, please contact me.

Corian® Repair Chapter 1

Before repairing Corian® or other solid surface material it is necessary to understand why it might crack. Often an underlying problem should be repaired first.

Why would this incredibly strong material crack. The simple answer is stress. This can come from a strong impact or a pressure point. An accelerating factor can be a stress riser. A stress riser is a sharp groove such as saw tooth marks or a sharp inside corner cut. In my experience both of these are most often found in a cut out for the installation of a cooktop. When an inexperienced person installs an integral cook top they will not sand out the saw marks and they will try to make sharp (neat) inside corners. They figure that everything is covered by the cook top and there is no need to clean up the tooth marks. They usually use a saw rather than a router so they have the sharp inside corners.

Where do stresses come from?

They can come from a shifting house or an uneven support structure. Most often it comes from heat. Corian® and most other solid surface materials expand with exposure to heat. For Corian®, this takes some time as its high mineral content absorbs a lot of heat for each degree of temperature rise. However a malfunctioning appliance such as a crockpot or frying pan can produce a relatively small heated area in a large countertop. This expands a small area of the top while the remainder resists this movement. Something has to give. Sometimes a sharp sound is heard when this happens.

Another type of crack which usually appears in older Corian® installations is caused by repeated heating and cooling cycles. These appear in the bottom of sinks into which boiling water is often poured. (Boiling water should always be poured into an equal amount of cold water in the sink or at least with cold water running in the sink.) They also appear around cooktops even those properly installed. These cracks appear because of a different type of stress. Like many other materials Corian® aneals. That is, when heated and cooled its molecules realign. This can cause a small area, exposed to heat on a regular bases, to become smaller. Since the remainder of the countertop resists this change a crack may result.

In the next chapter I will discuss professional and do it yourself repairs for these cracks.

Repairing Corian® Introduction

I cannot believe that I have been away from this for so long. When I started this blog, I thought that I would have time to to do projects and artwork. I have been very busy with production and helping customers.

One of the things that has been taking a lot of time has been helping people with cracks on their solid surface countertops and sinks. I have developed several techniques for doing these repairs. I find myself repeating myself for each new customer. So, I will use this to display my findings and techniques so that people can get what they need and repair many accidents to their countertops themselves.

This will be a work in progress and will probably become a booklet we can add to "Working with Corian in the Home Workshop" by duPont, which we distribute freely now.

You can help by putting questions in the Comments of this Blog.

I hope this helps every one.

1. CoriArt
   
   This weeks Project: Corian Coat Hooks - 6 coat hooks a, 3 hour project.
   
   Tools needed: Table saw, Router table, Home oven (toaster oven will do), Oven gloves, a 12" piece of 2"X 6", Drill and enough Corian to make 6 - 12" x 2" x 1/2" strips.
   

1. Make the form as shown in the picture above. The piece of 2x6 shown is 8" long. I use gutter spikes in the holes as marked. The Corian will follow the black line.
2. Use a bevel or round over bit to finish all 12 edges of the 12" pieces of Corian.
3. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Use an oven thermometer to be sure that the temperature does not exceed 350 degrees.
4. Put one piece of Corian in the oven and heat for approximately 15 minutes, or until quite flexible.
5. Remove, with oven gloves, and wrap around nails as shown.
6. Allow to cool while second piece of Corian is in the oven. You can speed cooling by placing in water in the form.
7. Repeat for all hooks.
8. Drill and chamfer holes for mounting.
9. Sand and polish as desired.

I will add more plans and tips each week. Comment if you are interested. It will encourage me to do more. Don't forget to ask any questions you may have. For more information and supplies visit: http://www.coriartspecialties.com/

Most people think of Corian only for kitchen and bath surfacing. It is a beautiful and durable material that has been used for hundreds of alternate applications. This blog is dedicated to advancing the knowledge and awareness of its abilities and the techniques with which to use it.

I will provide projects, tips, and answers to your questions. I will try to answer common and specific questions you may have regarding Corian adhesives, cutting, shaping, forming and coloring. Though my business is to sell Corian to anyone who wants it, I will help you no matter where or how you obtained it. Though we are not in the countertops industry, I will answer, to the best of my ability, questions regarding this use as well. I hope you are able to use and enjoy this blog.