Working with highwood®/Everwood Material
GENERAL INFORMATION highwood® synthetic wood material is our proprietary high-grade poly alternative to real wood. This unique material is at the core of many of our products, including all of our furniture brands and Everwood dimensional lumber. It can be handled and machined in a similar fashion to natural wood. Most methods used for storing, fabricating, and cleaning real wood can be used with highwood® products, making it an extremely versatile material.
Drilling highwood® material can be drilled using all types of drills (e.g., brad point, split point, step drills). For larger diameter holes, Forstner bits work very well. Care must be taken to frequently remove the waste as the hole is drilled to avoid heat build-up and melting of the ‘plastic sawdust’. Coated drills (titanium nitride) reduce friction, and are highly recommended. Drill speeds should be 400 to 900 RPM to minimize heat generation. High feed rate provides the best results.
Nailing/Stapling Nailing is not effective for fastening thick profiles of highwood® material; screwing or stapling is preferred. For thinner profiles, nails should not be closer than 3/8" from the edge of any profile. Pneumatic nailers can be used for finish nails and brads, and work very well on thinner boards (maximum 1x nominal boards material with a 0.68" actual thickness). Stapling is an effective method for fastening thinner boards and is preferred over nailing.
Bending To produce curved products, highwood® profiles can be bent using a jig or form. To bend, heat the profile to 195 to 215ºF (100ºC) in a convection oven, hot box, or hot liquid bath. Heat only long enough to make the profile pliable (time varies with profile thickness: typical 7 to 15 minutes). Overheating will cause the foam to expand and the profile will become misshapen. By contrast, if the profile is not hot enough, it may wrinkle when bending.
Staining highwood® material does not require any staining, painting or preservative treatment to maintain its appearance. However, stains can be used on the material to alter the color of the product — especially on cut areas of the material. Water- based acrylic stains, such as made by Cabot Stains, work very well. Alkyd-based stains or varnishes also work well. Gel-type stains provide more uniform staining and are recommended. Avoid any stain that contains aromatic solvents (e.g., toluene, xylene).
REPAIR Minor Scuffs & Scratches Minor scuffs in highwood® profiles can easily be removed by gently buffing with ‘0000’ steel wool. The steel wool blends the scuff or scratch with the surrounding material, and leaves the area with a slightly different patina than the original product. Now that the scratch is removed, the area can be polished with Pledge furniture polish or Carnauba wax to bring up the luster to blend with the virgin profile. Please visit our web page for a short video at highwood-usa.
