Turning acrylic

[Joemac8]

I have been turning for a long time- if you consider two months a long time, that is. I have turned a total of two pens. My 11 year old son wanted to give it a try, so I showed him the blanks that I had. Of course he chose the acrylic blank.

I prepared it the same as I had prepared wooden blanks. My first problem was when the brass tube kept coming out. Does crazy glue not work with acrylic? I tried mid thickness and then very thick. It caught very easily when turning and took a long, long time to turn.

My next problem came when I tried to sand it. DUH! Had to put the tools to it again to get a smooth surface. Apparently it is not sanded??

Finally, I used no finish on it, is that correct?


I was going to be the teacher but I didn't know squat about acrylic so my son got very little out of the "lesson"

Any help or comments would be appreciated.

Joe

 

[IPD_Mr]

I personally think that epoxy is a much better option for gluing tubes into the blanks. Plastic blanks do not need a CA finish as it should polish to a high shine without it. Acrylic is sanded and many people will wet sand them including micro mesh.

 

[Powerstroke 7.3]

I am new but have turned several with good luck - once down to the bushing size I wetsand with 320, 400, 600, then micro mesh to 12000 and the finish with one step polish - have gotten good results so far - hope that helps.

Also have had problems with ca for the tubes and am switching to epoxy.

 

[gingerwood]

CA works fine on acrylic, how long did you let it setup? Did you use accelerator on the ends? Also, how sharp is your drill bit? A dull bit can sometimes make a larger hole than you wanted. As for polishing, as powerstroke said, you have to sand down to crazy-fine, using micromesh pads and then hit it with a plastic polish to get a nice, shiny finish.

 

[ed4copies]

You can find three videos showing different approaches to acrylic (actually polyresin, but they are very similar in approach) here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ed4copies&aq=0&aql=f&oq=ed4c

 

[SonOfMartin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfz-9BoKYxY&feature=feedu

Should help.

 

[Joemac8]

I let it set up about five minutes and used an accellerator. My bit was a brand new Colt 7mm bit.

 

[Chasper]

I'm not new to acrylic, I've turned thousands of pens from acrylic/poly resin.

I use CA on 99+% of the tubes I glue in, epoxy is fine if you are doing 2-3 pens, but if you are doing a batch of 50 or so pens epoxy is way too slow. Don't bother sanding the tubes before gluing, just get a good coat of CA on the tube and it will hold.

I don't think CA needs to set up overnight, 2-3 hours is enough, 5 minutes is not enough.

Make sure you have the inside of the tubes cleaned out of any extra CA. If you are using a pen mill to square the end, just a little CA left inside the tube could catch on the pilot shaft and break the tube lose from the blank.

 

[kovalcik]

Either epoxy or CA (thick) will work. You want to drill slowly and clear the bit often. If you drill too fast, you can melt the plastic and the hole ends up too big causing the failure. I also use a lubricant on my bit to keep heat down.

 

[JCochrun]

I use CA to glue in the tubes and only 2 (of about 20) have not stayed in place. I sand with the plastic pads from PSI. I used regular sandpaper on my first one and couldn't get all the scratches to come out so I switched to the plastic pads. Never had a problem with them. Haven't wet sanded yet. For a finish, plastic polish has always worked good for me. Just my two cents.

Jim

 

[76winger]

I've used CA and Epoxy and both have worked equally well for me on wood and acrylic. I always sand the tubes, and paint the tubes and the inside of the acrylic when needed.

CA seems to work better if you're in a hurry to get from gluing to turning. But rather than worrying about the glue drying in time, my angle is to spend one evening cutting, drilling and gluing (usually several at a time so I end up saving time). And then use the next evening for cleaning residual glue from the tubes, trimming ends and then finally turning. If there's day left, I'll assemble after turning and finishing and if not that gets done the next day. If I'm doing a bunch of pens this always works better than doing one complete pen and then the next and the next, etc.

If you're only doing one pen, then forget that last paragraph and I'd just recommend CA because it sets up faster.

 

[ghostrider]

I've turned several acrylics in the past week and a half.

CA'd all the tubes, but I always sand the tubes, even if I paint.

For finish, I sand up to 320 dry, then 400, 600, 1000, 1500, and 2000 wet/dry sand paper. After that, I do four coats of Hut's Plastic
polish.

Once I set up a buffing system I'm thinking of, I'll probably substitute the 1k, 1.5k, and 2k grits with tripoli/white diamond, and Carnuba wax.

With CA finish I'll go through the MM up to 12k, but don't need to with the acrylics.