Proper adhesive for Corian/Avonite stone
A few years back I bought a nice size scrap piece of 1/2 inch thick cultured stone…similar to corian…actual product is Avonite stone. I wound up not using the piece in favor of something else, but this week decided to make a recessed shower shelf. The shower was all tile, but the Owner didin’t have much xtra, and this Avonite was a close match… so I thought what the heck.
I contacted the cabinet shop where I originally bought the piece…this shop is approx 35 miles away…they told me they use a special epoxy. I asked them if regular, 2 part epoxy…the kind you buy at a auto parts store, would work. They replied that it should work just fine…they told me to rough up each glue surface with sandpaper, and to clean each piece with denatured alcohol before glueing.
The expoxy is a 5 minute fast set, 7 hour full cure, rated at 3400 PSI..and rated for both ceramic, stone and fiberglass, so I figured I had it covered.
I built my box and made a corressponding face frame to be glued on top of the box. Both pieces were clamped tight for 4 hours. I removed the clamps and the face frame is fine. The box seems fine until I try to scrape off some epoxy residue…next thing I know, whole thing falls apart.
I resand everything, clean it, etc, and re-glue. I leave the clamps in place and decide to attach face frame to the box…frame has been curing for approx 6 hours now. I mount the face, apply some clamp pressure, and SNAP! one side of face cracks apart! It broke off right behind the half lap glue joint!
Well, I positioned it best I could and added a few more clamps, and just hope it holds.
I’m totally concerned about whether I should even attempt to install this thing. The Epoxy was supposed to be highly water resistant, but I’m afraid the dang thing might fall apart in the shower during use.
Do you think the 2 part epoxy is simply not compatable with the Avonite? I thought epoxy was epoxy, but I ‘m starting to wonder. Any info on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
Davo
Replies
Find your nearest solid surface cabinet making shop, and buy a tube of their 2-part epoxy. They'll usually sell you some. The glue melts the SS material, and creates an invisible bond. Can't remember the name of it.
There is a website for SS materials and glue, but I can't find it on my bookmarks. Google it. You should be able to get it there.
You maybe mean http://stonewood.safeshopper.com/ ?
It may not be that easy. It used to come in little tubes that you would add he two parts together in, clamp it in a jitterbug to mix it, and squeeze out about 2 liniar feet worth of adhesive. You would have to have another tube ready and waiting or hte first batch would cure before you finished mixing the next one. Now it comes in tubes that load into a special (very expensive) gun. You screw on a tip that mixes the adhesive as you pump it onto the work surface. You best option is finding an old time kitchen shop that has been working with Solid Surface for a long time and see if the have any of the old tubes left. If you are not worried about invisible seams, use clear silicone. Thats what corian recommended before they started making the epoxy. But thats when their sheets were 3/4" thick and weighed as much as an elephant. You didn't need to laminate three layers together to acheive a nice thick edge profile.
I'm not clear if you are glueing avonite to avointe or avonite to something else. There's always calling avonite, the manufacturer. They used to only like to talk to or atleast cell to certified countertop fabricators.
I was glueing Avonite to Avonite.
Well, I did manage to finally glue up the shower shelf I was building. The shelf was a box frame with a face frame attached to it, and it had a bottom shelf and a mid shelf. The entire thing was approx 24 inches square and was to fit insde a wall recess that I previously built in the shower to accept this thing.
As I reported yesterday, the box frame fell apart approx 4 hours after my initial glue-up, and the face frame snaped when I was glueing/clamping it in place to the box frame after fixing the box frame. Well I fixed the face frame too, and let the whole project stay clamped together for 10 hours before removing the clamps.
I handled it with "kid gloves" and actually took it to the jobsite today and installed it in place. I embedded the entire unit inside the recessed hole with construction adhesive, and drilled 2 small holes thru each side frame and secured the frame with screws. Unit felt solid, just hope it holds up over the long run. Unit was made entirely from 1/2 inch material. All this thing is to do is to be a shelf for shampoo bottles and soap...not much weight to bear on the thing.
My big concern was the 2 part epoxy that I used. It seems like any type of sudden impact, however slight, is what casued the frame to fall apart the 1st time. Although, the box frame only had minimal glue contact...1/2 inch X 3 inches at each point; so there wasn't a lot of strength there in the first place. I was relying on the face frame, when glued to the box, to add a lot more strength to the overall construction.
I constructed the face frame out of 1/2 X 2inch wide stock, and cut half laps into each corner for strength. The half laps gave each piece a lot more glue area; than that of a miter joint. Even though the face frame snapped, it did not actually break on a glue joint...rather the frame just broke apart directly beyond the half lap joint.
It just spooked me that I had very little clamp pressure on the frame when it broke...this got me to wondering if this Avonite stuff is any good structurally.
Well if it breaks, I'm sure to hear about it and if it does, I'll let y'all know.
Davo