Cutting Polyethylene(Kitchen Board)

[mackmack]

I need to cut 3/8" polythylene, which is like those hard plastic cutting boards for the kitchen.

Can I do this on the BT3100? Also, are there any precautions or techniques I should be using? Should I predominately cross cut or rip cut on it?

Does this hurt the blade at all?

I definitely don't want to get kick back on this stuff.

Edit:Sorry make that 1/2" thickness.

[LCHIEN]

I need to cut 3/8" polythylene, which is like those hard plastic cutting boards for the kitchen.

Can I do this on the BT3100? Also, are there any precautions or techniques I should be using? Should I predominately cross cut or rip cut on it?

Does this hurt the blade at all?

I definitely don't want to get kick back on this stuff.

Edit:Sorry make that 1/2" thickness.

its easy to cut, will cut well with carbide blades.
May make a lot of fine snow-like shavings flying in the air unless you do some dust collection. Has no grain so there's no rip or crosscut per se.
Long cuts should be made against the rip fence and short cuts across the smaller dimension should be made using the SMT or miter fence.
Just use normal wood working techniques and safety, you'll be fine.

[RodKirby]

What Loring said. And I've done it many times - takes me an hour to clean the Shed

[TheRic]

Yea Rod that sounds like you, 5 minutes of cutting, 1 hour of cleaning. No wonder your places looks like that. Most of us do 1 hour of cutting, and 5 minutes of cleaning.

What they said. Easier to work with than wood, IMHO.

Collect the white shavings, and you have snow all year round!

[LCHIEN]

I forgot to mention, the little white snowy shavings that get everywhere. they are full of static so they stick once they fallen - a real pain to clean up. Common problem with most plastics and table saws.

Some plastics also melt as they are cut which makes a mess of the saw blade and the item, but I think PE is OK.

[cgallery]

What is the difference between the cutting board plastic and the UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) plastic that Rockler and others sell for fences and miter runners and other uses? Seems similar to me.

[Stytooner]

Looks are deceiving in this case. The cheap cutting boards are polyethelene I think. UHMW is a whole nuther plastic. Acrylic and polycarbnate look very similar too. They have different properties and uses. There are differences from one plastic to the next. Each has certain properties and characteristics that lends it better to certain applications than others. US plastics has good descriptions on plastic types with possible uses. Check them out.

Opps. UHMW is also polyethelene, but still different properties.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/cat...name=72&Page=1

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/cat...name=73&Page=1