"artificial" blanks

[Fibonacci]

I got an "artificial" blank in that box of stuff from Buzzz4 a little while back and just tried turning it.

I originally thought it was acrylic, but it smelled like fiberglass when I drilled it and shot off long stringy fibers as I turned.

Any idea what material is really was? It is a milky white with red and blue swirls through it. I think it also had some pearl or metallic sheen to it.

It really is a sad story. I started turning with the skew, because the general consensus seems to be that a sharp skew is the way to go for acrylic (at the time, I was assuming it was acrylic). It was working great. I stopped a couple times to sharpen the skew based on some advice that I had been given.

Once I got down close to the final size, I decided to switch to my scraper, since that is usually when I destroy a blank with the skew and I really liked how this was looking.

The first touch of the scraper shattered a chunk out of the side.

I went back to the skew to get some more practice, and the rest of the blank came out great, polished up nicely, all that.

Not sure what the moral of the story is, but I am over my fear of plastic type blanks. I would like to know what that one was, but now I just need my own drill press too.

 

[Lenny]

Perhaps you can salvage it by adding a "opps" band onto the end that suffered the blowout?

 

[Buzzzz4]

I cast with Alumilite which does have a different aroma. It really should turn like any other resin, but you may have caught the blank as I do occasionally. Yes, it's frustrating, but that's when it is time to get creative. Oops bands or filling with something can do the trick. Or turn it all off and go on to the next blank works as well. Just have fun with it.

 

[Fibonacci]

It is a chunk down to the tube about 1/2" from then end. I might try to oops band it, but it might look pretty funky.

Thanks again for the pieces.

 

[ssajn]

Try putting an opps band on each end. Might look like you planned it that way. :biggrin:

 

[nava1uni]

If you have the piece you could glue it into place and/or fill it with ground stone, embossing powder and see how that looks.

 

[Fibonacci]

Try putting an opps band on each end. Might look like you planned it that way. :biggrin:

I like the way you think... I will have to try that. The piece chipped in a couple places when I drilled it, so the other half of the pen already has some "segmenting" where I cut the chipped parts off and joined them with wood to make the seams look intentional. I have some more scraps of the wood I segmented the top with.

 

[MarkD]

I have found that when I get a blowout on the nib end that an inch of ebony looks nice on some pen styles. Kind of gives it the "old parker" look.

 

[robutacion]

What...??? no pics...??? never happened...!:biggrin:

Came on guys, why it has to be always me...???:frown:

Cheers
George

 

[Fibonacci]

Ok, I can live with pics or it didn't happen. Give me a couple days to find my camera.

 

[Fibonacci]

Here are pics, so I guess it did happen.

This is the worst of the offenders.

 

[DaveConrad]

I got an "artificial" blank in that box of stuff from Buzzz4 a little while back and just tried turning it.

I originally thought it was acrylic, but it smelled like fiberglass when I drilled it and shot off long stringy fibers as I turned.

Any idea what material is really was? It is a milky white with red and blue swirls through it. I think it also had some pearl or metallic sheen to it.

It really is a sad story. I started turning with the skew, because the general consensus seems to be that a sharp skew is the way to go for acrylic (at the time, I was assuming it was acrylic). It was working great. I stopped a couple times to sharpen the skew based on some advice that I had been given.

Once I got down close to the final size, I decided to switch to my scraper, since that is usually when I destroy a blank with the skew and I really liked how this was looking.

The first touch of the scraper shattered a chunk out of the side.

I went back to the skew to get some more practice, and the rest of the blank came out great, polished up nicely, all that.

Not sure what the moral of the story is, but I am over my fear of plastic type blanks. I would like to know what that one was, but now I just need my own drill press too.

Sounds very much like Inlace Acrylester. It is beautiful when done properly but very frustrating as it wants to chip of instead of peel off. Sometimes it will peel a bit but then you get a hard chunk that chips off. I finally got one to finish by taking it down to its final size with 80 great sand paper and then finishing with fine sand paper and McGuires plastic polish. Came out beautifully. You can find examples of other blanks here http://www.woodsafari.com/home.php?cat=544

My Pen - Molten Metal Inlace Acrylester
Inlace Acrylester

 

[Buzzzz4]

It doesn't look like one of my homebrews, so I'm not sure what I passed onto you. It looks like some reverse painting would have helped as well.