Turning Phenolic Laminate

I'm not sure of the chemical composition but I once turned a disc of Pergo flooring (to use as an inlay in a small table top). Never worked anything before or since that was faster at dulling a tool!!

Kip Powers Rogers, AR

Phenolic laminate has some pretty funky aldhydes in it. Plus, it very likely is reinforced with fiber glass. I was explaining to the kids recently that fiberglass is really glass fibers (they didn't make the connection). Watch breathing those glass fibers. Or, for that matter, getting them embedded in your skin (ouch)!

John Pierce Maker of Fine Wood Chips and Sawdust

When I hear Phenolic, I think of printed circuit boards. That stuff dulls your tools and stinks. How does the phenolic cut, does it smell, and what do you make out of it at work. Martin

This is a link to the place that I work

It will help give you an idea of what I am talking about. We make phenolic laminate (layers of paper saturated with phenolic resin) An example that you may be familiar with would be the phenolic plate used in router tables. We also use cotton cloth, glass cloth, carbon fiber and a few other plastics as substrates. The two main resins are Phenolic and Epoxy. We make 48"*120" sheets anywhere from .090 to over 12" in thickness. I can get all of the scrap jig material that I need, I was just wondering if anyone ever tried it for turning. Here is a picture ofphenolic laminate.Scott

Scott, checked out the web page - looks like you folks got the once-upon-a-time Westinghouse Micarta line - an excellent prioduct

I have lots of experience turning phenolics -the short version is:

avoid the glass reinforced stuff

molded rodin the X, CE, or LE grades is what you want to use - it turns and sands well, and will take a finnish the other grades are too abrasive and/or nasty to deal with

sheet rod, has a tendency to de-lamminate when turned

shoot me an emai l- if you can get tons of scrap - we should talk

HTH Dale

I've turned, sawn and milled a lot of phenolic. I haven't done it using hand held tools, but don't see any reason not to. The most common grades of phenolic 1/4" and up use canvas reinforcement. Thinner sheets are often reinforced with paper. I've never heard of glass filled phenolic. If you wanted FRP most people would go to polyester or epoxy resins, not phenolic.

I would only use scraper tools.