Working with PVC board

[Anthony Whitesell]

The only size PVC board I can find are 3/4" and 1". I need 1 1/4". I could glue a 3/4" piece to a 1/2". But how do I make a piece 1/2"? I'm sure I could resaw it, but how do I minimize the saw marks to able to glue them together. Can I use the planer? It would be the lightest of passes.

[John TenEyck]

I've used this stuff. It works well and is available in 5/4. I bought it through my local full service lumber supplier

http://www.versatex.com/trimboard.php

(http://www.versatex.com/trimboard.php)If you can't get 5/4 and are forced to glue up thinner stock, I think you can plane it but be aware it will likely dull your knives very quickly. Also, the stuff gets a static charge and will cling to everything, all over your shop, unless you have good dust collection. What a pain to clean up.

John

[Peter Quinn]

If you have a Kleer PVC lumber dealer in your market they sell 5/8" thick trim boards and 1/2" 4X8 sheets, so those might get you there. It's made in Westfield MA, so may be available in NH. I've jointed it with carbide, it comes off in ribbons that clog a dust pipe, best avoided IME. My approach is to avoid monolithic parts, to build up edges to the thickness needed and block out the rest. I use a glue line rip blade dedicated to the purpose, minimizes dust and leaves an edge clean enough to sand. The stuff sands well with a drum or wide belt, or even hand held belt sander. I always glue factory faces together when possible. What is your application that requires 1 1/4" ?

[Rick Moyer]

I think Koma makes it in all sizes. Not sure where you can get it though. I've made Adirondack chairs from it and yes you can plane it easily, but heed the notes John says above.

[Anthony Whitesell]

What is your application that requires 1 1/4" ?

I need to rebuild part of an exterior door jamb. It looks like a 5 1/2" wide piece of 1/2" wood glued to a 3 1/2" wide piece of 3/4" stock to make the L shape. The closest 'lumber yards' are Home Depot and Lowe's. It a drive to a 'real' lumber yard, but if you saw 5/4" is available, then it would be worth the trip.

[Peter Quinn]

I need to rebuild part of an exterior door jamb. It looks like a 5 1/2" wide piece of 1/2" wood glued to a 3 1/2" wide piece of 3/4" stock to make the L shape. The closest 'lumber yards' are Home Depot and Lowe's. It a drive to a 'real' lumber yard, but if you saw 5/4" is available, then it would be worth the trip.


I would laminate two pieces of 3/4" then resaw to thickness on the TS with a tall fence in two passes, the saw marks will be to the framing side. Then you can cut out the door rabbit as a second operation. The trim should cover the joints. Make sure to securely fasten that stuff especially if it's on the hinge side, it's not considered structural so lots of shims and screws are in order as the framing will be providing the only support. I like gorilla odorless PVC cement or azek non solvent based, a little slower and less stink.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I would laminate two pieces of 3/4" then resaw to thickness on the TS with a tall fence in two passes, the saw marks will be to the framing side. Then you can cut out the door rabbit as a second operation. The trim should cover the joints. Make sure to securely fasten that stuff especially if it's on the hinge side, it's not considered structural so lots of shims and screws are in order as the framing will be providing the only support. I like gorilla odorless PVC cement or azek non solvent based, a little slower and less stink.

I was thinking of doing just that. But as I looked at each of the steps, I realized that I won't have a way to route the groove for the weather stripping.
I think I will
1) cut the 3/4" piece to width
2) cut the groove for the weatherstripping
3) glue them together
4) resaw to thickness
5) run through planer to remove high spots


Luckily I am cutting the casing off just below the hinges. I am going to replace the screws in the lower hinge with longer screws since I'm removing the "lower support".

[Jason White]

You can get 5/4 Azek. If that's not thick enough then, yes, you'll have to laminate a couple of boards together with PVC glue (and lots of clamps).

[Larry Rupert]

I've done a "decent" amount of working with it, with various machines. Nice stuff when it's done (Azek), but I'll tell you that I never hated cleaning up anything afterwards as much as I hate TRYING to clean up the loose fluffy junk left behind. Really sticks to anything and everything...

[Peter Quinn]

I was thinking of doing just that. But as I looked at each of the steps, I realized that I won't have a way to route the groove for the weather stripping.
I think I will
1) cut the 3/4" piece to width
2) cut the groove for the weatherstripping
3) glue them together
4) resaw to thickness
5) run through planer to remove high spots


Luckily I am cutting the casing off just below the hinges. I am going to replace the screws in the lower hinge with longer screws since I'm removing the "lower support".


I run the weatherstrip slot in with a TS blade at about a 5 degree angle, I do it on my left tilt at home with the fence to the left of the blade. Keeps you on your toes but makes a very straight forward jamb build, and its highly accurate. The common urethane foam j shaped weather strip fits in a 3MM kerf....which is awfully close to 1/8" conveniently. And a standard exterior jamb is 2 1/8" rabbit, 1 3/4" of door and 3/8" gap for the weather strip under proper compression, then your kerf goes in another 1/2" or so...so the blade is almost full up and tilted toward the fence, yes it keeps you on your toes. But its a very light kerf cut, a few feather boards makes it safe, I rarely bother. They make a shaper cutter that does the rabbit and kerf in one shot....its about $1500, you have to make a lot of jambs before that starts making sense, and have a pretty stout shaper. They sell a top bearing slot cutter too that is 3 MM for retrofits, it has a flush screw so you can lower it right down to the bottom of the rabbit, conservation technologies sells them for about $50, but even that does't make sense to me for a single jamb. I worry about trying to build the weather strip slot in to a polyurethane trim glue up, the stuff is so slippery and squishy, the cement oozes, the stuff moves around easily until set. Almost seems easier to me to glue up a little wide, joint and rip the blanks to width, etc. I wonder how it does on the BS?

PS: Here's a link, if you do a lot of this sort of thing check out WS90, the flush bottom top bearing router bit. Handy for other things too but pretty much made for weather stripping.

http://www.conservationtechnology.com/building_weatherseals_components.html

[Peter Quinn]

I've done a "decent" amount of working with it, with various machines. Nice stuff when it's done (Azek), but I'll tell you that I never hated cleaning up anything afterwards as much as I hate TRYING to clean up the loose fluffy junk left behind. Really sticks to anything and everything...

I hate the dust, I hate the way it sticks to everything it touches, but conversely love the way paint stick to it. But the thing I love the least is the smell of the cut stuff. It smells like 100 angry skunks have moved into my dust collector, and the smell seems to linger for months even after changing the chip bags and beating the filters. Just stinks. I wish the sold a "low stink" version, I'd pay more.

[Rich Engelhardt]

PVC is about the only thing known to man that makes MDF look good going under or through a blade....

[Jay Jolliffe]

I've bought Azek 1 1/2'' thick so you shouldn't have to glue anything together. I guess I had an elderly moment thinking that is was 1 1/2''. I glued 2 5/4 pieces to get the thickness I wanted.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I'll need to cut a groove for the weatherstripping which is in the crook of the L-shape, 3" from the edge and 1/2" deep. I cannot think of any way to cut it. When they mill the original door, they must be using a 12 or 14" diameter saw blade. I typically use an 8 1/2" blade on the 9" table saw. The 10" saw (CMan contractor) stuck in the corner, doesn't have the reach even if I did finish digging it out to use it.

I saw twp glues mentioned. Gorilla PVC and Azek. Are there any others? (just trying to have options to look for at the BORG)

[Larry Edgerton]

I hate the dust, I hate the way it sticks to everything it touches, but conversely love the way paint stick to it. But the thing I love the least is the smell of the cut stuff. It smells like 100 angry skunks have moved into my dust collector, and the smell seems to linger for months even after changing the chip bags and beating the filters. Just stinks. I wish the sold a "low stink" version, I'd pay more.

Spray your cloths and machines with anti static spray. It has no ill effects on machinery. This was suggested to me by the owner of Versatex, its what they do with their molding machinery. Works well.

Larry

[Larry Edgerton]

I've bought Azek 1 1/2'' thick so you shouldn't have to glue anything together. I guess I had an elderly moment thinking that is was 1 1/2''. I glued 2 5/4 pieces to get the thickness I wanted.

Jay, next time you need thick PVC try Versatex. Their product has a better consistency all the way through and a flatter surface if you have to laminate. With Azek I found that I had to plane off 10/100 to get a flat surface for lamination. With Versatex I can laminate skipping this step and profiles cut on the shaper require less prep for paint as the center of the product is less grainy.

Larry

[Larry Edgerton]

I've used this stuff. It works well and is available in 5/4. I bought it through my local full service lumber supplier

http://www.versatex.com/trimboard.php

(http://www.versatex.com/trimboard.php)If you can't get 5/4 and are forced to glue up thinner stock, I think you can plane it but be aware it will likely dull your knives very quickly. Also, the stuff gets a static charge and will cling to everything, all over your shop, unless you have good dust collection. What a pain to clean up.

John

John, I have found that a set of knives will plane PVC for a long time, but once it has planed PVC it will not plane wood. I keep a set of blades just for PVC work. Also as I mentioned in the other post, try static guard spray, it helps.

Larry

[Larry Edgerton]

.
I saw twp glues mentioned. Gorilla PVC and Azek. Are there any others? (just trying to have options to look for at the BORG)

I have used Weld-On 705. It is a bit faster than Azek glue so not good for large lamination's but does work for trim and seems to have a longer shelf life.

A caution with Azek Glue. If you are doing a lot of laminations over several hours wear gloves. It takes a certain type of glove that is not affected by the glue, can't remember right now, but can dig it up if anyone needs to know. It can cause severe skin problems with prolonged exposure. I found this out the hard way when making a dozen reproduction Italianate columns. Skin flakes away and hands were tender for a couple of weeks. Normal rubber gloves are dissolved by the glue.

Versatex now offers biscuits, thank you very much, something I pushed for. I was making them before. Now If I can find a practical way to make plugs. I can do it with a liquid nitrogen spray on the plug cutter, but not practical. Cortex makes plugs with screws but they are not the sizes that I want and they are a ripoff.

Larry