Anyone here tried a UHMW plastic sheet as a mousepad?

Avalar · Oct 20, 2021

Since glass pretty much my endgame, I'm trying to find other fast, but durable, surfaces to try out. UHMWPE is harder than PTFE, and apparently HDPE as well. If I could find a piece of it that isn't curled, I could try texturing it myself to get a smooth glide (idk how though), as sheets of this stuff almost always come smooth, with or without scratches.

Unless someone else has already done it and determined it's crap.

Avalar · Oct 21, 2021

Wondering if these come curled or not. Lots of options on this site.

Avalar · Oct 22, 2021

Thought I'd update this with a couple low-quality pictures. Holy crap their shipping is fast, and cheap!

Light Black Rectangle Computer keyboard Wood

Computer Computer desk Personal computer Output device Peripheral

Definitely slower than the Skypad, but not by a huge amount. Would definitely prefer it textured, though. Maybe blasting it with something would do the trick.

Avalar · Oct 25, 2021

Oh yeah, I did something else. Hand-sanded one side with some 80 grit sandpaper til the whole side was the same consistency. Glide has gotten a bit faster, and the surface is now fuzzy, sorta like felt. The pad is pretty comfortable to use and also really quiet, and it no longer reflects like it did.

Sky Cloud Astronomical object Wood Automotive lighting

Brown Cloud Tints and shades Electric blue Pattern

The first image is after a little bit of 120 grit sanding, and the second is after a lot of 80 grit sanding.

Still haven't figured out how to get that "cutting board" texture that some HDPE boards come with. Found a company in China that makes custom dimension cutting boards out of UHMW plastic, but they only come smooth. They only do the textures for the HDPE stuff. Bummer.

fourthavenue · Oct 26, 2021

I actually purchased this before. But I didn't think of using it as a mousepad😅

Font Audio equipment Screenshot Advertising Web page

fourthavenue · Oct 26, 2021

Avalar said:
Still haven't figured out how to get that "cutting board" texture that some HDPE boards come with. Found a company in China that makes custom dimension cutting boards out of UHMW plastic, but they only come smooth. They only do the textures for the HDPE stuff. Bummer.

Is there possibly a chemical that can melt the surface a little bit hence a fine texture? just like DIY making frosted glass.

Avalar · Oct 26, 2021

fourthavenue said:
Is there possibly a chemical that can melt the surface a little bit hence a fine texture? just like DIY making frosted glass.

Yeah maybe, but then how would you keep it consistent?

I also found a laser etching/engraving shop near me and sent them an email. I've seen some of the pictures, and they can put pretty deep impressions in all sorts of materials, so maybe they can copy-paste a texture onto the plastic board I give them. :0

Way cheaper than getting a board from China lol. I actually found another UHMW supplier in China actually selling textured pieces of the stuff, but you have to buy a minimum of 240x480cm of it. Nooo thank you.

Kommando Kodiak · Dec 11, 2021

Avalar said:
Still haven't figured out how to get that "cutting board" texture that some HDPE boards come with. Found a company in China that makes custom dimension cutting boards out of UHMW plastic, but they only come smooth. They only do the textures for the HDPE stuff. Bummer.

You cant, its a molding technique and that pattern is called " haircell " Ive search all this stuff back in 2017, you want to go to ebay or w/e and search the following terms separately starboard and seaboard, you want textured those will have the haircell texture and youll want to observe the images or ask for them just to be sure.

Ill tell you the conclusion i came to on this though, youre better off with that skypad or a custom glass pad which is the reason i asked you about glass pads a couple months back. The problem with the the haircell is its too low friction on the mouse feet as it turns out a little bit of friction helps.

one last thing the one trick that would work for texturing your sheet would be to bead/sand/material blast it. Id say dense bead media at high speed to make deep gouges and craters, you want them deep so that when you sand away elevated ridges of the crater you only have holes left that should get you the effect of haircell but youll have to be uniform and slow as you spray the board.

Avalar · Dec 11, 2021

Kommando Kodiak said:
You cant, its a molding technique and that pattern is called " haircell " Ive search all this stuff back in 2017, you want to go to ebay or w/e and search the following terms separately starboard and seaboard, you want textured those will have the haircell texture and youll want to observe the images or ask for them just to be sure.

Ill tell you the conclusion i came to on this though, youre better off with that skypad or a custom glass pad which is the reason i asked you about glass pads a couple months back. The problem with the the haircell is its too low friction on the mouse feet as it turns out a little bit of friction helps.

one last thing the one trick that would work for texturing your sheet would be to bead/sand/material blast it. Id say dense bead media at high speed to make deep gouges and craters, you want them deep so that when you sand away elevated ridges of the crater you only have holes left that should get you the effect of haircell but youll have to be uniform and slow as you spray the board.

Thanks a lot for the info! Yeah I sorta gave up with those laser guys, too, cuz they would never get back to me. Glad to know there's a term to describe the texture. I've actually got a Skypad XL 3.0 on the way, which is faster, thinner, and quieter than the 2.0, so that'll be fun. Might still mess with this plastic eventually though, cuz I'm curious.

Anyone here tried a UHMW plastic sheet as a mousepad?

Avalar

Avalar

Avalar

Avalar

fourthavenue

fourthavenue

Avalar

Kommando Kodiak

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