I’ve turned a lot of plastic in my life and seeing you pulling all those plastic strings was so heart warming to me…I knew when I saw the garbage can show up, I knew I’d be in for a treat. Great Job. Thank You for sharing this with us.
Worked for a machinery R and D compony back in the early 80s and used tons of UHMW for prototypes of components and bearing fitment. and when you learn what you can and can't do machining it it's a joy to cut
Keith - great video as always. When I machine plastics like this I set up the shop vac on the apron and turn it on - once you start feeding the strings into the vacuum it takes them all. When boring I can also set up the vacuum on the the outboard side of the spindle. If you don't have too much gap between the piece your turning and the chuck - you can get the chips to feed all the way through the spindle and into the vac - keeps the rats nest from forming and flinging chips all over the shop.
nice job as usuall kieth enjoyed. just sitting here having a birthday drink and waiting for a birthday home made supper of glazed ham and homade scallop potatoes cooked by my beauitifull wife of 32 years while watching one of your videos lol cant beat that 59 today thanks kieth.
UHMWPE Ultra High Weight Polyethylene. This one plastic may have a much bigger impact on us than even I think. The ropes you see being put on winches now are made of UHMWPE. Many of the tugboats and oil rig tenders are now running fiber ropes that are UHMWPE based ropes. If you've ever heard of Spectra fiber it's what is used in bullet proof vests and is much stronger and lighter than Kevlar. I've made parts out of UHMWPE and have admired the ease of machining and durability in use. Really cool plastic. Like any plastic UHMWPE isn't exactly one thing. It's a whole family. You wouldn't want to use the plastic in your machine for bullet proof vests or winch ropes but it's still based on the same material.
I just got done turning some PLA+ spindles I 3D printed and then turned smooth. Then I come in and check youtube and see you turning UHMW and getting the same stringing.
Hey! It’s the first time I have seen your dog in one of your videos . Every shop needs a shop dog , and it looks like yours has been with you a while .
Different kind of chip, but a neat way to get to the end result. You’ll have to tell them they only come in pairs from now on! Look forward to the next one, Keep ‘em coming.
If you feed out on the lathe when using the boring bar the trash shouldn't get packed in against the chuck; it should get dragged out of the bore instead. A shop vac can catch a lot of that mess before it gets wrapped up in the machines. Thanks for posting and all the best to your family.
I Got a big hevy block of that I was wondring how to cut it , now I know, i will ues my bit to rnabal the mill im bilding ti rise up a bown it post . very inliterning thank you Lae England
Hello Kieth, The suggestions to use the shop vacuum to remove the "chips" works great. You can also use your fostner bits and save a lot of time drilling such a large pilot hole. I've never tried it with UHMW but works great with delrin and nylon
ooo I saw the golden shop forman come by watching you! No slackin! Dang son.. I can see why this is not your favorite.. nasty stuff to work with..Well Mt Robinson was right when he said.. Plastics is the future.. (for those who do not know Mr Robinson he has talking to a graduate when he said that.. right Mrs Robinson?) Thanks again Keith..
Keith Next time you cut some plastic, try positioning the hose of your shop vac to pick up the plastic swarf. Once you get it located correctly, the plastic will usually be sucked straight into the vac for the whole cut
I find that with turning UHMW that using the fastest possible speed and feed and the heaviest cut works about the best. Of course turning to size means your cut is going to be what it is but I just keep the speed and feed up. The stuff is so soft and is almost self lubricating so it won't really hurt your tooling.
When I bore large HDPE, Teflon and Delron rounds, I clamp a shop vac hose at the rear of the spindle and pull the continuous chip directly into the vaccum canister.
Keith - it sounds like the AVC (Automatic Volume Control) on your camera is giving you problems - it's trying to compress the sound to a set level - speech and machine noise. Just something to check, as your sound is usually perfect. George
I was going to suggest the dog chip method. When you start the cut you quickly loop the string to the dogs collar then throw a stick. There is a very slight chance the dog might be dragged back towards the lathe if it is not quick enough but you can negate that issue by using your neighbours dog(s).
Blowing a stream of air into rear spindle of the headstock while boring really helps blow out plastic chips and it can work for some metals too. If what you’re turning doesn’t sit flat on the chuck, the jaws act like an impeller causing a suction at the bore. Also, are you using noise reduction, or an audio compressor? Or, are you riding the audio while you’re editing the video? Thanks for another great video Keith.
I lovemachimeing plastic Super fast work Treat it like wood Less rpm and deeper cuts Like 3/8 1/4 in Deeper cuts the strings break off every now and then And it's used to replace brass remember so don't pull the strings off by hand Plenty of strength in them if they wrap up Probably stronger than many metal strings
A couple things about the audio: if you do noise cancellation, do it on the original audio before you make the cuts. This eliminates the burst of noise at the beginning of a new clip because the attack parameter of the filter isn't fast enough. Trying to completely eliminate fairly broadband noise like the kind you get from the lathe without severely damaging the signal is pretty much impossible. When you start to hear the 'tinkling bells' or 'watery' sound, you have gone too far with the strength of the filter. Back it off and add a dynamics filter (called Graphic Dynamics in Sony Vegas) after the noise reduction. This filter lets you reduce the volume of quieter sounds while leaving loud parts (like your speech) unaltered. It's like a noise gate that you can adjust so it doesn't just suddenly and completely silence the track whenever the volume goes below a threshold. That can be more noticeable and annoying than the noise.
Rule of thumb with plastics is less RPM and more feed. And you can take cuts about as deep and the width of your cutting edge. It doesn't break the chip, but the chip shoots out and gets piled in very neat piles without wrapping itself around the chuck. So there's that. Turning plastic is actually quite a bit of fun.
It's fun when it works, but I've found that trying to do that "chip fountain" really depends on the plastic. It works well if the chip is hot enough that it can remain soft until it lands. I've had better luck doing that with PVC than anything else. With my machine, it's bound to get hung up on something (e.g. handwheels, feed screw) anyway. I'd rather just use the vacuum for most things. It's really is satisfying to just watch the plastic just fly off the part and into the nozzle in one long ribbon, then open up the shop vac and see each individual chip in its own little ball. I guess it is noisy and can get in the way too.
Haha I can only imagine how well teflon would do that. The only nylon I've worked with was very dry with a lot of glass fill -- it was terribly crispy. I bet moisture conditioning changes a lot of that.
Machining this type of plastic is good fun but all that material getting wrapped around things is a total pain. Really tough stuff to remove too, don’t try and remove while the machine is turning.
I've done a lot of work with UHMW, and want to caution you about pulling wads of stringy chips with your fingers. That material is tough and if it wraps a finger up, your nikckname from then on will be Nubbin.
Who the hell are you calling a wise guy? My only purpose in making a comment was to point out the danger in pulling those stringy chips by hand. I've done it with long pliers and had the pliers snatched out of my hand and sent flying. I certainly was not trying to be funny.
Ha, it looks like you found a new way to turn a block of plastic into thread for making garments! 😎 (not really, I’ll bet it’d be kinda itchy if you wore a shirt made of UHMW)
hello I am asep from Indonesia, very interesting lathe process for polymer nylon material, and my plan is to know the suitable machining parameters for nylon material combined with chisel geometry. any feedback regarding my plan?
I would suggest trying Vesconite Hilube if you want to have a new set of these. Much better than nylons for wear resistance, and will be happy with the cane syrup as lubricant in use as well. Plus much tighter control of the blank diameter and overall much easier to machine, just use sharp carbide tooling and it cuts like a dream.
That is not a sugar mill bearing the journals on those are 24 or more inches in diameter it is probably off the chemists little mill that crushes samples the farmers bring to the mill to find out the sugar content.
I’ve turned a lot of plastic in my life and seeing you pulling all those plastic strings was so heart warming to me…I knew when I saw the garbage can show up, I knew I’d be in for a treat.
Great Job. Thank You for sharing this with us.
Worked for a machinery R and D compony back in the early 80s and used tons of UHMW for prototypes of components and bearing fitment. and when you learn what you can and can't do machining it it's a joy to cut
Keith - great video as always. When I machine plastics like this I set up the shop vac on the apron and turn it on - once you start feeding the strings into the vacuum it takes them all. When boring I can also set up the vacuum on the the outboard side of the spindle. If you don't have too much gap between the piece your turning and the chuck - you can get the chips to feed all the way through the spindle and into the vac - keeps the rats nest from forming and flinging chips all over the shop.
nice job as usuall kieth enjoyed. just sitting here having a birthday drink and waiting for a birthday home made supper of glazed ham and homade scallop potatoes cooked by my beauitifull wife of 32 years while watching one of your videos lol cant beat that 59 today thanks kieth.
With all the precision tools, I find it oddly satisfying that your pocket knife took center stage in this project. Love it. Great job!!
UHMWPE Ultra High Weight Polyethylene. This one plastic may have a much bigger impact on us than even I think. The ropes you see being put on winches now are made of UHMWPE. Many of the tugboats and oil rig tenders are now running fiber ropes that are UHMWPE based ropes. If you've ever heard of Spectra fiber it's what is used in bullet proof vests and is much stronger and lighter than Kevlar. I've made parts out of UHMWPE and have admired the ease of machining and durability in use. Really cool plastic. Like any plastic UHMWPE isn't exactly one thing. It's a whole family. You wouldn't want to use the plastic in your machine for bullet proof vests or winch ropes but it's still based on the same material.
Thanks Keith! You are a blessing....no matter what the audio sounds like, I still enjoy learning so much from you.
Sounds like you are 20,000 leagues under the sea!
I never like noise cancelling software its not natural and muffles the sound eek
I thought I suddenly had swimmers ear
I thought it was my new phone trying to "clean" the audio. Glad it's not just me
I just got done turning some PLA+ spindles I 3D printed and then turned smooth. Then I come in and check youtube and see you turning UHMW and getting the same stringing.
Well done, I am glad that you show multiple ways of doing something. I also appreciate how you use common tools to get a job done.
Always good to see "manufacturing" processes develop. :-)
Great video Keith. The great thing about working with plastic like that is that it wont shred your fingers when you pull out those long stringy chips.
Hey! It’s the first time I have seen your dog in one of your videos . Every shop needs a shop dog , and it looks like yours has been with you a while .
Different kind of chip, but a neat way to get to the end result. You’ll have to tell them they only come in pairs from now on! Look forward to the next one, Keep ‘em coming.
Keath, I enjoy watching your videos.
If you feed out on the lathe when using the boring bar the trash shouldn't get packed in against the chuck; it should get dragged out of the bore instead. A shop vac can catch a lot of that mess before it gets wrapped up in the machines. Thanks for posting and all the best to your family.
I Got a big hevy block of that I was wondring how to cut it , now I know, i will ues my bit to rnabal the mill im bilding ti rise up a bown it post . very inliterning thank you Lae England
Thank you for your videos Sir, im learning lots from you..
I guess I am pretty off topic but do anybody know of a good website to stream new tv shows online ?
@Alessandro Noel flixportal xD
@Max Alfonso Thanks, I went there and it seems like a nice service =) I really appreciate it!!
@Alessandro Noel you are welcome :)
Hello Kieth, The suggestions to use the shop vacuum to remove the "chips" works great. You can also use your fostner bits and save a lot of time drilling such a large pilot hole. I've never tried it with UHMW but works great with delrin and nylon
Someday you should video the clean-up activities🙂
nice job Keith, keep up the good work.
Good video. I've never worked with plastic.
Thanks.
ooo I saw the golden shop forman come by watching you! No slackin! Dang son.. I can see why this is not your favorite.. nasty stuff to work with..Well Mt Robinson was right when he said.. Plastics is the future.. (for those who do not know Mr Robinson he has talking to a graduate when he said that.. right Mrs Robinson?) Thanks again Keith..
Oh what fun cleaning that mess up, I've used HDMI plastic on table saw and router fences.
I think we need more comments about the sound. Also I like the word Babbitt.
"Kill the babbit, kill the babbit"- wasn't that in a Bugs Bunny cartoon eons ago? ☺
Keith
Next time you cut some plastic, try positioning the hose of your shop vac to pick up the plastic swarf.
Once you get it located correctly, the plastic will usually be sucked straight into the vac for the whole cut
I loved watching you get frustrated at those chips
You'll never be invited into the big chip club with Adam with little cuts like that.....lol. Thanks for the video.
it surprised me how tough this plastic is. Those waste pieces look like they might make good sanding blocks.
I was thinking cutting them down for door stop wedges. :)
UHMW is pretty tough stuff... They would make nice blocks for sanding. But they are soft and will nick bad on a nail.
THANK YOU...for sharing.
I find that with turning UHMW that using the fastest possible speed and feed and the heaviest cut works about the best. Of course turning to size means your cut is going to be what it is but I just keep the speed and feed up. The stuff is so soft and is almost self lubricating so it won't really hurt your tooling.
Nice work. Cheers
When I bore large HDPE, Teflon and Delron rounds, I clamp a shop vac hose at the rear of the spindle and pull the continuous chip directly into the vaccum canister.
Ooops, just saw Les' comment below. Sorry
DASWorkshop AW, THAT IDEA REALLY SUCKS-!!!
It was supposed to!
Man, a four minute commercial at the beginning that I couldn't skip.
Nice job
Keith - it sounds like the AVC (Automatic Volume Control) on your camera is giving you problems - it's trying to compress the sound to a set level - speech and machine noise.
Just something to check, as your sound is usually perfect.
George
I'd rather say, it's one of these "denoise" effects in your editing programm.
It's not AGC there are more than one chans of audio open in the editior mixer casing phasing problems.
It might be interesting to try a vegetable peeler for deburring UHMW OD's, maybe even larger ID's. Depth control. Gotta try that sometime.
I’ve made a lot of things out of plastics it is stringy for sure
Reminds me of a prank we did to a new mechanic in the shop. We filled his toolbox with a ton of Nylon strings from the lathe.
Excellent stuff, Keith. If your farm science work ever runs out, you could get work in China unravelling silkworm cocoons!
good morning from the UK....
A vacuum cleaner works wonders for pulling the plastic trimmings
I'll try that next time I cut that stuff M
I was going to suggest the dog chip method. When you start the cut you quickly loop the string to the dogs collar then throw a stick. There is a very slight chance the dog might be dragged back towards the lathe if it is not quick enough but you can negate that issue by using your neighbours dog(s).
Godshole YOU'RE SICK!!!
I turn acrylics daily. For the stuff that chips won't break, I use the shop vac to pull in the swarf. You need 3 1/2 hands but it works
Great video but you will have to update the two tin cans anda piece of string for the audio!
That takes me back!
Blowing a stream of air into rear spindle of the headstock while boring really helps blow out plastic chips and it can work for some metals too. If what you’re turning doesn’t sit flat on the chuck, the jaws act like an impeller causing a suction at the bore. Also, are you using noise reduction, or an audio compressor? Or, are you riding the audio while you’re editing the video? Thanks for another great video Keith.
All those plastic shavings can be used for Halloween decoration.
Nice!!
I just made a pile of chevron piston seals out of that same material. Swarf was a pain.
Nice job. I wonder if you put a shop vacuum near the cutter if it would suck up the stringy chips.
Keith, do you know if pressure sensitive sanding discs will stick to this stuff?
Thanks,
Chris
I lovemachimeing plastic
Super fast work
Treat it like wood
Less rpm and deeper cuts
Like 3/8 1/4 in
Deeper cuts the strings break off every now and then
And it's used to replace brass remember so don't pull the strings off by hand
Plenty of strength in them if they wrap up
Probably stronger than many metal strings
Good job Keith, practice makes perfect as they say. Lead in your sugar could ruin your whole day.
Hey I need this exact thing done where can I get ahold of you to possibly get that going?
Nice work as always, Keith. But there seems to be an audio problem, as others have suggested.
Pulling that chip reminds me of unraveling a sweater.
Howdy Keith, was asked recently if you ever machined and used the handwheel I made for you using the broken handwheel. Might be an easy video for you.
I hope you get a reply about this.
A couple things about the audio: if you do noise cancellation, do it on the original audio before you make the cuts. This eliminates the burst of noise at the beginning of a new clip because the attack parameter of the filter isn't fast enough.
Trying to completely eliminate fairly broadband noise like the kind you get from the lathe without severely damaging the signal is pretty much impossible. When you start to hear the 'tinkling bells' or 'watery' sound, you have gone too far with the strength of the filter. Back it off and add a dynamics filter (called Graphic Dynamics in Sony Vegas) after the noise reduction. This filter lets you reduce the volume of quieter sounds while leaving loud parts (like your speech) unaltered. It's like a noise gate that you can adjust so it doesn't just suddenly and completely silence the track whenever the volume goes below a threshold. That can be more noticeable and annoying than the noise.
a shop vac could help with the string chip sucking it up out of the way as its been cut.
Is it lathe or a cotton candy machine? Nice video thanks!
Kieth I think this video is appropriate for Halloween. It sounds like your inner demons are coming out over working with plastic.
Hi again Keith. How did you ensure that the bore was parallel to the fly-cut faces as you set it up to begin with off a rough-sawn face?
That's also my concern
Keith, it would mean standing there, but maybe use a shop vac to collect the chip.
Hi Keith, was that last drill bit a left handed by any chance?
When outside turning plastic could you score the plastic and cause an interrupted cut and break up the strings?
Those "chips" look troublesome but they will save you having to buy Christmas tree decorations this year ;-)
a shopvac right over the tool bit sucks all that as you cut it. You can rig up something to hold it on the carriage.
Good work, Keith. Sounds like your audio was giving you some trouble.
Rule of thumb with plastics is less RPM and more feed. And you can take cuts about as deep and the width of your cutting edge. It doesn't break the chip, but the chip shoots out and gets piled in very neat piles without wrapping itself around the chuck. So there's that. Turning plastic is actually quite a bit of fun.
It's fun when it works, but I've found that trying to do that "chip fountain" really depends on the plastic. It works well if the chip is hot enough that it can remain soft until it lands. I've had better luck doing that with PVC than anything else. With my machine, it's bound to get hung up on something (e.g. handwheels, feed screw) anyway.
I'd rather just use the vacuum for most things. It's really is satisfying to just watch the plastic just fly off the part and into the nozzle in one long ribbon, then open up the shop vac and see each individual chip in its own little ball. I guess it is noisy and can get in the way too.
I had pretty good luck with "chip fontain" on nylon and teflon too.
Haha I can only imagine how well teflon would do that. The only nylon I've worked with was very dry with a lot of glass fill -- it was terribly crispy. I bet moisture conditioning changes a lot of that.
Glass would be pretty rough on cutting tools, but it should at least help breaking the chips, so you have that going for you. :-)
Machining this type of plastic is good fun but all that material getting wrapped around things is a total pain. Really tough stuff to remove too, don’t try and remove while the machine is turning.
Use chips for Halloween decoration!
How bad is the static electricity on that type of plastic?
At times the cane syrup is called Rum🍸
I've done a lot of work with UHMW, and want to caution you about pulling wads of stringy chips with your fingers. That material is tough and if it wraps a finger up, your nikckname from then on will be Nubbin.
David Callista ...DOES THAT MEAN YOU'RE GONNA BE SHORTHANDED(?)
Not a joke if it takes a finger off.
@@davidcallista8618 YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WAS BEING A WISE GUY!!!
THOSE KINDS OF ACCIDENTS ARE NEVER FUNNY!!!
Who the hell are you calling a wise guy? My only purpose in making a comment was to point out the danger in pulling those stringy chips by hand. I've done it with long pliers and had the pliers snatched out of my hand and sent flying. I certainly was not trying to be funny.
Ha, it looks like you found a new way to turn a block of plastic into thread for making garments! 😎 (not really, I’ll bet it’d be kinda itchy if you wore a shirt made of UHMW)
Suddenly your shop resembles a pasta factory -- with "spaghetti" scattered everywhere.
Kevin Byrne ...except THAT kind of "spaghetti" isn't FATTENING-!!!
hello I am asep from Indonesia, very interesting lathe process for polymer nylon material, and my plan is to know the suitable machining parameters for nylon material combined with chisel geometry. any feedback regarding my plan?
10:34 ...if you really want to break the chip up, tell it a very funny JOKE!!!
I can see why you need the garbage can real close to the lathe, it's not dirty work but dammit it's messy !
Keith sorry for the dyslexia, made writing essays difficult before computers.
9:10EST. Sounds OK.
What’s the technical name for this plastic...? Similar to delrin..?
UHMW ultra high molecular weight
Definitely a change of pace when your deburring tool is made by Ka-Bar, and not Noga.
Hey Keith ,your sound quality is really bad on this vid !
I would suggest trying Vesconite Hilube if you want to have a new set of these. Much better than nylons for wear resistance, and will be happy with the cane syrup as lubricant in use as well. Plus much tighter control of the blank diameter and overall much easier to machine, just use sharp carbide tooling and it cuts like a dream.
You sound like Darthvada.
Turn off automatic gain control (AGC) on your mic. Sounds awful..... try a shop vac to pull the chips off the bit continuously
Something wrong with your mic keith? That stuff is messy to machine!
making Holloween cob webs
Keith, I hope your friend reciprocates by giving you some cane syrup. Terrible stuff to machine.
I wonder what a UHMW sweater would be like. Perhaps warm, but not wind or water proof. I wonder if your wife would consider knitting you one. 8^D Jon
gees get a vacuum suction on that
Sound on your camera is giving you problems. Other than that great video as always.
If I send you my measurements can you knit me a sweater 😀
bryan latimer-davies I was just thinking the same thing!
black smith
... thats a lot of white string ... maybe 5 mile?... bet someone out there could say to the nearest foot!
If it catches that silly thread will take your digits of Keith
Holy Audio problems dude! Haha!
You might want to re-hone that knife.
Plastic is a real killer for blade sharpness.
I think that's how thay make fishing line.....M
That is not a sugar mill bearing the journals on those are 24 or more inches in diameter it is probably off the chemists little mill that crushes samples the farmers bring to the mill to find out the sugar content.
Perhaps these mills are small hand cranked types for individual farm use.
At least the chips do not cut you.