• Machine tools are the industrial equivalent of power tools. They are large tools that serve a specific purpose, such as drilling or creating threads, and are powered by electrical or fuel-based engines. These give machine tools the power and torque required to work with heavier materials and are often used for industrial manufacturing purposes. The tools can also be used when working with plastics.
  
  

Drill Press

• Drill presses are machine tools which press a spinning drill downward into an object. The object is positioned on a stationary platform beneath the drill, which supports the item as the drill bores its hole in the item. When these are used to drill plastics, abrasive substances within the material can generate heat and dull the drill bit. To avoid the generated heat damaging the plastic, the drill should use low amounts of force. When the financial value of the item being produced is high enough, diamond boring tools, which are harder and dull less easily, should be used when drilling plastics.
  
  

Water Jets

• Water jets are machine tools that use a flow of highly pressurized water for cutting and sawing purposes. These can cut most materials except for tempered glass and diamonds. They can avoid the problems of the cutting material heating up from the friction of cutting and the cutting material becoming dull. When used on plastics, water jets properties produce clean cuts since there is no cutting surface to heat up.
  
  

Buffers

• Buffers are machine tools used to apply polishes, even out surfaces or grind down surfaces. They consist of a disk powered by a motor around which the user affixes a buffing pad or a bare wheel for grinding. Which pad the tool uses depends on which of the above functions the buffer will be performing. Thermoplastics are not hard to grind down, and silicon carbide wheels are useful for this purpose. Pads for polishing plastics should use loose stitching patterns.