Corian: Not Just for Worksurfaces

Corian. It's been around some years but I recently have had the chance to work with it and learn about it at the UKs number one Corian supplier, CD:UK.

The main use for Corian is for work surfaces, mainly kitchens and bathrooms, but I wanted to see if I could use it for other products. With it being such a versatile material, it seemed a shame not too!

Corian is a trade name of DuPont, which make some of the worlds most commonly used materials and chemicals. It is environmentally friendly, sustainable and durable. It is made from acrylic polymer and alumina trihydrate and therefore can be thermoformed.

It really is a strange material. Like granite in appearance, ceramic to the touch but soft as plastic when machining.

I strongly recommend that anybody tap up their local joiners to see if they have any off cuts of Corian you can rob to have a play with!

So far I have made a mortar bowl, kitchen knife handle, coffee coasters and a beech chopping board with Corian inlays. Also, a laser cut box with Corian logo inlay and used Corian for the top of a shard light I have just made!

The mortar bowl was cnc'd in rings, glued together and polished to achieve a seem less 3d artifact. The coasters were also cnc'd

The knife handle was all hand sanded and polished, and so was the blade that I put in it!

The chopping board is beech slabbed up, the grooves were routered out and the Corian inlayed and cnc'd to finish.

The laser cut box was an idea I had to see if I could laser cut Corian... Which was very successful!

Now a lot of things I make are from cnc purely because I have access through work, but it is easyily worked by hand and conventionally machined, just as any plastics are!

Have a go for yourself, it's brilliant!

Follow all my making pictures on Instagram: jfworks

Thanks,

Jordan.