I picked up some polyclay from hobby lobby yesterday. I'd never used the stuff before, but I figured for 20 bucks and a couple hours worth of time it might be an interesting learning experience. I also grabbed a book on polyclay techniques...there is a TON of stuff you can do with it.
Anyway, I threw together some really basic snakes and stacks and twisted and squished until I had two pen blank sized chunks. baked it at 300 for about 30 mins (actually over-baked as I fell asleep on accident, but only by about 10 mins or so). Then let cool over night.
I matched the blanks up to a rhodium trimline and a chrome/satin cigar (as seen in the pics). The polyclay turns really easy as it seems softer compared to pr/alumilite/acrylester... The bad part about that is the softness of the plastic (and my inability to curb my patience) led to a bunch of little issues, holes, waves, overturning. Some work with CA finishes (and some rework after seeing the first buffed, finished product) ended up creating a nice hard, smooth surface.
sanded at 600, then buffed with the plastic buffing compounds and the canton flannel buffs from caswell (mentioned in a finishing thread here) which I just received on Thursday. Also for SnG's I ren. waxed the barrels and then buffed clean on another canton flannel. I don't think the pics really show it, but these pens shine like a new penny, and have some depth in looking at the barrels. FWIW I think the plastic compounds do a faster job at shining the acrylic, but I don't think the dry compound lasts very long on the buffs as I felt like I needed to (and did) recharge the buffs after every barrel.
Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin with it...:wink:
Thanks for looking and reading, and I hope you enjoy the pens.
C & C welcome and appreciated,
Joe
Anyway, I threw together some really basic snakes and stacks and twisted and squished until I had two pen blank sized chunks. baked it at 300 for about 30 mins (actually over-baked as I fell asleep on accident, but only by about 10 mins or so). Then let cool over night.
I matched the blanks up to a rhodium trimline and a chrome/satin cigar (as seen in the pics). The polyclay turns really easy as it seems softer compared to pr/alumilite/acrylester... The bad part about that is the softness of the plastic (and my inability to curb my patience) led to a bunch of little issues, holes, waves, overturning. Some work with CA finishes (and some rework after seeing the first buffed, finished product) ended up creating a nice hard, smooth surface.
sanded at 600, then buffed with the plastic buffing compounds and the canton flannel buffs from caswell (mentioned in a finishing thread here) which I just received on Thursday. Also for SnG's I ren. waxed the barrels and then buffed clean on another canton flannel. I don't think the pics really show it, but these pens shine like a new penny, and have some depth in looking at the barrels. FWIW I think the plastic compounds do a faster job at shining the acrylic, but I don't think the dry compound lasts very long on the buffs as I felt like I needed to (and did) recharge the buffs after every barrel.
Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin with it...:wink:
Thanks for looking and reading, and I hope you enjoy the pens.
C & C welcome and appreciated,
Joe
