First Acrylic Pen

[Jim Smith]

My job keeps me too busy to get much time in my shop, so I have still turned less than 20 pens, but I thought I'd try an acrylic blank. I turned this pen on a Gent Jr in copper. The blank is the AA-Y from AS. The finish is simply sanded down to 12K and a couple of coats of Ren Wax. Comments welcome. Sorry about the photo, as you can see I'm still photograhpically challenged.

Jim Smith
Conyers, Ga

 

[les-smith]

:good: Good job. Good color combination.

So how did you feel after turning acrylic?

 

[jttheclockman]

Sorry, what do you need to be sorry about??? Excellent photo and the kit is a great compliment to the blank. Perfect together as they say here in NJ. Nice job. I hope to somday reach that caliber of work.

 

[bitshird]

Jim, I wouldn't apologize for a pen or picture like that, both look great

 

[Ligget]

Looks fantastic from over here too Jim, your fit and finish is spot on and the blank and plating marriage is perfect!

 

[Nick]

looks execllent to me as well, both the pen and the photo

 

[toolcrazy]

Beautiful pen, nice work.

 

[Jim Smith]

Thank you all for the kind words. I made the pen as a gift for a woman that runs the bible study at our church. This woman seems to like a bit of bling so I tried the acrylic and the color combination of copper and gold/black/brown looks pretty together.

Les,
The acrylic was super easy to turn. After rounding down the corners on the blank, I turned up the speed to about 2300 rpm and it was like cutting butter. The super loooong shavings were a bit different, especially when they wrap around the mandrel, but they're easy to pull off, even with the lathe running. All-in-all, I found the acrylic a pleasure to turn and I will definately do more pens in acrylic.

Jim Smith

 

[desertyellow]

I like that pen blank.
The picture does not do it justice.
Nice work!