I have been looking at Quartz Counter Top remnants to use for a CNC router base. Has there been any research on this?
I have been looking at Quartz Counter Top remnants to use for a CNC router base. Has there been any research on this?
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Rough concept of what I am talking about. The Quartz counter top is made of 93% quartz and 7% binder. It is pressed and heat treated for high strength. The size of pieces that I would use are all available in the remnant area for about 10$ a square foot. I would use inserted nuts for clamping and jack screws and then fill the gap between pieces with epoxy so that all dimensions could be as accurate as possible.
I'd be asking two questions:
- is it flat
- is it stable or at least consistent wrt temperature changes
Probably more stable than home-made epoxy-granite, as the makers are doing it on a production basis.
Flat? That you can fix/handle yourself fairly easily with a tiny bit of epoxy fill.
Old tombstones - they are the thing. Matured.
Cheers
Roger
Hmm, might have to go "shopping" one night?
If it goes all Buffy on me I'm gonna blame you, Roger.
Ah, don't worry: we'll send the Drop Bears after her.
Hey - maybe we could put the whole Liberal Party (State & Fed) into the Hellmouth?
Cheers
Roger
*BACK into the Hellmouth?
YEAH.
Is no one worried about the eventual Ghost in the machine?
Lee
Ghosts?
Poor weak pathetic gutless GHOSTS?
Look Lee, our machines already have quite enough Gremlins in them that there is no room for ghosts. Forget it, ain't gunna happen.
Cheers
Roger
Descartes or Deadly Terrors type Ghost in the Machine? I can deal with the former, and I write software so wrestling psychotic bugs into submission is part of the daily routine.
Boggarts. Definitely.
Yess, Miss Susan.
NOT THE POKER!
Ahem.
None of this is helping the OP.
Levelling out with a gloop of epoxy - surely that's not going to be particularly strong without filler, is it?
It works great as an adhesive or a filler. Not as well as a surface. Especially if it is laying on an already smooth surface.
Lee
Epoxy - well, I know many people have used it happily. It's all about pressure: if the epoxy is spread out over a large area the surface pressure will be low, within what epoxy can handle. Sure, add filler if you want. Not a lot of difference between epoxy fill between rail and base to handle small gaps, and Turcite plastic on dovetails. Granted, some discretion about what is resonable is required.
Cheers
Roger
Having it ground flat is likely the best scenario. Anything else may or may not work, so would be a gamble.
If you have some extra material. Give it a few tests. You might consider adding glass fiber if it is pretty thin. That would give it some inherent strength.
Lee
I did a little research on the topic.
As far as I could find just about all counter top composite is made with polyester.
Polyester keeps on hardening over time so the machine would get more brittle over time.
For a thick base that may not be a problem but for me it meant I went back to working towards self made epoxy concrete.
I would never use the material as thin as it appears to be in the sides of the gantry in the sketch
Sven
http://www.puresven.com/?q=building-cnc-router
Not quite right. Solid-surface (countertops) are made of epoxy, acrylic and polyester, in descending order of cost. Lab benches are often made of epoxy, to get the highest performance. Polyester can be thermo-formed - which may or may not be good for a CNC build.
What is interesting is that materials like Corian are acrylic resin with aluminium trihydrate as the filler. Looks very nice, and is available in big sheets. It can be glued. But you can also get quartz/resin, glass/resin (as in broken bottles I think!) and granite/resin sheets. An interesting thought. Not as dense as steel, but it could be easily as heavy when you build up the thickness.
Even more interesting: you can buy the two-packs kits for repair and casting by the gallon through Amazon. The stuff is no longer hard to find.
Cheers
Roger
Ah, yes. All the information I (me) could find on the composite stone I (me) could get my hands on seemed to be made with polyester.
And then I forgot that there are more polyesters than just the ones used for boats and some are thermoplastics.
Not quite sure what to call the glass fiber build kind, but as far as I do know, glass/polyester boats keep on hardening and thermoforming is not possible.
Sven
http://www.puresven.com/?q=building-cnc-router