Has anybody turned catalin?

[mbower]

Catalin is a 'plastic' used to make radio cases and other plastic type cases in the 1930s. Technically it is a phenol formaldehyde resin and is similar to bakelite.

I was given a few rods of this material today to try pen turning.

Has anybody used this material for pen making? If so, any suggestions on what special things I need to do?

Thanks

 

[jthompson1995]

From what I've heard/read, catalin is the cadillac of Bakelite type material. I would figure it turns very similar to bakelite and can be brittle. It should make some very nice pens.

Of course, you may not want to take the chance on it blowing up on you, it being brittle and all. I think it'd be better and safer if you didn't risk it. Just send the rods to me and I'll graciously risk blowing them up for you.[}]

 

[dfurlano]

These are Catalin Bakelite.

 

[retired-sofa-spud]

Wow, it looks like you have a winner there. You know it's funny, the abreviated title of your post read like "Has anyone turned cat

I'm not laughing...hehehe

 

[mbower]

This is my first try with this catalin. Mind you, I have never turned anything but wood before this so I don't know how it compares to other non-wood material.

This stuff puts out an interesting 'streamer' of very fine plastic. Kind of cool and fun to look at. For this piece (dark red), the streamer was a pink color so my oldest daughter would go ape over my 'pink lathe' now.

One problem I had was that as the streamer came off the blank, it tended to get wrapped around the piece. Not that it stopped anything but it did get in the way of seeing what I was doing. I had to stop often (me, not the lathe) and just put my finder on the streamer material and it came off very easily.

This is going to be fun.

It is hard to see very well in the picture but there is a nice bit of color swirling throughout the pen.

 

[dfurlano]

Nice job Mike. Were you able to get a nice polish? It should feel like glass when you are done.

Also were there any issues with pressing in the ends?

Thanks

Dan

 

[dfurlano]

With ink...

 

[mbower]

Thanks, guys.

For the polish, I used the following: 80 grit, 120 grit, 220, grit, 320 grit, 400 grit sandpaper, 800 and 1200 grit wet/dry (used dry). Then I used all the pads from my MM set, using water with only the last 4.

Lastly, I applied one coat of Renaissance and 'polished/buffed/ on the lathe. I don't have a buffing system yet.

Is it like glass? No, but still pretty shiny.

As far as inserting the hardware, I was really afraid when I took it to the press. But didn't have any issues at all.

Tomorrow night I'm going to try a bigger pen with a bigger piece of catalin that I've got.

Again, thanks.

 

[jjudge]

Want to buy a lot of catalin rods from Turkey ?
see -- http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/100742065/Old_Bakelite_Catalin_Rod.html

-- joe