HDPE queries

Hi all,

looking at making bar the electrics and weapon a completely hdpe chassis and shell..

30mm thick for top and bottom, @ 1000mm diameter circle bot.. comes in @ 42kg

if anyone has any 10mm HDPE around, could they kindly weigh me 10mm x 100mm x 100mm just to check my weight calculation is correct please.

also if anyone has any experience working it what tools ill require.. will i need to send out for milling or can i mill it at home?

General work ability? can joe blogs cut/mill this stuff with any degree of accuracy? bear in mind i have most of the tools already required for polyethylene.



Sorry if i appear to be filing the forum this weekend, just sitting on my first 1000 savings and i wanna get as much research and planning in as possible before i waste any money :)

As ever any help is greatly appreciated, kindest regards, Daniel

HDPE is roughly 0.97 g/cm3 or 970 kg/m3

it can be cut with wood tools, just use a coolant too stop it melting, not sure about milling with it though

Milling is no problem. Again, some coolant is not a bad idea.

I mill HDPE quite a lot generally in thicknesses of 10-20mm on a CNC router. The thing I've found is to actually keep the mills speed up, go too slowly and heat concentrates in one part and it can melt, if you're really unlucky it can then resolidify and jam the endmill (More prominent in polycarb).

It is fairly forgiving though, just run fast and it'll spread out the heat.

I've never really felt the need for coolant whether hand working with wood tools or milling it.

cheers all! Alex did you get my PM?

I've just started using plastic for robot building but i'm finding a dremel works really well.

Yes, a Dremel/rotary tool with a serrated disk will do wonders, so long as you can get the tool into the area you're cutting. Are you milling with your Dremel, David?