Certainteed pvc trim board

[jseiler]

I bought some of this at menard's for some letters and it cuts great. It comes in rough lumber texture on one side, flat on the other and its white. Guaranteed 25 years outside. I painted some up with plastikote and frog juice and it seems to stick pretty well. Supposedly sherwin williams sells vinyl paint that works pretty well on it. I cut it with a 2 flute 1/4" bit in two passes with tabs. The tabs are easily removed with a utility knife. I bet you could plane this stuff to, but I haven't tried that yet.

The guys at menards said you can edge glue this stuff with pvc cement to make wider boards. Haven't tried that either, but it looked clean enough to do without jointing it. Its not particularly cheap, about $2.50 - 3/linear foot at 7 1/4"x3/4"x10ft.

John

[edcoleman]

John:

I have just bought some of the same sort of stuff to "play" with. The brand I bought wasn't Certainteed but "Kleer" see the web site:

http://www.kleerlumber.com/

They sell in sheet form as well. I purchased my material at a local vinyl fence supply store.

-Ed

[conceptmachine]

Are the 'certainteed' and 'kleer' products the same as composite decking board?
-shawn

[Brady Watson]

Shawn,
No. Composite decking is composed of High Density Polyethyline (HDPE) with additives. The products mentioned above are made of extruded/expanded PVC foam. This is very similar (practically identical) to Komotex, Sintra, Celtec etc, expanded PVC sheets.

-B

[jhicks]

Thanks John & Ed, looks interesting. How does the surface tool and what is the finish like after machining? I've seen the ASEK trim board and the material is rather rough after cutting but I'm sure there are some tricks to dial it in for best results.
Drop a note or phots when you have run some if you can.
I've already e-mailed for samples and info so thanks for the link.

[Brady Watson]

Jerry,
I've cut a ton of this stuff (Azek is just another brand name for Sintra et al). You want a 1/4" or 3/8" double-spiral-O flute from Onsrud, or your favorite bit company. Vacuum hold-down is preferred. Depending on design, cut speeds are unlimited. Keep in mind all of these materials are foam, not solid PVC. The faces are seared with a hot extrusion knife to give it either a smooth or textured exterior. Don't get crafty...cut in multiple passes as the material has some sponge to it and will move when aggressively cutting it.

The price of 4X8 sheets of this stuff has really gone up since the extruders are busy pumping out this stuff to meet demand on the home construction market. It is often used for exterior trim & I have personally (and literally) cut TONS of this stuff into gingerbread moldings, trim & fencing.

-B

[jseiler]

since it is foam with really fine bubbles, the edges are a little rough when you are done cutting. For what I am doing, that doesn't matter. I use a 2 flute straight bit to cut it, but I have an older machine with limited cut speed. If I were running faster, I'd probably use an o-flute to clear the chips.

John

[jhicks]

Thanks guys, have a few ideas and can't wait for samples. Any advice on finishing or bonding if we were to consider it for signs, letters, etc? I think it may be very nice with the 2 part polyurethanes we are using now.
Sounds like the CELTEC brand of expanded PVC from the folks at Polymer Industries (I think thats them) the same parent that makes Azek. We seriously considered Celtec for vac table base but ended up with Ultra Lite MDF/ Trupan.Time to reengage and see what we can come up for applications with this stuff.

[Brady Watson]

Jerry,
You can use MEK to solvent 'polish' the edges and PVC cement to bond it, although bonding this stuff is really tricky. If you scuff the heck out of the PVC with like 40# paper you can bond it with Gorilla glue. This stuff looks awesome in automotive paint.

Oh, by the way...you'd think that this stuff was the greatest thing since sliced bread after you do a few profile cuts...but it doesn't quite v-carve as well as you would like it to as the center has a tendency towards melting/smearing.

-B

[jhicks]

Thanks Brady, we'll update as we experiment. Also thinking of trying it for profiled arched mouldings for exterior applications but time will tell.

[davidp]

It will cut better if you use a climb cut on your tool path and as Brady said V carving it is not as good but as most people cut it with too many RPMs and not enough speed it melts, we use either 1/8 or 1/4 CED bits, single flute spiral, at around 13000 rpm and a touch over 4" per sec and you will get acceptable results

[fleinbach]

I have been experimenting with AZEK for my gazebo trim for several months when I get some spare time. Here is my results so far


5104

I used several bits to make these cuts in a piece of scrap I had left over from one of my addition jobs. I made these cuts about a month ago and though I don't remember all the particulars I do remember speeds varied from as low as 5,000 rpm up to 21,000 with a 1/4" double flute up spiral bit. Strangely there seemed to be little differance in cut quality at any of these speeds. I will be doing more testing very soon as I need to get this project done soon.