# The Booral Method – Chopping Block HDPE Build



## Palmettoflyer (Nov 15, 2019)

Over the past months, our good brother John started showing off some amazing work with his NLS frame design and a very interesting and successful builds using kitchen cutting board stock material. Many have tried to do this in the past without much success as gluing HDPE polymer plastic is not an easy task. John seems to have hit on a process that works and works quite well! Many of us wanted to know more about it and John has freely consulted on what he does along with tips on what worked for him.

In short, this is the simple white and colored poly kitchen cutting boards. The process is simple, wash it clean with soap and water, prep sand the glue surfaces with 120 grit sand paper. I did mine with a block sander going in a up/down, left/right, and both diagonal directions. This adds just the right amount or roughness to the surface for the epoxy to get a grip. Important step here is to wash clean again after sanding with soap and water to remove all traces of dust and oils that may be on the surface. 

The gluing process is done using Gorilla Glue brand 5 minute epoxy. After mixing the glue, apply quickly to both mating glue surface using a plastic spatula of some sort. Use an old credit card / key card, or other utensil that will spread quickly a thin layer of epoxy completely over the entire surface. John pointed out that clamping the surfaces together is important. The goal is to apply just enough pressure uniformly to ensure there are no gaps or trapped air inside the sandwich. John recommended using screws predrilled in the board ~50cm apart. Thus it is important to layout slingshot frame cut lines first so you don’t place a screw in a frame location. On my glue up, I did a combination of weights and screws but will use more screws on my next one. I had a little difficulty getting weights placed just right. So good tip from John on clamping with screws.










Remember this is 5 min epoxy so be sure to have everything ready and thought through before starting.

After I had my white and yellow sandwich made, I did a traditional HDPE cut out and shaped with my router table. Nothing special here and used my 3D printed templates to route out the frame and shaped the rounded edges. Here are a few pictures of my router method. Caution, this is dangerous if you do not know how to safely use a router table. John told me he does all his build shaping by hand and does not use a router at all. So, don’t think this is a router only material if you are thinking to try it.









Used paper spray glued to surface for layout.


















Router Templates ready and waiting their turn.









Bamboo makes a good flat router base, and most important is safety with thick supple leather gloves.









This is a "Spiral Up" router template bit. Works a whole lot better than straight cut template bits.









Rounding the edges










All done and a bonus bead too!










So far I have shot the PFS Hunter and the Dorian frames. The material is amazing, and the frames are great shooters and best of all, they look really good!
Here it is beside the original Dorian build by @Island made. Awesome design in case you are not familiar with it.










John, thank you for sharing your knowledge and skills with us!


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## Palmettoflyer (Nov 15, 2019)

Apparently there is a 10 pic limit on posting. Couple more of the Dorian's test drive.


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## S.S. sLinGeR (Oct 17, 2013)

Nice work! Great shooting.


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## Booral121 (Jan 6, 2019)

@Palmettoflyer first of all thankyou 🙏 for contacting me 💙👊 for helping me with the pdf files for seeing that what I do with these boards is good 🎯👊 for listening to my method for following it and for making me proud to have giving you that method cause those frames and those epoxy joints where on point 💙👊🎯👍 and on top of that taking the time to type out my method then pass it on to others 👊🎯💙💙💙👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 honestly I'm so happy knowing people are going to be using my method and will be able to create any and every frame for themselves thankyou 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👍💙🎯👊
(The only thing I will add is that although munro has a router table it is not essential I only use a dremel type tool and a 50mm sanding pad on a 18v drill)


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## Slide-Easy (Aug 16, 2020)

Palmettoflyer said:


> Over the past months, our good brother John started showing off some amazing work with his NLS frame design and a very interesting and successful builds using kitchen cutting board stock material. Many have tried to do this in the past without much success as gluing HDPE polymer plastic is not an easy task. John seems to have hit on a process that works and works quite well! Many of us wanted to know more about it and John has freely consulted on what he does along with tips on what worked for him.
> 
> In short, this is the simple white and colored poly kitchen cutting boards. The process is simple, wash it clean with soap and water, prep sand the glue surfaces with 120 grit sand paper. I did mine with a block sander going in a up/down, left/right, and both diagonal directions. This adds just the right amount or roughness to the surface for the epoxy to get a grip. Important step here is to wash clean again after sanding with soap and water to remove all traces of dust and oils that may be on the surface.
> 
> ...


Keep stacking and make a Wide-Gapped Conus.


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## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

Thanks kindly for the info. That Dorian frame is quite nice, I’d not seen that before.
So, I take it the Gorilla Glue brand, 5 minute epoxy is absolutely essential? Or can other 5 minute epoxies do the job as well?


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## Roll Fast (Sep 19, 2021)

Thank you for that write-up!
And thank you John for all that RND work!
Great looking frames and love those laminated colours.
Gonna have to get me a spiral router bit. The straight carbide bit likes to grab end grain pretty aggressively.
Good shooting eh!


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## skarrd (Jul 20, 2011)

very interesting apreciate the detailed instruction and those frames came out great looking
Thanks to Booral for sharing the process and steps too


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## Palmettoflyer (Nov 15, 2019)

Slide-Easy said:


> Keep stacking and make a Wide-Gapped Conus.


LOL, make your own. You may not know, I collaborated with Arturo to develop the template for the Wide Gap Conus. Also, created the STL files for 3D printing them. You can find the STL files on the Community Forum. Find someone with a 3D printer or put your carving skills to work. 

I do agree that the kitchen cutting boards would make a nice conus of any design.


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## Palmettoflyer (Nov 15, 2019)

Sandstorm said:


> Thanks kindly for the info. That Dorian frame is quite nice, I’d not seen that before.
> So, I take it the Gorilla Glue brand, 5 minute epoxy is absolutely essential? Or can other 5 minute epoxies do the job as well?


Only know that the Gorilla Glue works. Also it is clear and does not leave a yellow or brown color.


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## Palmettoflyer (Nov 15, 2019)

Roll Fast said:


> Thank you for that write-up!
> And thank you John for all that RND work!
> Great looking frames and love those laminated colours.
> Gonna have to get me a spiral router bit. The straight carbide bit likes to grab end grain pretty aggressively.
> Good shooting eh!


The spiral bits come in two types. Up and down. This is in reference to which way the chips go. Up, means toward the shank of the bit. They will still grab the grain of hard wood, but not near as bad as a straight bit. I find them on amazon for about $20. The 1/4" size works good with cutting PFS fork gaps.


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## Slide-Easy (Aug 16, 2020)

Palmettoflyer said:


> LOL, make your own. You may not know, I collaborated with Arturo to develop the template for the Wide Gap Conus. Also, created the STL files for 3D printing them. You can find the STL files on the Community Forum. Find someone with a 3D printer or put your carving skills to work.
> 
> I do agree that the kitchen cutting boards would make a nice conus of any design.
> 
> ...


Well, as you seem to be enjoying yourself with the process at the current moment...I was hoping to encourage you to do it instead.


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## Hoss (Jun 3, 2014)

Well done my friend, they look great, fantastic job!

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk


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## Booral121 (Jan 6, 2019)

Sandstorm said:


> Thanks kindly for the info. That Dorian frame is quite nice, I’d not seen that before.
> So, I take it the Gorilla Glue brand, 5 minute epoxy is absolutely essential? Or can other 5 minute epoxies do the job as well?


Nope I wouldn't use or recommend using just any 5 minute epoxy 👎🎯👍👊


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## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

Booral121 said:


> Nope I wouldn't use or recommend using just any 5 minute epoxy 👎🎯👍👊


So maybe there’s something chemically important that the gorilla glue offers the hdpe besides just being clear, you think? It’s just idle curiosity really.


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## Booral121 (Jan 6, 2019)

Sandstorm said:


> So maybe there’s something chemically important that the gorilla glue offers the hdpe besides just being clear, you think? It’s just idle curiosity really.


It's the method of doing it bud .sanding washing fixing process .aswell as the gorilla glue epoxy. A million have tried this and failed. Use this method it works every time .🤷 what does that tell you 👌🎯👊💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿


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## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

Well I guess it tells me enough, that’s for sure! I’ve been eying some black hdpe cutting boards. Might have to pick ‘em up.


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## Booral121 (Jan 6, 2019)

Sandstorm said:


> Well I guess it tells me enough, that’s for sure! I’ve been eying some black hdpe cutting boards. Might have to pick ‘em up.


Buddy black is QUOTE a pain to finish .anything else yeah but black is a pain honestly 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🎯👌👊


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## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

Booral121 said:


> Buddy black is QUOTE a pain to finish .anything else yeah but black is a pain honestly 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🎯👌👊


Ahh okay thanks, I appreciate it. Yeah I’ve never worked in hdpe so I’m still picking up the basics.


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## Booral121 (Jan 6, 2019)

Sandstorm said:


> Ahh okay thanks, I appreciate it. Yeah I’ve never worked in hdpe so I’m still picking up the basics.


Bud sanding is key 👌🎯 to both glueing and finishing al I use is a dremel type tool for shaping and finishing along with a 50mm sanding disc pad on a 18v cordless drill 🎯👌👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿


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## Booral121 (Jan 6, 2019)

@Sandstorm I'm actually going to try and get a few videos done of the glueing cutting out of the frames and them shaping and finishing for my YouTube channel done this weekend so I will tag you in them on here 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👊👌🎯


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## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

Booral121 said:


> Bud sanding is key 👌🎯 to both glueing and finishing al I use is a dremel type tool for shaping and finishing along with a 50mm sanding disc pad on a 18v cordless drill 🎯👌👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿


Cool, thanks man. Yeah that’s fairly close to my setup too right now.

Nice! A walkthrough sounds great. Thanks again for sharing your technique.


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## Booral121 (Jan 6, 2019)

Sandstorm said:


> Cool, thanks man. Yeah that’s fairly close to my setup too right now.
> 
> Nice! A walkthrough sound great. Thanks again for sharing your technique.


I actually really enjoy sharing any of my methods and tricks bud it's just getting the time do it sometimes that's the issue you know. But yeah I have the slab and that already prepped just the filming to do 🎯👌👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿


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## SLING-N-SHOT (Jun 5, 2018)

Thanks to Monroe [mention]Palmettoflyer [/mention] for detailing and posting the steps and thanks [mention]Booral121 [/mention] for freely sharing your method.

That’s what it’s all about on here, appreciating, liking, and supporting each other’s efforts.

Darrell.


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