Tools on acrylics

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Fay Prozora

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I have a beautiful blue acrylic pen on the lathe and I was wondering what tools are y-alls using to get it in the round? Mine is taking forever to get it done. I have been working for the past couple of hours and it is going a bit too slow. I tried the skew and the spindle gouge and none of those are doing very well. I do stop to sharpen the tools but I don't have a clue what I'm doing wrong! This is my first time trying the acrylics. Maybe I should stay with the wood. I'm getting a bit discouraged on the acrylics. Thanks in advance Fay
 
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Dan Masshardt

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What kind of acrylic specifically? I use all the same tools but my favs for square to round are large continental type spindle gouge and carbide tools. Often a combination of the two.
 

turncrazy43

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If you have a belt sander/disc sander use it to knock the corners down and then your tools should have an easier time and less chance of a blow up. Also, might consider a carbide cutter tool with an R2 cutter.
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Fay Prozora

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Thanks every one I will give the sander another try and then I will try it again. It is acrylic pen blanks that I bought from Rockler. I might consider a carbide cutter and there is a set of them for sale on a couple of sites. So I may go have a look.. Thanks again. Fay
 

mchech

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Lately I've been using 2 hss tools and leaving my carbide tools alone for the plastics. Most of my turning is with a Packard 1/2" roughing gouge. It gets it's edge freshed up on every blank with a 180 grit cbn wheel. Then I fine tune the shape with a negative rake scraper I made from a small 1/2" curved skew chisel. I got lucky with several inlace acrylester pen projects with this combo so I just stuck with it.
 

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Jim Burr

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What tools do you have? Any turner worth 29 cents will use all of their toolbox...have a gouge? Learn how to use it, Have a skew? Learn how to use it. Have a carbide? Learn how to use it. They are tools...use them all.
The better question would have been "Here is what I have, what's the best way to use it?" There is no reason on the planet for you not to use the tools that you have...unless you use a roughing gouge to turn a bowl, then you need a different tool.
 
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carlmorrell

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Many times this subject has come up, it invariably leads to debates on which tool is best.

I stand by the statement: It's not the tool, but how you use it. :tongue:

Seriously, make sure whatever tool you use is sharp. I personally prefer a 9/16" fingernail gouge. I keep it sharp with a benchtop belt sander, right next to the lathe. Once the blank is close to round, I roll the cutter on the side, and use a shear cut, instead of a scrape. I wish I was able to master the skew, but few would argue with my results.
 

mark james

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All the above comments (well, most :biggrin:) I think are helpful.

My only addition is that you need to practice... Cut up a broom stick into 10 blanks, and take a week and make wood chips! Then do it again. Use every tool you have with NO intention of making anything useful. Maybe take notes on how you feel with each tool.

It will get better!

I wish I could have back the first 50 pens I made :eek:. I suspect the quality is pretty scary. We rush into making something nice, at the expense of learning what we are doing. This is what Jim was saying - in a different manner, I think.

This is not a criticism - It's what I think I NEEDED to hear a few years ago.

Oh... Have FUN!

For me, as a mediocre pen turner. I use a Sorby mini roughing gouge to shape, then go to an R2 Carbide for final cuts. As some have stated, it's not as much the tool, but how well you use it. A very GOOD pen turner told me once that the cheapest Harbor freight tool set would get the same results as the most expensive English tools... if I knew how to use them and keep them sharp!
 

ed4copies

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I have a beautiful blue acrylic pen on the lathe and I was wondering what tools are y-alls using to get it in the round? Mine is taking forever to get it done. I have been working for the past couple of hours and it is going a bit too slow. I tried the skew and the spindle gouge and none of those are doing very well. I do stop to sharpen the tools but I don't have a clue what I'm doing wrong! This is my first time trying the acrylics. Maybe I should stay with the wood. I'm getting a bit discouraged on the acrylics. Thanks in advance Fay


I recall, years ago making the statement that no acrylic pen blank could be properly turned into a pen in less than 90 minutes. Why? That was my experience at the time.

Now, I routinely finish in much less than half an hour. Why? I have a LOT more practice and a MUCH better technique.

HOW? 20 years and several thousand pens.

Hopefully, with the help of the internet (which I did not have), your progress will be facilitated.

Good luck and enjoy both the successes and the failures----every failure will make you a better turner if you take the time to analyze and learn from it.
 

TimS124

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I had two comparable 1/2" spindle gouges, one from Sorby and one from Pinnacle. The Pinnacle ate through acrylic like butter while the Sorby would choke and gag.

They're both good brands and were both fairly new (and sharpened). So I scratched my head for a bit to figure out what was different.

They looked pretty identical from above but when I turned them over and paid attention, the difference suddenly jumped out. The Pinnacle had a different grind angle (longer bevel).

The difference wasn't huge but it made a difference. I changed the Sorby to match and it started working better.

The moral of the story here is that not all factory grinds are ideal for what YOU want to do or the materials YOU want to work.

When I asked a Sorby rep at a woodworking show years ago about factory grind angles, their response was that they're just a starting point, a balance of commonly used/safe angles and they fully expect that more experienced users will reshape as needed.

So, what grind angle is perfect for acrylic? I have no clue. I'd have to test a huge variety of angles against all the different formulas of what we commonly call acrylics (some are much harder than others). I'm too lazy to try that since my Pinnacle works reasonably well and so does my Sorby now that I changed its bevel angle.

I've turned pens with just the roughing gouge all the way just to see if I could make it work...easier with a smaller roughing gouge! I've done entire pens with only a skew to force myself to learn how to get the danged thing to work semi decently.

I spent a couple weeks only allowing myself to use the skew...it really sucked at first but after a bit, I found I could quickly knock out the entire project quickly enough that I no longer minded (or feared) the skew.

I've used carbide tools as well...especially on things like Soapstone where there are likely to be inclusions that are far harder than the stone. Much easier to just rotate a chipped carbide edge than to regrind high speed steel after a nasty knick (though so far, I haven't hit any inclusions hard enough to chip the carbide though I'm certain my high speed steel edges would've taken a bit of a beating).

Mostly, I just use a 1/2" spindle gouge even for the roughing...pen blanks just aren't big enough to warrant swapping to a true roughing gouge for that tiny bit of work.

Rather than sharpen the 1/2" spindle gouge at the start of each pen, I use it as-is for roughing, then touch up the edge once the blank is round. It'll still be sharp enough at the end of one pen to be able to rough in the next.

Find some closeout/clearance-priced acrylics and practice basic tool work on them. Don't worry about making them into pens, letter openers, or anything even remotely useful. Use a few as training aids so you can let yourself try each of the tools you have until you find what will work best for your setup.
 

Fay Prozora

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Thank you every one for all the responses. I found that not only is the tool in need of sharpening, my tool rest was not in the right position so I adjust that and that helped make the difference. My blanks are just about in the round and they are so beautiful. I agree on the roughness of the acrylic blanks from Rockler but they are sure pretty. I found my stepdad's old turning tools so I claimed them LOL! I have no idea where his lathe is but I think my youngest brother got it and the table saw after my stepdad passed on. So right now I'm using his old turning tools along with mine and getting pretty good results. I now have long curls flying off my lathe and I will go slow. I just ordered a slow speed grinder for sharpening my tools. Now I'm just about broke but that is to be expected when we buy tools. You could turn me loose in the tool section at the Home Depot or any other hardware store and I could spend hours just looking... Thanks again every one.. I appreciate this.. Fay
 

solobiker

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Sounds like you are getting the hang of it Fay. I did my second one today and used a roughing gouge to round it out. Once it was the shape I wanted I wet sanded it upon 1200 grit. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Can't wait to see a pic of yours.
 

Fay Prozora

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I will post a picture of my pen once it gets done. What kind of a finish did you put on yours? I will watch some vids tonight before hitting the sck and see what I learn if any thing at all. LOL! Good night every one...and thanks again for the help and ideas and all...Fay
 

GaryMGg

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I use a skew on almost all my blanks.
It is absolutely sharp: that's key.
If you search Google, you can find videos of Alan Lacer showing a technique where he uses the tip of the skew to very quickly take down the diameter of any spindle.
YouTube has an AAW channel with lots of great technique videos.
 

solobiker

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I will post a picture of my pen once it gets done. What kind of a finish did you put on yours? I will watch some vids tonight before hitting the sck and see what I learn if any thing at all. LOL! Good night every one...and thanks again for the help and ideas and all...Fay


Fay, I use a one step plastic polish and it works great. I will post a pic later of my second attempt at acrylic.
 

solobiker

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I use a skew on almost all my blanks.
It is absolutely sharp: that's key.
If you search Google, you can find videos of Alan Lacer showing a technique where he uses the tip of the skew to very quickly take down the diameter of any spindle.
YouTube has an AAW channel with lots of great technique videos.


I was playing around yesterday with skew and found that after I rough turned it with my gouge I was able to get a nice smooth surface.
 

thewishman

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I recall, years ago making the statement that no acrylic pen blank could be properly turned into a pen in less than 90 minutes. Why? That was my experience at the time.

Now, I routinely finish in much less than half an hour. Why? I have a LOT more practice and a MUCH better technique.

HOW? 20 years and several thousand pens.

Hopefully, with the help of the internet (which I did not have), your progress will be facilitated.

Good luck and enjoy both the successes and the failures----every failure will make you a better turner if you take the time to analyze and learn from it.

Ed, I have video proof that you can take an acrylic blank from square to almost perfectly turned in much less than a minute. I have never seen anyone do that quicker.:eek:
 
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