Have you ever tried sandblasting Corian?
What grit would be best?

I'd be interested in shining up a slab to a glass-gloss finish then
having my signmaker cut me some resist and create some plaques for my
own use at an exhibit I'm doing in April. Stuff like name-plates, logos
etc.

This would be in addition to inlays and CNC routered letters. These
countertops are making me money, but I want to have some fun, dammit.

Plexi? Aluminum (aluminium)

All hints and suggestions will be appreciated.

r

"Robatoy" wrote in message
ups.com...
Have you ever tried sandblasting Corian?
What grit would be best?

I'd be interested in shining up a slab to a glass-gloss finish then
having my signmaker cut me some resist and create some plaques for my
own use at an exhibit I'm doing in April. Stuff like name-plates, logos
etc.


You've got me confused. Sandblasting is not going to get you to a glass
gloss finish. Quite the opposite. Can Corian even be brought up to that
kind of shine? Is the surface that smooth? If it is then I'd go with
progressive sandpapers, up to rubbing compounds. Hard to guess where to
start. Try some 600 and see what it does. Adjust from there. Expect to go
up to 1500 or 2000. I don't know if rubbing compound will even work though.
I don't know squat about Corian, but I always thought it was pretty hard
stuff.

--

-Mike-

Have you ever tried sandblasting Corian?
What grit would be best?

You've got me confused.

Me too. I'm Andy (well, I'm one of them) but I haven't done any
sandblasting, or any work with Corian. If I had to guess, I'd say
paste wax or auto polishing compound would put a nice gloss on corian
(if it isn't glossy to begin with), but that sandblasting would make it
less glossy.
Andy

Sorry folks....

I can see where I wasn't clear.

I would make it glossy first (I have done this for clients before),
then blast a pattern (photo or mechanical resist) into it with grit
like what is done with glass.
Yes, Corian (acrylic) can shine close to a car's paintjob when taken
through the right steps.
2500 grit is pretty shiny.

The Andy I was hoping to hear from as well, is the kind fella who just
gave some very informative answers to another poster in here.

I have Googled a fair bit on blasting acrylics, I just don't have a
clue how well that would work with Corian and such.

r---- who's thinking of another way to put my brand on a finished
product.

Robatoy wrote:

r---- who's thinking of another way to put my brand on a finished
product.


I wonder if one of the chemical etching products that are designed for
use on glass such as "EtchAll" would work.

http://www.glass-etching-kits.com/et...ies_orders.htm

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA

Robatoy wrote:

I have Googled a fair bit on blasting acrylics, I just don't have a
clue how well that would work with Corian and such.

I've blasted acrylics, polystyrene and ABS a few times, mainly to clean
up car rear light lenses during restorations. You have to use an
extra-soft medium like ground-up nut shells (you can make your own) and
you have to be careful not to be heavy-handed because it certainly
won't polish out scratches. To take scratches out I use wet & dry, then
Micro-mesh.

I haven't ever blasted Corian, but I doubt if you'd get a polish onto
it. I think that our local stone supplier offers it with a rough
textured finish that they achieve by blasting with a heavy grit. I've
had slate from them that they finish in this way and AFAIR they also
offer it on their Corian-like product.

For glass I use grit blasting fairly often. This is to make frosted
glass, either as a light diffuser or to etch patterns into it by
spraying through a sticky-backed plastic mask (SBP is a traditional
British craft material - ask Valerie Singleton). This is one of my most
popular uses for the grit blaster.

Again you can't get a polished finish this way. I have quite a bit tied
up in diamond and cerium oxide glass grinding and polishing kit too,
but even that's a painful way to go to a polish. It's a lot easier to
do this on a soft lead crystal goblet than it is on some freaky bit of
coloured Spectrum that's just dying to shatter in your hands and waste
your evening!

I'll buy new glass before I go anywhere near hydrofluoric acid etches.
Those things scare me. Incidentally, many of the retail "glass etches"
are actually just an aerosol diffusing varnish, not an etch at all.

No it's not but it will carve the sign after he applies the resist as he
stated in his post.

"Mike Marlow" wrote in message
...
Sandblasting is not going to get you to a glass
gloss finish.

"CW" wrote in message
ink.net...
No it's not but it will carve the sign after he applies the resist as he
stated in his post.

Ah-ha... that may serve to straighten out my cornfusion.


--

-Mike-