RB wrote:



J. Clarke wrote:
Tom Watson wrote:


On Sun, 30 May 2004 12:16:12 -0400, "J. Clarke"
wrote:



I note that neither of you has given any indication that solvent
cementing using methylene chloride and Corian dust will be
unsatisfactory in any
manner whatsoever. Do you have any reason to believe that it will?


The problem that I'm having with this is that you are fixating on the
chemistry, to the exclusion of other considerations.


That's because the chemistry is supposedly available only from DuPont.
The rest one can figure out one way or another.

Given a drop of their magic elixir it would be an easy job to determine
what their seam kit holds. FTIR Mass Spectroscopy and a few other
analytical tools will tell all.

Yup. And any way you cut it there's unlikely to be anything at all special
about it. But figuring it out requires tools that the average woodworker
doesn't have. Be nice if someone with access to the right facilities _did_
get hold of a sample and post the analysis somewhere.

RB



What about the selection of the sheets for color matching?

What about the proper type and preparation of the substrate?


What about the choice of choice of acceptable methods to cut the
sheets?

What about the proper tolerances for straightness and the gap between
joined sheets?

What about the proper clamping pressure at the seam?

What about how much to overfill the seam and what techniques are best
to deal with that?

What about the proper radius that's allowed in the cutouts?

In areas where cutouts are for stovetops, there is a specific 3M tape
that is used as a backer at the seam - what kind is it?

What about the mixing time of the seam kit? Should you knead by hand,
or put the tube in the clamp on you half-sheet sander, and run the
sander for how long?


Who's got a seam kit? And you mean that it's not labelled?


Speaking of sanders, what is the best type to use and what grits
should you start with?

What type of abrasive is best?

If you want to bring it up to a gloss, what grits and compounds are
used to do this?


The above is certainly not an exhaustive listing - merely a friendly
warning.


Substitute "Jarrah" or "Ipe" for "Corian" in the above and do any of the
questions change? Do you know the answers to all of them? Does that
mean that we should not try to make things out of Jarrah or Ipe?

I'm sorry, but the fact that one is going to have to do some
experimentation to back into the information that duPont _could_ make
available at no cost to themselves, does not make solid surface
impossible for anybody but those who have been trained by DuPont to work
with, it just means that one has to devote the same effort to learning
its properties that one does to learning the properties of any unfamiliar
material.

And what is the cost of a screwed up countertop bond? It's just
something
to fix. It's not like the world ends or anything.

Now, if you really cared about helping people instead of protecting us
from ourselves then you might provide the benefit of your vast training
and experience.


Regards,
Tom.

Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1



--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)