Acrylic Pens

[buckethat]

I have tried to make several different pens out of acrylic and everytime that i am making them they break. I have broke 5 blanks sor far and and wondering if there is some sort of trick to it or what? Thanks in advance
Sam

 

[leehljp]

Smaller bites, sharper chisels, faster lathe speed all in combination. Plus patience. For me, when I had a couple of blowouts in a short period of time, I had to realize that I could not accomplish a round blank with difficult material in the same amount of time or with the same feed rate as I had learned to do on easy turning wood blanks. I had to back off and deliberately slow down the feed rate to a minimum, barely taking a minute' amount at a time, even after the blank was round.

Blowouts usually occur when there is significant "catch" or "snag" in the cutting process against the blank. Faster lathe speeds mean less depth of cut per movement of the chisel. Smaller bites or movement mean less chance of snag or catch. Sharper knifes mean more likely that the material will be cut rather than "catching".

Also realize that different materials and even different woods turn differently and each require different skills/techniques.

 

[randyrls]

Originally posted by buckethat

I have tried to make several different pens out of acrylic and everytime that i am making them they break. I have broke 5 blanks sor far and and wondering if there is some sort of trick to it or what? Thanks in advance
Sam

Sam; What Lee said...

A skew works best for acrylic. Ride the bevel and you should get shavings and long strings of plastic. If you get little pellets and see pits in the acrylic, you are pushing too hard or not doing a shearing cut. Cut from the center of the blank toward the ends. If you use a gouge, make sure you use a shearing cut, not a scrap.

After mounting the blank on the mandrel, drum sand the corners off the blank if it isn't a round blank.

 

[alphageek]

There is several ways to do this and several problems - many questions to ask first:
1) What type of acrylic?
2) what type of tool?
3) what speed?
4) glued to tube how?

Answer those and we might be able to give some more thoughts.

 

[buckethat]

Thanks i will try the tips listed and let you know if i have anymore problems thanks again
sam

 

[1JaredSchmidt]

I had one blowout because when I drilled the blank my 10mm drill bit was a little bent,so it drilled the hole a little big. It looked ok because my grandmother bought it. I called Fritz up at Woodturningz and I bought a Carbide Tipped bit and that makes a big difference. I've only turned about 5 acrylic pens and it turns best if you round it down with a gouge and then come in with a skew to finish it off. Wet sand to 12,000 and if you want to,put a plastic polish on. Just my $.50 Hope you get some better replies than this. Have fun!

 

[follow3]

Hey Sam,

What everyone else said.

Plus check out these tutorials. There are a couple of videos titled turning and finishing EPR...
EPR stands for Ed's Polyester Resin, Polyester resin and acrylic are the same and use the same techniques.
Ed is very talented and his tutorials are very informative. Check out #7,8 and 9 for starters, that should get you going, but all of his tutorials are worth a look ...or 3.

http://www.yoyospin.com/tutorials/

Good turnin' and stick with it,
Steve

 

[buckethat]

Thanks for the link to the videos i will check them out and give it a whirl after i buy another blank.
Sam

 

[maxwell_smart007]

One more suggestion - Make sure you are getting lots of glue on the tube...I push it through and out the other side half way, and add more...

I blew out a few when I started, due to insufficient glue between the tube and the blank...

Andrew