Cutting Corian

[avilaks]

I searched the forum and haven’t seen any recent updates. Now that more folks have received their Glowforge, has anyone successfully cut corian?

[PFI-Guy]

It is somewhere in the “Beyond the Manual” category, but not officially PG

Here is some references:

Etching and cutting Corian

Since ordering my Glowforge I kept running into to many ideas of things I wanted to try making so I started using a laser at my office I was able to get access to. I figured I’d share what I got out of my Corian (http://www.dupont.com/products-and-services/construction-materials/surface-design-materials/brands/corian-solid-surfaces.html) tests with the group in case anyone was interested. For anyone unfamiliar with Corian, it’s a synthetic stone type material made out of acrylic and aluminum o…

Corian Scoring and Engraving

[image] [image] After @karaelena’s demo of marble, I got a piece of corian out. This is a 4x4" piece .47" thick. I did a small test of an initial in the lower right corner, stopped it and just did the whole thing. Did a combination of trace and engrave to try and highlight the ducking in and out of the knot work. I’m pretty happy with it. 5%, 335 in/min at 340 lpi. I have a whole box of these pieces in many different colors. One thing to note about the scoring. Compared to the etching it wa…

[marmak3261]

Good question. I don’t recall anyone posting about cutting Corian with a production unit, Basic or Pro. I’ll throw some in and see what I come up with. From @macphee’s post using a beta, it should work with multiple cuts.

I'd never triforce you to eat these cookies

One of my friends recently brought over his switch and let me play a bit of the new Zelda. So to celebrate I decided to make some cookies. I figured I’d try and do something more than just regular cookies so I decided it was time to try using some 1/2" Corian material I had available to me. I picked out a nice triforce pattern and vectorized it into something I could work more easily with. I did a nice slow and deep engrave into it and then did a multi-pass cut which I was happy to see worke…

[avilaks]

Awesome. I think I’m going to go ahead and get my hands on some to play with. Also want to sublimate on whatever it is I cut (if successful!).

[marmak3261]

I have moved this to Beyond the Manual because there is no Proofgrade Corian at the moment and no default settings, so all the discussion would be appropriate to beyond the manual. It’s not specifically a problem with how the Glowforge functions as in errors or other issues.

Do you have a Pro? I did seven passes for 1/2" Corian and didn’t make it through, just about 3/8". I did 3 passes at .4333" focal, 2 passes at .3 focal and two passes at .15, all at 100 speed (slowest) and full power. I haven’t looked at my lens, but I was pushing it. Full power, at any speed throws sparks up high.

Perhaps a Pro could do better at cutting. It would be possible to cut 1/4" Corian, I’d say, with a Basic, but with multiple passes. Until I check the lens though, I’d be hesitant. Those sparks at high power come straight up and it’s as if the air assist has no effect, which is very unusual. I’d say those sparks have some momentum not to be deflected by the air assist.

I didn’t bother with engraving, but now that the improvement to 3D is in, I will. Corian engraves very well. You can get some depth and get some 3D. More testing to come for engraves, I just don’t have many good files for engraving 3D, but as an emboss or relief tool, Corian is great.

[macphee]

My notes from cutting Corian are all in the old UI and from my beta unit which is different from the release model. I think for cutting 1/2" Corian I used 6 passes though at full power and like 4% speed or so. For deep engraving I did full power and single pass, but around 50 speed. Not sure what those speeds convert to in the new UI though or how they’d work on a release model. I didn’t change focal length for any of them, just used .4". Hopefully they start to get you in the right zone for some testing though

[scott.wiederhold]

@macphee

Not sure what those speeds convert to in the new UI though or how they’d work on a release model.

Power ratings are reportedly the same (see post for full details). Speed settings can be converted using the official conversion tool.

Not sure what the differences between the the beta and production unit would be. So, some experimentation would certainly be in order.

I have Corian arriving on my doorstep tomorrow. I am very interested to see what can be done with it.

[davefink]

I was able to cut 1/2" corian on a Pro using speed = 100 and full power with 3 passes. It “just” made it through so possibly dropping power slightly and using a fourth pass might be best. Still doing some trial and error on that.