I agree, I often use the skew, or a shallow spindle gouge. When I use the spindle gouge, I have it halfway on edge, tipped at 45 deg, and I am coming off of the beve, in a planing style cut. I try not to use a scraping cut with acrylics unless I am just touching down a corner at the edge of the bushing or something like that. I use to turn them slowly, now I crank the lathe speed way up and take very light cuts. Either way can work. Sometimes different plastics respond to different techniques. I usually knock the corners off with a file before I ever get to the lathe. This saves me from cracking a blank unexpectedly.
My most used tool with acrylics is the BIG Allan Lacer skew. I keep it sharp and happy, and it treats me right. I use the smaller one when space gets a bit tight, near the bushings. I usually turn between centers when possible, so sometimes the big one is like trying to turn a semi truck around in a driveway.
The main thing I have learned about the skew is to keep it wicked sharp, and take very light cuts. I usually hone them every blank. (I turn one at a time too, so this is two honings per pen. I use the big one for the main shaping, after bringing it to round with the gouge, and then I finish it with the smaller skew. If it is a tougher material, or I am making a small pen from a large blank, then I touch the tools to the hone again halfway through. If I am only using one skew, I will touch it once or twice during the turning.
The real trick for me, is to take light cuts, and use the bevel of the tool. If I get the edge of the tool too far down on the face of the blank, I start taking more off than I want to, and the tool wants to wander deeper into the blank. Then I have a low spot, and that usually means the end of the pen, and the start of the nasty language. For me, the skew needs to move across the tool rest, and blank smoothly. If I stop moving across, or if it takes more pressure than normal to move across the blank, that means I am starting to dig INTO the blank more than I want to, and that's where my low spots come from.
It takes some practice with the skew to get the hang of the planing cut, and how to ride the bevel. Then it takes a bit more practice to do that on an acrylic pen blank, but the end result is worth it. I had to go through a period where I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to spend more time per pen than I wanted to, but I was going to get it right, and not try to go too fast. Now, I am much quicker,but I still go pretty slowly for the last few passes.
Good luck.
Dave
(I hope my descriptions of the angles can help out a bit. If not, just look at Ed Davison's downloadable videos. He gets it right.)
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