[ihavenofish]

i figured id show some actual work here

the white thing is HDPE. its a half pattern for a glass mould. it cuts like butter. the curved areas were done with a ball nose at 100ipm with a .005-.008" stepover. the finish is very good, better than i was expecting. the base plate (mould parting board) was hot glued to the table instead of bolted. this was so we could mill the whole surface, as well as not worry about warping under clamping pressure. in hindsight i could have used 1/10 the glue - that stuff holds very well.

the other part is a vacuum jig for guitar fretboards in aluminium. also turned out rather nice.

[Frogblender]

Where do you source your HDPE?

100ipm is a good clip. Do you use an air blast for chip removal?

[ihavenofish]

Where do you source your HDPE?

100ipm is a good clip. Do you use an air blast for chip removal?

yeah, intermittently blowing the chips away.

this block was bought from johnsons in toronto. they dont like cutting off small pieces (this comes in a 4x8 foot sheet) but when you show up in person they seem to let you rummage around the scraps. nice people too.

[rowbare]

If HDPE cuts at all like UHMW no air blast is needed. If you have your feeds and speeds right, you end up with chips that look like mouse turds flying out of the flutes in a steady stream. Quite cool to watch...

Laird plastics has locations in several major Canadian cities.

bob

[ihavenofish]

If HDPE cuts at all like UHMW no air blast is needed. If you have your feeds and speeds right, you end up with chips that look like mouse turds flying out of the flutes in a steady stream. Quite cool to watch...

Laird plastics has locations in several major Canadian cities.

bob

laird is a bit far from me, but yeah, if you need to have it shipped anyway, they are a good one.

the air blast was only used to move chips out of the way. hdpe builds up a bit of static while cutting, and everything wants to stick to it.

it does cut and feel similar to uhmw. little waxy shavings, a bit like snow.