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Turning uhmw rod

B

Bill Brown

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Mar 27, 2006
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Has anyone attempeted to use UHMW plactic rod for any projects? I have a 1 1/2" dia rod I need to turn. If anyone has a suggest about speeds, or tools to use please let me know. I don't want to have to experiment with the piece I have. 😎
 
You will find it turns really easy using the same tools as any other woodturning project. It will not take real agressive cuts and the curls coming off the material will usually curl back and get wrapped around the spindle. The "chips" won't break off because there is no grain.

I can tell you that it is near impossible to glue, unless you have a glue that has some surface treatment chemical applied first. It is about the equivelant to teflon in that regard.
 
I've turned quite a bit of PVC and few other plastics.

I reccomend working with good ventilation. This stuff can't be good for us. At a minimum it smells bad.

Be sure to present the tool bevel on the wood then cutting edge; ride the bevel! This material will give you a catch with tool presention that wood might let you get away with.

Like Steve said the chips don't break apart. What tends to happen is for every minute of turning, I wind about a mile of plastic thread about the workpiece or the tailstock center. I stop frequently to clear it. when it is wound loosely I can break it off to clear it. It if gets wound tightly it is hard to remove and i usually have to pull the tailstock away and remove it as a doughnut sculpture.

Happy turning,
Al
 
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If it's anything at all like turning Corian and Inlace you build up a static charge and look like the monster from the White lagoon.
 
I have turned UHMW using a skew chisel to make some parts for a swivel adapter on a vacuum chucking system. I prefer my oval skew for this because the included angle is around 40 degrees as opposed to the really fat angle (around 60 degrees) on my thick Lacer skew. As Steve and Al said, it wraps around the spindle/skew/tool post or whatever else is handy. Make sure that your skew is really sharp or you will just goober the stuff up. There is no smell like you might get from scraping some hard plastics, it just cuts like butter, but you can certainly dig in. And if you are a fan of the 80 grit gouge, just forget it. You will create a mess with a bunch of statically charged particles that will be permanently stuck to everything in sight – not to mention messing up the surface of whatever you are turning. If you need to fasten it to something else, drill holes and use screws.

Bill
 
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john lucas said:
If it's anything at all like turning Corian and Inlace you build up a static charge and look like the monster from the White lagoon.
Click to expand...
It definately can build up a static charge, but doesn't turn anything like corian or inlace.
 
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