Thread: HDPE supplier

I've seen people mentioning HDPE as a good material to use for fences, drawer slides etc.

Can anyone point me to a supplier in Syndey - Googling HDPE I can only find industrial suppliers.

Or does everyone just use those white chopping boards and cut them up?

Tony

Yup, $2 shops are the way to go. You can get bigger chopping boards from catering suppliers but they cost a bit more.

Gday Tony, can't help with a local supplier, but from what I gather the chopping board material is PE, but different than the HDPE (lower density??).

Part of the prob with the chopping boards for fence faces is that they usually seem to be textured rather than smooth, and more often than not seem to be warped to some degree. This isn't a drama in the chopping board mode, but not ideal if you're after a dead flat/straight router table fence face.


Cheers..............Sean, warped to some degree

Originally Posted by tony2096

I've seen people mentioning HDPE as a good material to use for fences, drawer slides etc.

Can anyone point me to a supplier in Syndey - Googling HDPE I can only find industrial suppliers.

Or does everyone just use those white chopping boards and cut them up?

Tony

We can supply Ultra High Molecular Weight plastic slides mainly suited to sliding in Mitre Track and T Tracks but with a bit of aussie ingenuity anything is possible, look at www.woodpeckers.com.au and search for UHMW on the search page.

Regards

The Woodpecker

Originally Posted by scooter

Part of the prob with the chopping boards for fence faces is that they usually seem to be textured rather than smooth, and more often than not seem to be warped to some degree.

There is nothing to stop you putting chopping-board material through a thicknesser set to take a light cut; it comes out as smooth as the proverbial. If the material is bolted onto a straight fence, made out of, say, MDF attached to 50 mm aluminium angle, warping should not be a problem.

On the other hand, Laminex is probably just as good for the facing of a fence.

The cutting board material excels as runners for micro-adjustable fences on morticing and tenoning jigs, since it is easily planed to provide a satisfactory fit in a routed groove.

Rocker

Thanks for the responses.

I found a plastics company in Brookvale who sold me an off-cut: $66 for 300x1500mm polyethylene

I'll also try the chopping boards (don't have a thicknesser, Rocker) and see how I go.

Tony

You can easily hand-plane it as well.

Rocker

Wash your mouth out Rocker :eek:


Cheers.......Sean, high density, low molecular weight

Cut to Size Plastics will sell it to you, but I'd do a ring around first & get a lower price - I think 'Dotmar' quoted a lot cheaper to start with, but when told what had been quoted, the price went down to a bit less than the opposition price ;-) Your mileage may vary.....
Delivery is optional & costs around $25, but there is a maximum length of 1.5metres uncut - they will cut longer bits down for you.