First Acrylic and a surprise

[Russianwolf]

Was just messing around on the Turncrafter since I'm still waiting for a new headstock on the Grizzly. I knew it would be slightly out of round, but just wanted to turn something. So I decided to turn an acrylic blank that I got in a trade. While I was turning I got a good bit of vibration when I was working on the center of the blank, which this one is extra long for a slimline. Also broke in Johnny's slimline blanks that I order a month or so ago (great job as always).


I did do one thing different on this one. Since I knew the nib would be out of round due to my lathe, I put the beaded centerband for the kit down next to the nib. It makes the roundness a little less obvious and adds a little something extra to the kit.

The surprise shows up better in this pic with different lighting. I got a chatter spiral. Very cool. Wish I could say that I planned it and could do it whenever I wanted. I'll have to play with a couple techniques I've read that may give more consistent results.

I've also go ahold of a new camera, which I think is much better, but I still need to figure out the best settings. The camera is a Fujifilm S700.

 

[karlkuehn]

Wow, that is really cool! I've been reading about chatter tools. It's amazing you got that effect with just a wonky lathe!

As far as figuring out your new camera, definitely do some reading through the photography section. All the lingo and mumbo jumbo is a bit weird at first, but the guys who are posting there helped me improve my photos 10 times as good as what I was doing. The manual settings are overwhelming at first, but now that I've set it up the way I like it, it's shooting really consistently and God help the person who comes behind me and changes something now that I've got it set![]

I'm working with a 6 year old Nikon Coolpix 995 (3 megapixel), and I've been astounded at what I've learned about it in the last couple of weeks just by reading responses to a couple of my questions, but more importantly other peoples posts. Very cool looking pen! I really like that spiral. I just turned a crosscut Honduran rosewood pen the other night, and was surprised by how hard the endgrain was. I might have to look into some of that texturing stuff. Hmmmm...I wonder if I take a hammer to my headstock spindle, can I bust a bearing just right to give me those 'good vibrations'?

....mmmmmm bop m bop...excitaaaationssss...bop m bop...goood gooooood gooooooood.....[]

 

[winpooh498]

That did turn out very cool! [8D]

 

[R2]

That is one very nifty pen![][][]

 

[johncrane]

yes your pen looks really good Mike the c/band is a niffty trick well done.[][]

 

[Russianwolf]

Karl, Oh the lathe didn't directly cause the chatter. The cast Iron bed on my PSI lathe has a crack in it that opens slightly when pressure is applied from the tailstock. That causes the out of roundness I'm experiencing.

The chatter was likely due to several things. The one piece blank that was nearly 6 inches long. The fact that only 2.5 inches of the blank had a tube in it. and the light tailstock pressure from the lathe.

It must be a nice pen despite it's flaws. LOML claimed it. []

 

[winpooh498]

Very Cool !!!!

Shane

 

[txbatons]

Great pen, blank and centerband idea.

 

[Ligget]

Blank looks great, very cool![]