I looked at that, but DIY was not in my plan and no installer would use 3rd party materials. Hope you have better luck!

Bummer, that's what I suspected.

Fabricating solid surface isn't that technically difficult, but with the cost of the tools and bits you'll have to buy/rent, it may be difficult to make it cost effective.

I"ve got a 3 1/4 h.p. Festool plunge router that's never seen production work (repairs only) and a Fein sander and vacuum that I'd let go for cheap. Momma wants the garage cleaned out. I may throw in some used bits for the right number.

Solidsurface has fabrication guides at their website. No personal experience but from all that I've read, all you need is some basic common woodworking tools...router, sander, etc., to fabricate the acrylic solid surfaces like Corian. Fabricating quartz is a whole other can of worms but I don't think they sell quartz anyway.

Solid Surface 101

I think we've got all the tools for the job, though I appreciate the offer and empathize with yo momma. My SO makes furniture (please google the portlandia sketch about the guy who makes furniture for lols) and we have a woodshop instead of a garage. I'm mostly iffy on the time commitment and the ability to really work the edges like a pro. Like if it will take 50 hours of sanding and buffing to do what a machine in a countertop fabricator does in 4 minutes then the cost savings are not worth it to me. Maybe I'll get a $20 slab at the reStore and just play with it.

Avoid overworking it and scorching the resin. Have waist high worktables, not sawhorses. The difficult part is the edge buildup and subsequent routering, or any seams. You are not likely to have the tools for good seams, and investing in them won't help with the cost to value ratio here. It is a time intensive project to get a feel for how it's different from working wood.

An option that might help is to get a sink top--then you can avoid the sink cutout. Maybe someone can offer up the proper term. Maybe worktop sink? But the sink (usually stainless steel unless you get an old drainboard sink, which would be cool) is integrated into the bit of counter that goes all the way to the back. This one is 25" front-to-back. (Julien worktop.) No curvy cuts required. It's also $$$ and will eat up any savings, but this is the general idea. :)

Elkay has worktops with drainboards which are extremely cool if you have space for them.

I considered this option a year or two ago and spent way too much time looking over their choices and reading their tutorials. Have you poked through them? They seem fairly easy to follow. http://solidsurface.com/working-with-solid-surface/cutting-routing

One thing I thought about doing was posting an ad on craigslist looking for a moonlighter ... Something like, "Experience with solid surface? Have tools? Make extra $ some evening or weekend edging my counter top."

Similar to Fori's suggestion, an Ikea domsjo apron front sink would make the sink cut out issue much easier to resolve. It's a top-mount apron front sink that takes up the entire depth of the counter front to back so you would only need to make straight cuts and I don't think the edges would even need to be finished?

''Similar'' to working with wood isn't the whole picture. That doesn't mean you own a circular saw and can use it. Router table? Joiner? Built furniture? Maybe. But the tooling will still kill you on price. When you can get a basic white solid surface fabricated and installed for $35 a foot, why would you even go this route other than you would find the challenge interesting and don't mind wasting some time and money on the skill ramp up?

Actually, installing a seamed undermount sink in solid surface is easiest of all.

Flip the sheet over, top down. Set the sink on your center mark and hot melt scraps to gently hold it into position. Pull the sink and erase any lines and check the deck and sink flange for contamination. Manufacturer's recommend a big single line of adhesive on the sink flange to avoid trapping air that two smaller lines might risk, but you've got to make sure you've got squeeze-out. After glue, place the sink inside the scraps and set something heavy on the sink to act as a clamp.

When the adhesive has cured, flip the top and drill a hole inside the sink area large enough to accommodate a bearing cutter which rides on the sink side while cutting out the sink. Follow that with a sink profile bit, sand, and you're done.

On the $35/sf question ... their 30x144x.5 sheets can be as low as 300 or so ... +$90 shipping .. works out to something like $13/sf + mats ... (adhesive, some blades?). If my math is right. Pretty big difference.

Kimberly:

Let's say you have an average 50SF kitchen. You need two sheets. Let's call that $700.00. Let's say you could talk a guy you met on an internet chat board into selling you a Fein sander with vacuum, a Festool router with a used sink bit, a used bearing cutter, and an adhesive dispensing gun for $500.00 plus shipping. You're in for $1,300.00 and you still need $40.00 worth of adhesive. You're at $26.00 a square foot with all this stuff sitting in your garage, not on top of cabinets. For another $9.00 per square foot you could have it fabricated and installed with a phone call instead of all the work and selling the stuff when you're through.

I've seen a guy cut a granite countertop on youtube with a circular saw and someone holding a garden hose. Mistakes were made but dealt with. I watched through to the end wondering if he would get electrocuted. Not that people should necessarily be that cavalier, but solid surface has got to be easier to work with.

It isn't that pros aren't a great resource, and I'm having my main run of counters installed by pros. But there is a lot a reasonably handy person can do with basic tools, and even more that a person with a full woodworking shop and experience can do ... jmo.

YouTube ''training'' from internet ''experts'' doesn't cut it. Hands on mistakes is the only way you learn. Just ask Joe how many mistakes he made as a rookie solid surface fabricator to get to a passable skill level. And how many more years it took from that to expert status.

Those learning curve mistakes cost money in wasted material and time. At least a couple of wasted slabs worth. You'd have to have a much higher tolerance for very visible errors than exists around here to attempt this. The GW intolerance for even the tiniest fabrication and install error obviously doesn't extend to DIY errors that most pros don't comment on. No one ever has an ugly baby, right?

Lots of helpful responses!

The domsjo apron front sink is actually the sink we were planning on using from the get go, so that solves that question, and the tool buying doesn't figure into the cost benefit analysis the way Joseph laid it out because- and I can not overemphasize this- we have every tool for the job already, as well as some of the bits/blades from a previous silestone project. I'm more than willing to do some experimentation before the real deal, I can get a chunk of corian at my local reStore for $20. If I could find solid white corian anywhere for 35$ psqf I'd drop this idea in a heartbeat, but the lowest we can find anywhere is $50 plus. I would be super jazzed to know where I can get it at that price point.

I fully get that this would not be a project for a novice, and as with any DIY, unforeen costs have a tendency to add up and make the pro price point more attractive after all. Looking for advice from anyone who's gone through solidsurface.com, framed with the knowledge that we already have a wealth tools, skills, and experience working with wood, and limited experience with one silestone project that went well enough to make us consider this bigger one.

Also seriously would very much love to know where to get corian that cheap, because that would totally put the issue to bed for me.

Order the material and watch a few videos. With your tools and experience level, it will turn out great. Relax; unlike plywood, if you screw up, you can just seam it back together.