Making own Acrylic?!?!

[pen-turners]

Just wondering if anyone has ever attempted to make their own acrylic blanks for turning. Since Penn State discontinued selling the large spindle blanks of acrylic I have had a hard time locating a suitable replacement for bottle stoppers. I picked up all the materials today including the dyes and will give it a shot. If anyone has tried this before, please let me know and give me some hints......

Chris
[:0]

 

[woodwish]

About 15 years ago we tried to pour some of own acrylic in molds for some projects in my shop class (I was the teacher, not a student). We did pretty good at pouring solid colors but I have no idea how to make the swirls and multi-colors. As long as you get the mix ratio right it turns out OK, but if it is off much you get stuff that explodes from excessive heat or never hardens at all. Good luck with it, and keep us posted.

 

[low_48]

I've never cast acrylic, but I bet bubbles of air will be some of your trouble. People that make silicone casts and rapid prototyping casting will degas the product before pouring. They put the container of mixture in a chamber and pull a vacuum in the chamber. This pulls all the air out of the silicone or whatever the mixture is. It's impressive to watch, as the entire mixture seems to rise to the top and look like shaving cream. Sometimes the vacuum has to be turned off for a short time to let the mix settle a little without overflowing. It then settles down and looks like the original mix, but without all the air bubbles that you can't see. They pour the mixture slowly and without hesitation so no air is trapped in the pour.

Maybe a small help, but I didn't know if you had heard of this or not.

Rich

 

[Fred in NC]

I will be trying that next year. For stoppers, the only thing I can say is that a mold might save some material.

 

[Fred in NC]

Chris, if you have a good source for the materials I would appreciate it. I have been looking at casting resins from:

www.delviesplastics.com

They also carry acrylic rods in different colors and diameters. By the way, extruded acrylic is not machinable, you need CAST rods for that.

 

[btboone]

Chris, I understand what you are going through. I've been looking for acrylic material in something just slightly larger than pen blanks for my ring inlays. I just want the stuff that the blanks come from. I want to SAVE them the labor of having to cut the sheet. How tough could it be? It seems that no one has access to anything but pen blanks! They must come in container loads from overseas.

I have found some acrylester in knife handle size. That still might not be quite large enough for most stoppers, but it's a slight step up from pen blanks. I did make a cast prototype of a dodecahedron Rubik's Cube type puzzle years ago. Like Woodwish says, it really overheated due to the large mass and cracked all over the place. Go easy on the hardener when the block is thick.

 

[pen-turners]

I found a good place that offers a ton of colors but not sure on their pricing. I sent them an email and asked for a price per foot. Their site is below and looks like some pretty cool stuff so hopefully they will not be outrageous but I won't get my hopes up.

http://saturn.users1.50megs.com/

 

[low_48]

Found this site, but they do not have a color chart. Only has one color, no fancy stuff, but up to 3" diameter.

http://www.polymerplastics.com/transparents_acrylicrc.shtml

Rich

 

[Fred in NC]

Delvies has colored CAST rods that can be turned in the lathe:

http://www.delviesplastics.com/colored%20cast%20rod.htm

They get expensive as the diameter goes up.

 

[Mike_O]

I just finished casting some acrylic blanks and turned the first of the batch Friday. I will post some pics later today in the Show off your pens forum.

 

[its_virgil]

Chris,
I have cast lots of polyester resin for pen blanks. Look in my folder and you will see a pen with rattlesnake skin embedded ing the PR and another with US flag ribbon. I have not cast anything as large as bottle stopper blanks, but others have. The best place to purchase the resin is http://artstuf.com/epoxy-polyester-resins.html

I will try to send you an article on casting PR resin, or if you are a member of Yahoo Penturners there is an excellent article in the archives written by Jay pickens that tells you all you need to know about casting PR. Let me know it you need a copy of the article. I think I have it somewhere on my computer. Contact me via email if you want to visit about casting PR, or we can do it here in this forum.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by pen-turners
<br />Just wondering if anyone has ever attempted to make their own acrylic blanks for turning. Since Penn State discontinued selling the large spindle blanks of acrylic I have had a hard time locating a suitable replacement for bottle stoppers. I picked up all the materials today including the dyes and will give it a shot. If anyone has tried this before, please let me know and give me some hints......

Chris
[:0]

 

[btboone]

I found a source for 1 1/2" diameter rods of polyester imitation pearl in several colors. They are available in 5" or 11 1/4" lengths. It is Masecraft Supply Co. phone 800-682-5489. They also have The same polyester in 4.5 x 5 x 5/8" sheets.

 

[Fred in NC]

Bruce: Thank you, I have asked Masecraft to send me a catalog.
The web site does not have much info other than a list of their lines. Some materials look very interesting.

 

[btboone]

Hi Fred, I just got their info in the mail, which is essentially some printed pages listing their materials, so it's not much better at visulization, but this is stuff usually used in knives, so should be some of the good stuff.

 

[PenWorks]

I just requested a price list and quanity order for rod material from www.galaxyplastic.net they have some good looking stuff. Anthony

 

[btboone]

I'd be interested to know what you find Anthony. I saw them a while back but didn't like the glitter look for a lot of it. The stuff like Flecks and Crushed Velvet have a great look but seem to be tough to find in anything but pen blank size.

 

[Fred in NC]

Anthony and Bruce, my take is that some materials make a pen look like it came from the dime store (dollar store nowadays due to inflation).

I cannot sell a pen that looks like it came from WalMart. In my opinion, a penmaker needs to use a lot of ingenuity and make a pen that shouts "Handmade!" when using plastics.

A replica of a vintage pen, or a pen made in a vintage style is a different story, ONLY when the customer is knowledgeable about such pens.

Looking at the Galaxy web page, there are some styles and colors that I think I could use. For example the pearl and abalone look very interesting. Pearl 'framed' in rhodium with gold accents, or a brushed chrome, would look nice in my way of thinking. Probably make a good wedding pen too.

I think the Galaxy materials also come in sheets to 1/2".

 

[PenWorks]

Your right Fred, Target has a selection of pens with some of the same material and it is sickening to look at. I requested some marble & pearls, I thought those looked about the best. It still all goes back to trim. You can take any resin and put Damascus trim on it and WOW! You saw those pens the other day by: forgot his name allready, but you know what I mean. Anthony