How many woodworkers would like to see a supply of Formica offcuts made available?

[eric h]

Hi,

I have a store on ebay that sells offcuts of UHMW, Delrin, teflon and various Nylons.

I'm not going to spam you with a link, I'm doing research (But the ID on ebay is surplusdealdude, if you wanna look ;-) )

Anyways, a gentleman over opn re.crafts.metalworking suggested that people were looking for a source of Formica. He thinks that it's tough to get small pieces.

So I thought I'd ask around and see if this is something I should be stocking. I may have a source available that could provide some nice pieces (we'd be talking 15" x 24, maybe.

Any suggestions as to price, etc, would be welcome.

[Lew Hodgett]

UHMWPE, 1/2" thick, various widths, 30-36" long have a lot of applications for fences, etc.

Where are you shipping from?

Lew

[eric h]

I ship from Canada.

Just a suggestion, though - if you want to use material for a fence, Delrin is a lot stiffer and more slippery than UHMW. It's a harder plastic, but very machineable with any woodworking tool.

[Lew Hodgett]

Big country, which one of the 11 time zones?

Works for me.

Lew

[dpb]

...

...

W/ Lew, that covers a lot of territory. Being in the US, I normally screen out non-US shippers.

For Formica, I'd be surprised if there were much demand as most any place w/ a cabinet shop has access to quite a bit of waste stock, often for the collecting. Of course, some folks seem to overlook the obvious local sources and go trolling the internet thinking that's the end-all, but that's them. Then, any sizable city is bound to have the salvage freight places, etc., as well, most of which will have the odd plastic laminates for pretty cheap (relatively, anyway) prices as well...

A low-cost supply of the other less common plastics in usable sizes would be worthwhile if the product cost can be sufficiently low to make up for shipping. Of course, the local glass supply shop may have ends of many of those, particularly the transparents, as well. It's the nylon, UMHW, Delrin, etc., that are the less common that would be most useful to have inexpensive supply outlet for, I'd think, at least from my perspective.

[dpb]

dpb wrote: ...

Just a passing thought -- one of the better window/glass shops in town backs up on the alley across from the church. Each Sunday I make a point of looking the scrap bin and dumpster to see what is there...sometimes if I didn't bring the truck and it's particularly "interesting" and large I even go home and come back...

Again, the harder materials are by far the least frequent, but not unheard of. Sometimes, one wonders "just what _were_ they thinking?" or "does Jeff have any idea what the guys in the shop pitched out yesterday?" :)

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[RicodJour]

So, are you praying in church that there'll be some 'gold' in there before you hit the dumpster? Or do you hit the dumpster first? It's all a question of priorities. ;)

R

[dpb]

:)

Usually I park on the side and come in the back door which leads by the dumpster to take a look on the way in...only if that place is full do I have to wait until afterwards to discover if there's paydirt to be had... :)

It averages about once/month I guess of something useful in general, more like every several months that it's unique enough I actually pick it out any more, now that I have a fair stock of "ordinary" material. But, once in a while, it's quite a find. Picked up a piece of 1/2" tempered/darkened 3' x 8' w/ only a couple inches broken out of one corner a year or so ago. That one took another guy to help to get in the truck and made for a set of tabletops...

Last haul was about 8' of 1/8" Lexan 60" wide. Had a crack through a section, but there's a whole lot of useful material to be had out of it. All of the glass for the new windows for the barn will come out of a half-dozen or so partial sheets.

When a place must cut a dozen 8x12 panes a week, why pieces that will yield two or three each are simply pitched as standard operating practice still amazes me.

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[eric h]

Sorry, I should have said Southern Ontario, Canada.

[eric h]

Well, I'd be the first to admit that buying 1 item isn't as cheap as I'd like to see it - shipping is expensive nowadays.

But the combined shipping and store discount doers bring the cost down significantly.

And if you're one of those unfortunate people that lives near plastic suppliers that have changed over to the "minimum square foot" pricing, small pieces of Delrin are just outta sight. Imagine getting charged $400 for a 4" cube - we look pretty good next to that regardless of what the shipping is.

[eric h]

I often get that feeling, too.

Last year, one of my suppliers threw out a 40 x 40 x 4" piece of UHMW. Must have been worth $1500.

I've got 2 pieces of white Delrin now that are worth somewhere around $600 each. We're selling them for $175.