Jointing plastc?

[Pirate]

5 or so years ago I bought a PM50 jointer with solid carbide knives.
It had a sign on it saying, wood and plastics only.
Think it might have come from a Disney shop. Had M Mouse logo on it, and picked up near Disney.
So, has anyone jointed plastic?
Sounds scary to me.

[Stwood_]

Yes. Plastic for table saw fences, zero inserts, etc.

[Sullivan]

I've done HDPE. No big deal except shavings stick to everything.

[jteneyck]

I've done HDPE. No big deal except shavings stick to everything.

Same here.  

John

[museumguy]

Only advice to give is light cuts. The lighter the better.

[fredhargis]

I've done some UHMW, and maybe some imitators. It works fine (same with the planer) except for the mess.

[RickW]

5 or so years ago I bought a PM50 jointer with solid carbide knives.
It had a sign on it saying, wood and plastics only.
Think it might have come from a Disney shop. Had M Mouse logo on it, and picked up near Disney.
So, has anyone jointed plastic?
Sounds scary to me.

I've edge jointed LOTS of acrylic and polycarbonate. With both, you need to be careful of the speed at which you feed it past the cutterhead. If you go too fast, you get ripples in the edge. If you feed it too slow, it can heat up and melt. I found that it was best to take a practice cut with a piece of scrap of the same material, and check the edge before I jointed the rest of it. If it looked OK, I ran the rest at the same speed I had used with the scrap. If it didn't look right, I ran the scrap again with a different speed until I had an acceptable edge, and ran the rest at that same approximate speed.
Rick W

[Cooler]

A little off-topic, but...

There is a process called "flame polishing" for cut edges of acrylic. 

The concept is based on the idea that corners of the  cut edges and the rough spots on the cut have more surface area than the actual sheet.  You take either a heat gun or a butane burner with a spreader and play it back an forth over the cut surface.  That causes the corners to melt slightly and give a smooth polished edges. 

Try a test piece first.  If you apply too much heat you will melt the sheet.  Too little and there is not much polish-effect.  It is really easy to do, you just have to watch the condition of the edge.  As soon as it looks polished, move on to the next area.  

This video shows it with a butane burner.  I used a spreader.  I don't know which is better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx7MHdWXQvc

[EightFingers]

I know there’s a thread in the basement about planing plastic.

Don’t recall seeing the outcome, although there were requests for videos.