UHMWPE vs. HDPE: diff terms or diff product?

Mr. Thomas,
HDPE is the cheapest machinable plastic you can buy. One inch HDPE is 250 bucks for a 48"x96" sheet. The price is pretty much by the cubic inch so you can extrapolate any size up to six inches thick. So far this year I have bought thirty sheets of one inch HDPE. Today I sent three sheets to that big scrap pile in the sky. The stuff is so cheap that wood would be more expensive.

UHMW, or UHMUPE, is just a more dense material, as compared to HDPE. If you are using an endmill or saw to cut UHMW; the chips will be manageable. Single point tools will produce stringy chips that are a real bear. Chipbreakers are totally useless in any configuration. All you can do is program in interrupted cuts by the stop and start method.

I would call Sabic Polymershapes or Curbell Plastics. Personally I use Sabic and I have no intrest in them. My local rep is why I buy there. Sabic was General Electric Polymershapes, last year, and before that they were Cadillac Plastic. I could trace the names back to the sixties, but you get my drift.

Stick with HDPE for handles and other such items. UHMW is about twenty percent higher in price and you will not notice any improvement in your low stress applications.