Plastic cutting board thru the planer?

[Joe Wood]

I feel silly posting this, but can I run a white plastic cutting board thru the planer? It's stained, I tried bleach, then white vinegar but that didn't help, then I thought, just run them thru the planer and take off a 32nd!

[Mark Bolton]

Ive run plastic through the planer before, can be kind of sketchy especially if its thin. The planer I ran it through has serrated feed rolls so taking super light passes is sketchy (feed rolls leave serration marks if enough cut isnt taken). I wouldnt stand behind the planer if you try and I'd have my hand on the switch or the cord to yank out of the wall, quick reflexes

[BOB OLINGER]

FWIW, I just viewed a DVD by Woodworkers Guild of America on "Setting up and Using Jointers and Planers" in which the author said DO NOT run plastic cutting boards through planers. I thought the DVD was excellent.

[Joe Wood]

Did he say why not to Bob?

[Stewart Lang]

Seeing as you can run epoxy resin through planers with no issues, I'd say it more depends on the type of plastic. I'd say give it a shot with a super light pass and see what happens. A spiral head would be a lot more forgiving than straight knives with this sort of thing too I'd think.

Side note: You're a woodworker and you're still using a plastic cutting board? I think that stain is a sign for you to add a certain project to your list

[Paul F Franklin]

FWIW, I just give mine a good sanding when they get too many knife slits that tend to capture "stuff". A couple minutes with a couple of grits on the random orbit cleans them up pretty well. I actually prefer when they have a slight texture to them as food doesn't slide around so much. 120 or 150 grit texture works well while still being easy to clean. Run the sander a little slower than you would for wood so it doesn't generate a lot of heat.

[eta:] And why am I using plastic? Wood ones don't hold up well to repeated dishwasher cycles....kind of a deal breaker in my house.

[Dave Mount]

I wouldn't recommend it for several reasons. If the plastic is willing to be cut, you could do it with a sharp hand plane with less risk and less mess.

Whether you could really do it with a power planer is a function of the type of plastic, it's thickness, and to some degree the configuration of your planer. Some plastics shatter, some machine well. Cutting polycarbonate versus UMHW polyethylene on the table saw couldn't be more different; the former is brittle and wants to shatter/chip, while UMHW machines like butter. A second issue is whether the plastic is stiff enough to be held down by the feed rollers. If the plastic flexes at all, the knives will dig in and the cutting board will explode.

And safety aside, do you really want plastic shavings all over your shop? Static will make them stick to everything, you'll never get it cleaned up.

Best,

Dave

[Joe Wood]

Actually I took it out to the shop and used the random orbit on it,

good as new, nice and white again :-)

[Richard Coers]

Did he say why not to Bob?

I think for the same reason why you are asking here and haven't already done it. It could blow up. The start of the cut would be the most dangerous. But since you don't mention what planer you have, I can only guess that it's not a commercial shop sized machine with a great pressure bar in the front. In the zone that can give you snipe, is the place where the damage could happen. Not worth it to save a $10 cutting board at Walmart.

[Joe Wood]

Its a 15", and I'm glad I didn't try it!

[Pete Staehling]

Glad the random orbital sander worked. I'd guess it would be okay in the planer with a very light pass, but why take the chance. I have run HDPE through a thickness sander for very light passes without any issues.

[BOB OLINGER]

Did he say why not to Bob?

Hi Joe,

Sorry for the delay in replying. I don't recall for sure as I didn't plan on doing it. Sorry.

[Patrick Walsh]

A good planer will have zero issues.

The Scmi in the video above as you see. Martin also sells their machines with tutorials pointing out the plastic processing capacity. I’ve used my Felder AD941 to do the same with zero issues. The only time I have had exploding material is when making veneer. When the ,steroidal gets to thin the leading edge can bust apart.

But plastic should be good. FYI I have not tried brittle hard plastics but soft hdpe type plastics like cutting boards should be fine. If you dust collection is good it also will not make a terrible mess. I had reservations that I was gonna just melt the plastic destroying my insert cutter head. I said a hail marry and all good.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMUnV920hg4

[Pete Staehling]

A good planer will have zero issues.

The Scmi in the video above as you see. Martin also sells their machines with tutorials pointing out the plastic processing capacity. I’ve used my Felder AD941 to do the same with zero issues. The only time I have had exploding material is when making veneer. When the ,steroidal gets to thin the leading edge can bust apart.

But plastic should be good. FYI I have not tried brittle hard plastics but soft hdpe type plastics like cutting boards should be fine. If you dust collection is good it also will not make a terrible mess. I had reservations that I was gonna just melt the plastic destroying my insert cutter head. I said a hail marry and all good.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMUnV920hg4

Given how nicely HDPE machine saws, sands, drills, and turns that isn't too surprising. The planer would have made me a more nervous given that it is harder or impossible to back off if things go south, but I didn't really expect it to be a big problem with the kind of reasonable care you'd use with other materials.

[John TenEyck]

I plane UHMW and HDPE (ie - cutting boards) all the time with my straight knife planer to make runners for my mortisers. It planes just like wood. Never had an issue of any kind. I wouldn't try polycarbonate, but soft plastics are fine.

John