Bird Bath

[StrataBoy]

We forgot to empty our bird bath last fall so when the water froze it cracked the ceramic bowl. Instead of buying a new one I decided I would try making one out of a scrap piece of Corian.

I started by cutting some scrap pieces of 2x4's into segments to make an octagon, and then glued them up on a piece of plywood. Next I created a molding tool path in VCarve to create a bowl shape. Once I had that I carved out both male and female mold forms. If you notice in the first picture there is a hole in the center. I used a long bolt and my T-track to hold the piece down since I could be carving away the perimeter.

Once I had the two molds complete I put the Corian in the oven at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes. Then I placed the Corian between the two mold pieces and clamped all around the perimeter. After it cooled down for several hours I removed and clamps and it was done.

I later discovered that birds see the color white as danger and they would not use it. So now a friend is painting them with some epoxy paint. I also discovered that the original piece of Corian that was 1/2" thick was a little difficult to form. In the future I think I would mill the thickness down a bit.

[sharkcutup]

I later discovered that birds see the color white as danger and they would not use it. So now a friend is painting them with some epoxy paint. I also discovered that the original piece of Corian that was 1/2" thick was a little difficult to form. In the future I think I would mill the thickness down a bit.

Awesome Job on the Bird Bath!!!

Sharkcutup

[Holzarbeiter]

That is an awesome job you did on the birdbath molds!
The question that immediately popped into my mind was; since you already have
the vectors drawn for the two mold halves why not just glue up some Corian and carve
the birdbath as a two sided job?

I can hear my better half now…you want to put WHAT in my oven??!

[StrataBoy]

I don't think gluing up several sheets of Corian and then machining everything out would be very practical. The first problem is that the Corian is never perfectly flat, so you'd first have to machine each sheet to get perfectly flat surfaces so they could be glued up well. That alone would take a lot of time since the bird bath is roughly 18" in diameter. Then once you had them glued up it would take several hours to carve them out since it is roughly 1.5" deep. Then you add the cost of all the special glue required to glue up five or six sheets.

Using the mold has several advantages. You only need to machine the mold once and then you can use it to make dozens of bird baths, eliminating all the machining it would take if had to machine each one. It also uses much less material and eliminates the glue altogether.

Gluing up several sheets of Corian might have one advantage. That would be that you could use a variety of different colored sheets and to get a striped pattern.

[Todd Bailey]

What a great project... another interesting use of the molding toolpath! I always like it when you think outside of the box when it comes to using the tools available in your software.

Also, I had a chuckle when you mentioned what the birds think of the color white... that would be my luck... all that work, just to find its downfall was the color... LOL...

Thanks for sharing... really good stuff!

[TomWS]

Once I had the two molds complete I put the Corian in the oven at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes.

So the corian actually melted and reflowed into your mold?!!??

I've never heard of this process before! Very interesting!

[Jan.vanderlinden]

Very nice work.
I work with Corian too, but had no idea that you cold mold it.
Thanks for sharing.

[StrataBoy]

Once I had the two molds complete I put the Corian in the oven at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes.

So the corian actually melted and reflowed into your mold?!!??

I've never heard of this process before! Very interesting!

The Corian doesn't really melt. It becomes soft and pliable so you can form it. Then once it cools down it holds its new shape. I suppose if you raised the temperature high enough it would actually turn into liquid. But then you'd have a real mess on your hands and your wife would probably kill you for trashing her oven. There are several You-Tube videos on how to form it. Commercially they have special ovens where they can form entire sheets of it.

[rscrawford]

Great idea! I have a hydraulic press that I use with forms I made to laminate wood strips into different shapes. Would be perfect for something like this (it has a 36" x 12" bed). Corian is rather expensive, so forming it would save hundreds of dollars over laminating it and cutting it out (a lot of wasted corian dust). Last time I bought a sheet of 1/2" x 30" x 12' of corian it cost around $1200 (haven't bought it for a while, so maybe it was more). I think PVC or ABS would also work fine.

[ira]

If you hang out at shops that do counters a lot of Corian is discarded, and things like the remains of cutting out a sink might be perfect for small things like this.