Corain Repair Liquid For Inlays ?

[Pibrocher]

I install kitchen cabinets for a living and have conversed with several Corian counter-top installation friends. They showed me a liquid Corain repair liquid that struck me as an awesome way of doing inlay work. Simply route out the area you want inlayed then fill with the liquid Corian. The Corian sets up hard and can be sanded till flush with the surface of the guitar. The liquid also is available in as many colors as there are Corian types. Only problem seems to be acquiring the stuff.

Does anyone know where i can order some of this wonderful Corian repair liquid?

My installation friends said it is only sold to certified Corian installers. They let me borrow the gun used to mix and apply the Corian. It is similar to epoxy, as it comes unmixed and in two tubes. I can't seem to get any for my own personal use though.

I'd like to experiment more with it in my own time.

[skibum5545]

Cool idea. It's been tried with epoxy, dental amalgam, and solder, as far as I know. The main fault is that the routing has to be PERFECT, or your inlay comes out weird. With MOP or abalone, you can fill the gaps with epoxy and sawdust, and no one will ever know the diff. You don't have that liberty with liquid anything.

However, if all you want are dot inlays, it would look sick as heck.

[Clavin]

Skibum5545 is totally correct.

Let me preface this with please no one take any offense to the following possibly frustrated tone of this post.

Unless your routing is absolutely perfect, and no not even CNC routing is, as all wood will fray a bit (shell can be sanded smooth, thereby defining a clean edge) it's going to look off.

Many many people here on this forum are looking for cheap, FAST ways to do inlay. I'm sorry to say there isn't a high quality effective way. Yes CNC is cheaper and faster than hand cutting, but unless your set up for it and doing runs of 100 or more, your most likely not going to make a living at it, or have the finances to set up a small shop for yourself. Just the programming for new art takes hours by a trained programmer. If your the hobbyist level luthier why not take the time to do it absolutely perfect, by hand, learn an old world skill, and be really proud of doing it the right way?

I'm sorry to sound a little bitter here but everyone these days wants fast and easy. I often have possibly new clients look at a CNC site, then at my work, and want that for the same price as CNC. They get frustrated when they find out they can't and WON'T get it for that price.

The top people in the field, the artists everyone look up to, are not doing it fast and easy. That's why their work stands out!

Now on the other hand their is an absolutely possibly perfect application for the stuff your talking about. I have also seen it offered on EBAY for certain colors, so start a search there, maybe corian glue? If your doing an inlay out of SOLID corian already, and it has shell/corian/shell joints in it, you can use that stuff as filler to make your cuts look perfect, as it will fill the inlay inside the cuts, and hopefully match. OR, if you inlaying into corian (YES it can be done, I have seen it) with shell, then of course you can make it look absolutely pefect. Cut the inlay, rout the corian, add the inlay, fill with the glue. etc.. NO gaps whatsoever. In these ways yes it may be a miracle inlay material, but definitly NOT for the original inlay idea. It will also work of course if your doping inlays into kitchen counters! (I plan to do that one day)

Hope this all makes sense.

Do it right the first time.

Craig Lavin, officially off of soap box.

www.handcraftinlay.com

[Longwing]

This has been covered already but I picked up a great tip from Jeremy of LGM guitars, using Crystal clear which is what model railroaders use to make their water, lakes rivers etc.. It sets up hard as a rock and is clear completely.

The ownly issue is if your ditch is out at all, the clear will not look uniform, a little distorted etc. Which for some types of inlay are OK but others would be ugly and cheap looking. The stuff is avalible at most hobby shops.

Thats what is cool about LGM, always thinking outside the box.

I hope that helps.

Blake.

[Moreau]

Corian is very cool. My mom built a house bout 10 years ago with corian counters in the kitchen. Very cool looking. We got a nice big corain cutting board from the scraps, I was a lazy kid and just cut on the counter though. lets just say corians tough... how is it to work with to make inlays? Im thinking oon the right instrument a corian nut will be cool..... has anyone done that?? I think it would be sweet. its gotta be more hard and dese than wood. or am i wrong? im still learning haha. Corian Nut.... think about it.

[Clavin]

It works just like shell.

It's very hard, and can be engraved as well. I have seen it used for fretboards.

Craig

[bluespresence]

The latest issue of Popular Science has an article on using molten sulfur (peeeew!!) for inlay work. It looks very nice but the guy said it stinks to high heaven when melting it!! Point is IMO most anything can be used for inlays.....on a fretboard though it would have to be hard enough to withstand years of strings dragging across it. Corian seems to fit the bill from my "kitchen" experience with it

[Primal]

I've always though that solder would work well. Awhile back I did an experimental inlay of a bass cleff and filled it will plumbing solder. Works well as long as you fill the inlay cavity quick enough.