[Matt Dufinetz]

I have seen in other threads mention a standardized fabrication manual. Formica Corporation would assist in creating such a document to help the industry fabricate our brand of solid surface and help create a standardized manual to prevent confusion when fabricating. Such a document would have to be approved and endorsed by Formica. We look forward to pursuing such a project.

[Randy Wilkinson]

The manual rough draft is partially done, I emphisis rough and partial. While writing it, I am reminded constantly how much thought goes into each manufactures manual. Would Formica consider providing drawings or photographs that could be included in the manual? That would be a big help, credit could be given to protect any copywrighted material. If you have a copy of your manual available online, send me a link. The one in the resources section has a broken link, I haven’t been able to get it to open. Copied and pasted or a word file is best, I haven’t figured out how to copy and paste from the pdfs yet.

Got a side project taking a lot of time this week, plus a home and garden show coming up next week, so it will be a month or so till the rough draft is sent out for editing by Andy and Mory. They need to get past the show as well, keep in mind these guys have families and businesses. Once polished up a bit and corrections made, it will need to be sent to all interested manufacutures for comments and suggested revisions. Get contact info to me so the email gets to the right guys.

Will we please everyone? No way, but since this manual will be intended as a basic fabrication manual only, with repeated references to double checking the manufactures manual additional info, we feel it will be well received by the brands. In addition, we hope to get agreement on ten to fifteen standards such as seam blocks, heat tape or substrate, thereby setting industry standards. True, most already require all of this, but by putting it down on paper so to speak, posting it online here at The Fabricator Network, it can be used to show comsumers what the minimum fabrication of solid surface requires.

Check the posts in the fabricator community projects from time to time for more info on what is going on.

[Matt Dufinetz]

Due to the size of the manual, we do not have this is a work format. I will check with the marketing department on the pictures to see if that is possible to get these to you. Here is the link:

http://www.formica.com/publish/site/na/us/en/index/solidSurfacing/documents.html

We do not put this in as a word document for security reasons also. .pdf ‘sare harder to modify without us knowing about it.

[Tom M]

I gripe a lot about how the commoditization of this industry is a bad thing, and I still believe it whole-heartedly. There are some strong benefits to this in other industries that have yet to take hold here. If we are in this phase of the business, we might as well get the rewards that come with it. One would be a standardized manual.

Matt, thanks for giving it the support that will help make it happen. I am fairly sure that, unless all brands are represented by name, perhaps none should be. That doesn’t mean we can’t use Formica images, I’m just not sure it should be identified (except in attribution – the others shouldn’t mind that).

Tom

[Andy Graves]

Thank You

Need I say more. Matt and everyone at Formica have been great to work with. We really appreciate the fact that you would openly help when you don’t really have to. You will be contacted for your input and assistance.

Andy and Mory

[CHARLESTOWN kb]

I downloaded manual, thanks. Looking forward to get a chance to use the pictures, if it works out. If not, something will be done. Big thanks to Matt, we definetly have a friend at Formica.

[Author]

Posts