[Terry Stone]

We are fabricating a teller line that calls for Avonite Polyester details. One of them is a narrow (1-1/4″ wide) panel mould profile that we have to run on our moulder and glue to the teller line face. Will the high-speed-steel cutters handle this? We only need about 70 feet. We’ll need to buff it afterwards, and I suppose that’s another issue. Anyone tried this?

[Joe Corlett]

Colonel:

No, I’ve never tried this. I’d slow the feed rate down. I’ll bet the high-speed steel makes seventy feet.

If you do it in two passes it may cut down on your finishing. Keep us posted, I’m curious.

Joe

[Andy Graves]

It will probably tear the polyester material with HSS. I guess it is worth a try. Is it possible to use a router?

[Tim Wendt]

We have run solid surface through our shaper just fine, but it was carbide tooling. Which poly are you using for this? FIlled, unfilled? Unfilled should cut like butter. The high speed steel should be sharper than the carbide, if it is a freshly sharpened tool, and should leave a great finish due to the larger cutting circle. I would watch how the pressure shoes or rollers are set to avoid breakage. Maybe if it gives you grief, bond the poly to a wood backer before running it through.

Keep us posted.

[Terry Stone]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. It’s Avonite Blue Pearl. Not sure if it’s filled or unfilled. I could use a router with a different profile, but would have to run it through a router table featherboarded against a fence horizontally, which I think would leave too much chatter-marking on the moulding, and being hand-fed might create other problems. The moulder will have pressure rollers close to the cut and steady feed, but I like the suggestion of a backer piece- maybe hot-melt spot gluing strips to a substrate for rigidity under the cutterhead. I’d like to run it in two passes with the second pass removing the last few thousandths.

[Dani Homrich]

Blue pearl is not filled. Don’t use hot melt it will leave highs and lows in the material, use 3M spray and stick adhesive then use lacquer thinner to remove the Blue Pearl from the backer strip, it will not damage the polyester. Run a test strip if you get any breakout ( chunks removed or holes in the Avonite ) you are removing too much material or the knives are not sharp enough. It may take three passes. Give me a call and I will tell you how to make a profile sanding block for the molding 248 852-9248

Dani

[Terry Stone]

Okay-here’s the scoop. The stuff ran through the moulder slicker’n’snot. Came out smooth and ripple-free. And it was so thin at the edge that you could read through it.That posed a problem with it appearing a different color when applied to the surface. I ran 60 feet at 1-1/4″ wide x 3/8″ at the thickest part. No blowout or breakage! We hand wet-sanded with 220, 600, 1500, and buffed with polisher with Finesse-it to a mirror-shine. Easy as pie!

[Wags]

May want to paint the backside, so it doesn’t pick up the color of the substrate, much like Avonites glass products.

[Author]

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