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In the past, I talked with both Ray and Chad about different glue possibilities to join solid surface to quartz. They taught me about the nature of the bond and that there would need to be more, but not a lot more, flexibility in the adhesive than in the standard solid surface glue.
This is the result of those conversations:
This is a Cambria display in the showroom. Pardon the mess. It’s always like that.
We installed a wall sheet of Corian behind the top.
It took a bit of fine tuning, but the wall sheet fits rather nicely…
Here’s a close up of the coved inlay. I know we are not the first to do this, but we want to make sure there will be no problems down the road, so that is why I sopent some time with the masters of adhesion.
It is not as smooth a transition as solid surface to solid surface, but it is better than I thought it would be.
It will also be a very expensive item, trust me on that.
Ray and I talked about it the other day. I would love it if he and Chad could chime in and fill in the blanks I couldn’t remember. The flexibility was the big thing, but there was so much more.
I was too careful about the amount of adhesive we left to cure. I had the guys take too much out, I think,m and the little bit of shrinkage exposed a little too much surface between the materials.
Tom:
How about waxing the Cambria deck and the cove without getting any on the freshly-cleaned surfaces to be adhered? You could let it squeeze out plenty and scrape it off easily.
Looks good.
Joe
Oh, you mean waxing to catch the overflow?
Hmm, interesting. Could it draw any of the wax into the adhesive?
The overflowing adhesive will trap the blue tape underneath when you try to remove it and you’ll probably gouge the solid surface if you try to scrape it off.
Joe
Posted By Tom M on 02 Oct 2010 05:52 PM
Oh, you mean waxing to catch the overflow?Hmm, interesting. Could it draw any of the wax into the adhesive?
Tom:
I don’t see how the adhesive could draw wax into the joint.
Joe
We did tape it before the glue, but to avoid what Joe said about trapping it, we pulled the tape right away. After that it was mostly very fine scraping and “cutting” of the adhesive before it cured.
The guys got it real tight, but I didn’t think about the small shrinkage that would occur, so there is a thin point that is not as smooth as it should be.
Andy, yes, the quartz top was rabbeted out. The difference here is we had to fit the cove to the slab, rather than the other way around with solid surface.
Hi Tom, It wouldnt let me post in your thread, so I decided to send an email. Later I discovered it was because I followed the link. Then when I came across this post here ( I look here from time to time since Im workingsome E stone projects) so I just laid the email in here.
That was a great looking job BTW! And as far as adhesion goes, you spoke to the right guys (Chad and Ray). If they say it adheres to the two materials I wouldnt even question it.
As far as the wax, Kowboys idea may have merit. It depends upon what type wax you use. I used to formulate adhesive, and actually put wax into some of it, that would demix after filling the joint and bloom to the surface without effecting adhesion.
What I would do is take different waxes and stir them into some freshly dispensed adhesive (make sure the catalyst is in there just like real life) and see what happens. If the wax breaks up it wont wick into the joint. But if it dissolves it may wick into the joint, like pencil and magic marker does. Better to find out in a freaking dixie cup, than on a mucho expensive quartz and SS co-joined top!
Also the other thing to be careful of is thermal expansion. I havent looked at the comparitive numbers, but Im thinking (just gut feeling) quartz expands /contracts a little less than SS.
If you did that in the NE, in a vacation sea shore home where maybe they shut down the house down for the winter, and then turned off the AC while they were out in the summer, the material could cycle thru an extreme temperature range. Or if you did it near a heat source (cooktop) etc, the same thing would apply.
The flexibility in the adhesive will help mitigate that, but Id run some tests, make as long as possible joint out of scrap quartz joined to scrap SS (size limited by your freezer and oven dimensions) put it in a freezer over night, take it out, let it slowly warm up to Room temp, then pop it into an oven for 6 hours (maybe 130 or 140 F), take it out, let it cool slowly to room temp. Then repeat the process at least 4 more times with the same piece and examine the joint to see if its cracked or has micro cracks with a magnifying glass or its loosened up etc.!
The reason I chose 130-140, is in your area, in the winter it goes below freezing (down to single digits Im betting), and up to 100 on a hot summer day (95 degree range or so). So 130 -32 = 98 degree range it could possibly cycle thru. More or less!
Just my few thoughts, hope it helps!
Posted By Tom M on 02 Oct 2010 11:26 AM
This is a Cambria display in the showroom. Pardon the mess. It’s always like that.
Andy –
I think you need to check the cuss word filter on the site. It let Tom say the ‘C’ word.Brian,
You kw, I had followed the threads in some forums about Cambria really p-s-ing off tradesman. I never quite knew what the deal was, but it seemed to be sort of not dancing with the girl that brung ya.While that is unfortunately not knew in our industry, it sucks. Really sucks.
That has not been the case in my area, from what I have seen, and the material and price are pretty good.
If there are threads you want to point out to me, I’d be glad to read them. my email is topmaker”at”ymail”dot”com.
Tom –
Unfortunately the majority of internet discussions that I know of are in member only sections of two forums / groups that I belong to so I can’t just send you a link. I will send you an email with my personal experience with the company though.Brian
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