| Author | Message | ||
     Greg_e |
Anyone know anything about machining GPO-3 plastic sheet? It's half the price of aluminum and I think it will do what I need for a project due to the fiberglass content. | ||
| Gunut75 |
It's a little tougher than UHMW. Very soft, easy to make a nice finish surface, but the fiberglass is going to eat a high-speed steel cutter for lunch. Go with the carbide. Keep your speeds low, as it heats up quick. Go with a flood coolant if you can. If your drilling a lot of holes with HSS bits, keep an eye on your drill tips. They will wear out, and start cutting kinda funky. You will be fine. Very easy to work with, it just eats softer steel tooling. If your going to put a threaded hole in it, go with a Heli-coil. Cheers!  | ||
| Greg_e |
Thanks, that's what I thought. Sounds like G10 or carbon fiber with the need for carbide. I may go back to aluminum for ease and known capabilities. Most of the tooling I have is either HSS or the M-42 stuff meant for aluminum and mild steels. Not real interested in buying a bunch of carbide tools for a one off project since I'll spend a lot more in tools than the cost of the aluminum. That would also let me thread the aluminum to mount this piece on the stock headlight mount (XB*R) which is some sort of cast plastic. | ||
| Gunut75 |
I have worked with G-10, and G-11 also. The G-series is actually laminated together with control used for direction of fiber. The GPO-3 is like they took the fiberglass, ground it up, and dumped it into the molten plastic. I would compare its consistency with the body work plastic on an XB. It has no set direction of fiber. It machines very easy, but just eats tooling. You would be better off using aluminum for a 1 off project. G-10, and 11 are glass epoxy materials. GPO series is a glass polyester. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Thank you for this conversation, I've learned something useful today. This place is a mine of information. |
