I have never worked with solid surface countertops before, I am building a front counter with a solid surface top.
I have done a lot of research and read a bunch of posts and watched a bunch of videos.
My question I guess is there much of a difference between material? I was planning on using Wilsonart material as I deal with them for other stuff. I worked with plastic laminate for years and we always tried to color match on solid colours because our shop preferred Wilson art or Formica, I am curious if there is a preference for solid surface ?
Thanks

It's not difficult to work with, results will vary depending on how well you follow the rules. Usually it requires certification to purchase material, you might get someone to sell it to you. Not being a certified fabricator what you won't get is any kind of warranty. You can easily get certified, find a supplier that has classes and sign up.

The difference between brands is mostly color and patterns. The chemical composition is about the same as are working requirements.

Bruce,
Thanks for the information, I am not a fly by night guy, actually more of a perfectionist, I just thought the course and training was only a corian brand thing.
I will ask the wholesaler about taking a course.
Thanks again.

I think what you'll find with most of the off-brands is there really is no training. Depending on your location and who else is fabricating in your area you may or may not be able to even buy some brands. If some of the bigger brands have a single or a few fabricators in your area you likely wont even have access to purchase (wilsonart, corian, etc.). In our area Formica, 909, Livingstone, LG, Durasein, Aristech, on down the line, are pretty much wide open. Their "training" will be a PDF/video.

Even with the big boys the warranty is not necessarily a material warranty as your likely never going have a material failure. The training is there so you represent the product/brand suitably. Most any failure your going to have will be a fabrication flaw and that will be on you period, not the product warranty.

MarkB,
Start off by saying I replied to Bruce and put my name as Bruce as well, sorry about that.

I have only talked to two wholesalers, they said they would sell to me and like you said, they said there was not really a course, one was Wilsonart and the other Formica. They are the same wholesalers I buy all my materials from so it is quite convenient.
Apparently there is data on there website for working with the product.
Maybe I will find a supplier who offers a course and take it just so I am confident with supplying a professional job all around.

I got my training from Corian and Wilsonart. At the time they were real picky at whom fabricated the product. It was never rocket science, just plain common sense. I'd suppose with the changes in economy the classes offered got dropped. There is a lot of information online. Watch a few videos and you'll be go to go.

Tom Pinske (The Pinske Edge) has a great video he did with Dean at Hometime. Tooling ramp up on a one off top might be a little far out. I have over a dozen routers set up with bits ready to go. fifteen dozen clamps and the list goes on...

I took the Corian course a long while back and it was clearly a course in protection of the product/brand which makes total sense. They dont want a bunch of yay-hoo's out there shipping "corian" tops (corian being a bit of a trade name for solid surface in general) that fall apart giving "the product" a bad wrap.

Wilsonart in my area (small) is not available to us because another shop is fabricating for the home centers and is very protective of that market. Corian has no distribution in our area without massive freight charges and their pricing of material prices them out of the market anyway. Formica, and all the others, are wide open. We do commercial work and if your the competitive bidder the architects will pick from your offering period. Its very rare, other than collusion or a match job, that a specific brand is the only option.

Bruce is spot on. Anyone is going to struggle to be competitive on-mass unless your setup. Swapping tooling between a hand full of routers, not having CNC, not having a way to deal with the colossal mess that IS solid surface, makes it a nightmare. In our small shop, were it not for the CNC and cutting everything and anything possible on the CNC, for the mess and cleanup alone, it would be a loser.

There is a local top shop here that I have no idea how OSHA has not cleaned their clocks. The place is like a snow storm. Chips and dust EVERYWHERE... fine powder from uncollected sanding and routing, guys walking around completely white in dust other than a mask and goggles. But they make miles of tops.

The granite top shop crackdown would seem to be headed squarely at any top shop that works with any of this.

Thanks for all the great info guys.

I was wondering what tooling you recommend, and what are your feed and speed recommendations for cutting on the cnc?

On a side note I was going to make a coffee counter with an L shape top, the top is 30 inches wide, so I have already bamboozled myself on making the inside corner as the material comes in 30 inch widths. According to the manufacturer you don’t want a seen there and the inside corner should have a radius. Back to the drawing board and learning curve.

Reading through the fabrication info will give you all the information with regards to basic construction. Tooling is wide open and feeds/speeds are pretty machine dependant. Get in touch with the Mfr. rep in your area for the product your using. They will be far more help than anything you'd find here or online