Would love to know where other people have gotten any type of stock from. A little while back I got a 1/2" thick board of plastic which was originally the counter you buy your food over at McDonalds. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. It's more brittle than I thought, it tipped over and cracked in half when I got it home so it's harder and more brittle than ordinary plastic.
I think it's Corian. We did some work at a few McDonalds a few years ago, and that's what the counters were. And it comes in 1/2" thickness.
Gerry
Mach3 2010 Screenset
http://home.comcast.net/~cncwoodworker/2010.html
(Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)
corian is brittle, but absolutly free machining, as fast as you can go, no worry about chips loading up or welding, they turn to dust. Your only limit is spindle speed and it polishes up real nice.
BTW, Corian is only 35% plastic? The rest is minerals? Something like that.
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Mark Twain
Corian is a mineral / binder mix. It is not all plastic.
Corian is fairly flat but a poor substitute for a proper granite roll-around. If it's for the top of a toolbox it might work pretty well. It's fairly impact resistant and the good thing about it is you can resand and repolish many times and even cracks can be repaired and resanded. It's practically inert to common shop chemicals. It's not good enough for an inspection plate or CMM base. It's only 1/2 thick.
As for the question at hand about stock from junk I only do that with wood for my burl projects. I just don't find it worth the time and effort to machine a smaller spoon from a bigger spoon.
"Corian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Corian® is the brand name for a solid surfacing material created by DuPont which is composed of acrylic polymer and alumina trihydrate. It is said to be a thermosetting plastic, but can be thermoformed by heating it to 300°F (149°C), allowing unique shapes to be created."
There's more.
No input on the actual subject but I just wanted to help clear this up.
I wonder what alumina trihydrate is?
Its aluminum Hydroxide Al(OH)3 Its an aluminum compound that is an intermediate in extracting aluminum from bauxite, a really fine white powder.
I work with Corian and its a brilliant material, heat a strip in an oven about 180C and you can literally tie a knot in it before it hardens and feels almost stone like.