I’ll be pocketing out some 1” thick HDPE and was wondering if double-sided tape or CA glue/tape will adhere to the HDPE? I have a very small border where I can clamp down the piece but was curious if anything sticks to HDPE.
I can assure you CA glue will not work. Tape might work, but your best bet is slide clamps, or corner L-brackets to keep it from moving around. If the work piece is larger than than the finished piece, I usually secure with screws through the corners.
Hope that helps.
-Tom
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you can do it with these they grip the very edge and hold securely without getting in the way.
hilljackfab.com ultra low profile clamps.
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Yes, that helps a lot. I had a feeling tape wouldn’t stick to it. I do have 1/4” on the sides and 3/4” on the top and bottom to clamp down.
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Hey rick. Double sided carpet tape the kind with the strings in the tape will hold pretty well to plastic as long as the foot print is decent size. Just work it a little slow so it doesn’t squish move the work piece around. I used to use it all the time for this.
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I will give that a try. Thank you for your suggestion.
I mostly use my hardwood edge clamps it only grabs 1/4” of the edge
Or if need to rout all edges this stuff but not on the spoil board because it’s too fluffy I use a melamine sub spoil board
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I use wooden clamps currently made of 3/4” plywood, but redesigned it to make out of hardwood with the lip on it like yours.
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Super hard to glue HDPE. I bought a special glue once for it, and it hardened within ten seconds of breaking the seal. The entire tube solidified in my hands.
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We’ve had the same issues. What glue did you try?
Vacuum workholding would probably work but expensive. Maybe put a tight fitting pocket in a larger piece of wood. Be careful of too much pulling force by the bit.
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I was able to make some hard wood hold downs that will allow me to secure the HDPE. A vacuum table is definitely something I’d like to get, but very expensive as you’ve stated.
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If you are talking about using CA glue and Painters tape method of holding down (where painters tape goes on the work piece and painters tape goes on the work surface and CA glue is used to hold the two pieces of tape together), I would be surprised if this method didn’t work, even on HDPE.
A vacuum fixture is not expensive and can be done with your shop vac and some MDF. Use a chunk of old MDF slightly bigger than your work piece. Use a .25” bit to cut a groove about .25” deep, 1” inward offset profiling the shape of your work piece. Then cut a 1x1” grid .25” deep inside your profile cut so that all the channels connect. Now cut a hole in the middle that slightly smaller than the end of your shop vac hose, and stuff the hose in the hole. (dust collector fan will not work for this, does not generate enough vacuum) If you want to get some foam gasketing from Home Depot and stuff it in the profile on the outside of the vac jig you can, but I don’t think you will be able to move it off the jig even without the gasket if done properly. Here is a great article that explains it much better than me.
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