Interesting Material For Coasters or Other Things

Was looking at Home Depot for new bathroom flooring and took home a sample of “LifeProof Luxury Vinyl Planks.” It is available in several wood like versions and has a solid PVC core. The 4" square free sample looked interesting and I decided to throw it on the X-Carve.

Since it is waterproof, pre-finished and has sort of a non-skid backing I thought it would be ideal for coasters. My daughter in-law is into owls and I had just finished making her a coaster set out of white oak so I decided to try another out of this stuff. Had to scale it down a little to fit the sample but it went well.

Used a 60 degree V bit in F-Engrave to cut the inner lines and then Easel to cut out the outline through the 1/4" material. It cut fairly well and left only a little “fuzz” that was easily cleaned up with a needle file. The edge ended up with some black residue but it cleaned off with a cloth and some solvent.

All in all interesting. Nice that there is no finishing needed yet it is waterproof. No idea how rough it will be on bits over the long haul. To me the biggest downside is cost. The roughly $3 a sq ft isn’t that bad BUT you have to buy a box of 20 sq ft.

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Just keep getting free samples. Cost 0.00!

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You can also get their small samples of hardwood flooring for free. They’re about 3" square or so I believe. If you just need a little something to make, it’s free and they come in a ton of different colors and grains.

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Nice find. Thanks for sharing. Your project came out very good.

They got smart and stoped the solid wood samples

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I’ll check next time i’m at my local store here.

that is cool… kinda HDPE but with a wood texture. some cool possibilities there

@RayMacke Is that material absorbent at all?

They state the top layer is “a solid virgin vinyl layer” and the center is " highly engineered closed-cell foamed PVC core." Also stated it is “100% waterproof.” And no from what I have messed with it it does not appear to be absorbent.