Corian in a planer ?

[Gary Malone]

Doug, I bought a 16" MiniMax with a carbide tipped blade and it slices through the solid surface material like butter! Let us know how the planer works though, I'm curious, but I would be standing way back when that piece goes through the planer.

[Ger21]

I frequently have to take 1/2" solid surface down to 3/8" or 1/4", about 50 sheets/year. I use a 3 flute low helix upcut at about 650ipm (1/2" bit and 3/8" stepover). (On a big Morbidelli)

Be aware that some colors will remain flat, but others will warp like crazy. Corian seems to be more likely to warp than Wilsonart, from my experience.

[Xray]

Can't stand back from a planer as you have to feed it in. All the motion goes away from the operator, if it shattered and got spewed out in shards [which I highly doubt would happen], everything would be ejected forwards.
I don't anticipate problems, I am going to take 1/16 bites or less.

Gerry, could you provide any links to the blade you use ? I am going to get one for resawing wood, probably be a good idea to get another for corian. Was contemplating the resaw king from Laguna but am going into sticker shock with its price [it is carbide].

[darren salyer]

I've ran corian glueups across a 12" jointer before. It is very hard on blades.

[dustboy]

Yeesh, I would mill it on the CNC with a spoilboard bit for sure. At least you would have control of the feed rate. 1/16" cuts on the planer sound like a dubious proposition, I would start with 1/64 and see how it goes. Knives will be cooked by the end.

[Xray]

1/64 would be out, I might as well just sand it by hand.
I know I can mill it, I have done so before, I'll do it again but I'm really curious about the planer, really don't think it will be as bad as some are thinking. Once I get my bandsaw then hopefully I won't have the need to do either.

[Gary Malone]

Doug my blade on bandsaw is 1" wide re-saw blade, don't know the model # or brand but a really coarse cut about 2 teeth per inch. It came with the saw when I bought it and was around $250 price range. What Gerry said about the warping is correct, I notice it more on white Corian than most others.

[Xray]

Did some milling today, piece was 30"x17", enough for 6 8x10" blanks or so. Had to leave a little slack for hold down screws, I came within a hair of each with the .75 surfacing bit.

As you can see, my shop vac was not up to the task of sucking up all the corian dust, I'd say it got about half. I could see it shooting through the hose but it just could not keep up. Luckily corian dust is relatively heavy and settles quickly, but still I am looking forward to getting my new dust collector hooked up and see how that does.

My planer experiment is out for the moment, I'd have to do that outside and right now everything is snow and ice bound. Better yet, once I get my bandsaw I am hoping to get .75 corian sheets and slice them in half, that would double my profits and do away with having to mill the stuff.