First Plastic

[patrick_1853]

I just added my first acrylic pen to my photo gallery. I turnered it last night for my girlfriend. She picked out the blank the last time we were at Woodcraft in Nashville. More appropriately, I roughly turned it and sanded the heck out if it to get it to its final shape. I didnt realize just how hard this stuff was compared to wood.

Even though it was a pain to turn, I enjoyed the finishing process a lot more than wood pens. I wet sanded from 100 grit sand paper to 12000 micro mesh. It was a nice change from the CA and friction polish/carnuaba wax.

 

[jwoodwright]

Yes, it will dull your tools, fast![xx(]

However, it looks so nice when done. You did a great job.[]

 

[penhead]

Very nice looking pen there Patrick..I personally like that shape.

Nice job on the photo's also...got any tips you could add to the photo forum..??[]


JohnPayton

 

[tipusnr]

Good looking pen. Nice work!

 

[patrick_1853]

Well, basically I'm just putting them on my scanner at work and then resizng the final scan to be just the pen. I have a pretty nice scanner at work so that may be it. But its using a low resolution, so it shoudl be doable on any of them. I only tried once on the scanner at home but could get the same results but I need to try some more (background came out black instead of white and didnt give the pen quite the real color).

Patrick

 

[Fred in NC]

Very nice pen, Patrick! I really like the combination of color with the kit. Great job!

 

[Tom McMillan]

Nice work Patrick!!

 

[wayneis]

Patrick,

If they are that hard to turn I would guess that you don't have your tools sharp enough to start with. I have found that with the acrylics it is even more important to use tools so sharp that you could shave with them. Like I've said in many of my posts, I bought the cardboard honing wheel from Grizzly. It makes such a difference that you would not believe it, the tools end up almost like a razor they get so sharp. The other benefit is that my tools last so much longer now because I'm not grinding them so much. I grind only when I start to loose the angle, the rest of the time all I do is hone them on the card board wheel using the white rouge that comes with the wheel. I do this before I turn anything, most of the time when I have them this sharp I don't even have to stop and sharpen them during turning.

Wayne

 

[wpenm]

Very nice looking pen Patrick. I like the color.

 

[patrick_1853]

The tool sharpening issue is definitely the cause of the difficulty. Right now I'm hand sharpening and a sharpening system is a little far down in the turning budget, (which is basically zeroed out right now). I want to get a sharpening system some day, but its in line after a dust collector (which I have gone to long without one), oh, and getting married in a few months, thats the big one.

Patrick

 

[wayneis]

Patrick look at the Grizzly catalog, the system they have is only thirty bucks I believe and though its not a Wolverine, it will do the trick until you can go there. And the honing wheel is something that you will end up using even if you do get a sharping system like a Wolverine down the road.

Wayne

 

[DCBluesman]

The system Wayne refers to can be found on page 147 of the new Grizzly catalog.

 

[patrick_1853]

30 bucks, I'll check that out.

 

[patrick_1853]

Well, that would require me to replace my HF 6" high speed/8" low speed grinder with a 8" grinder. I guess I just need to build some jigs to get the bevel angle right on my curreent grinder, and maybe make a tormek knock off jig for the slow speed part.

 

[Gary Max]

Remember---when it comes to sharpening tools---there are many ways to get them sharp. I dought if there is a---Best way. I have found that it is what works for each person. I know people who have quit turning because they could not master sharpening tools.

 

[patrick_1853]

No quitting here. I have done pretty well with hand sharpening. This blank just needed a lot sharper tool than what my hand sharpening skills had to offer, and took too many trips to the grinder for it to be worthwhile to make anymore of these without sharper tools.

I think I may build one of these. Looks pretty straight forward and accomplished the goal of a repeatable bevel.
http://www.aroundthewoods.com/sharp.shtml

 

[mewell]

Patrick - Nice looking pen! I'll agree w/you on the 'butter knife' comment, tho' ... I did my first one yesterday and found today that even the sandpaper I'd used on the Corian was too yucky [?] to be used on wood I turned today.

Mark

 

[C. Scott]

Patrick,

Excellent job on the pen and your photography is first rate. Since I have been turning on my own lathe at home now, I've had to come up with a way to sharpen my tools. (My friend's shop had a really nice sharpening station and you could put a razor edge on just about anything.)

I have been using my random orbit sander with 220 grit paper. It seems to do the job for now. []

Regards,

Chris