Woods Skoota 32DM

[Jaysen]

Have you tried a hand held power planer to reduce thickness?

[jonnymac]

It can be sanded, its just different than sanding wood. And you aren’t easily going to remove an 1/8” material that way. a low angle hand plane and flame polishing may help you get a high spot. if you get the surface smooth, you could do vinyl wrapping or something similar on the door if there is a texture difference you don’t like.

Plastic is an entirely different material, so it requires different techniques and different tools to some extent.

sorry to hear about your troubles. i think hdpe is hot air weldable. i wonder if hot air would smooth the surface out after sanding

It isn't sandable. Like all plastic sheet (shit), it comes one side covered in protective plastic.

It is just super demoralizing to work with. The joints don't look good. I can't keep them flat; despite major clamp pressure. Granted, I don't have a clamping fixture, but wood never walks this bad and if you have trouble, you can sand it some. Sand this and the surface gets messed up.

[Dan_Smullen]

I hate King Starboard. I'm thinking about ripping it all out.

It is a heavy lift to build traditional face frames out of HDPE, and see how it will be nearly impossible to get the desired results with the accessible equipment. Are you using Kreg screws?

Wood and neat coat epoxy, sanding and paint on wood will yield better results. I'm sure you have considered this path, but opted for something that would require less prep and paint.

Only HDPE option I can think of would be a cnc cut face frame out of a sheet, but that's a lot of waste.

Do you have any pics of the cabinets you are trying to finish?

[Jaysen]

If you cnc cut, use the “hidden hinge” style and the cutouts become the doors. I’ve seen that done with ply with great success.

[fallguy1000]

I'll show some pics later. Probably gonna make the doors with all wood.

Using kreg stuff. But it moves terrible even under heavy clamp pressures. Well, tbh, not enough clamp pressure for plastic crap.

[Dan_Smullen]

Yeah. No friction to facilitate clamping.

[jonnymac]

so I think the issue with movement is the plastic doesn’t have internal space like wood for the screw shaft. so you need to put a full pilot hole for the shaft of the screw. it doesn’t matter how much pressure its never going to work because the plastic needs to push the excess material somewhere. the correct size drill bit is the size of shaft of the screw. drill the pilot hole with it clamped so its correctly located. Also I usually, put one screw in getting that one located correctly, then drill the pilot hole for the second.

[fallguy1000]

so I think the issue with movement is the plastic doesn’t have internal space like wood for the screw shaft. so you need to put a full pilot hole for the shaft of the screw. it doesn’t matter how much pressure its never going to work because the plastic needs to push the excess material somewhere. the correct size drill bit is the size of shaft of the screw. drill the pilot hole with it clamped so its correctly located. Also I usually, put one screw in getting that one located correctly, then drill the pilot hole for the second.

Drill bit would need to be like 6" long. Even then, the plastic displaces at the edge of each precut. It is just a nightmare. Gonna work on it now for a bit.

[jonnymac]

yep, they make them that long. that displacement is from not using the correct size predrill bit, also it needs to be very well centered. its not pushing one way or another. Also, backing the screw out and putting it back in. too much pressure can be part of the problem. plastic should have less pressure than wood

so I think the issue with movement is the plastic doesn’t have internal space like wood for the screw shaft. so you need to put a full pilot hole for the shaft of the screw. it doesn’t matter how much pressure its never going to work because the plastic needs to push the excess material somewhere. the correct size drill bit is the size of shaft of the screw. drill the pilot hole with it clamped so its correctly located. Also I usually, put one screw in getting that one located correctly, then drill the pilot hole for the second.

Drill bit would need to be like 6" long. Even then, the plastic displaces at the edge of each precut. It is just a nightmare. Gonna work on it now for a bit.

[fallguy1000]

It is an all around nightmare. The screws really ought to be stainless. Wood could get glued and epoxy filled and the screws would never rust. I bought some stainless, but can't find them.

these holes blow out and need knife cutting and sanding flat

It strips easy, see the screw with plastic?

The joints look like crap; not sandable at all.

Because the stuff moves so easily, the clamping I use is not enough