Not a good idea

[Stevej72]

I probably shouldn't share this story because it doesn't make me look too smart. It's one of those things that happens in the shop and should stay in the shop.

Some time ago, while shopping at Michael's I noticed these cancel of colored sand. The fine colored sand and bright colors I thought it would look really nice if I cast it in PR and turned it. So the other day I bought a bag and tried it. And sharpen my chisel and started to turn. It was extremely hard to turn and when I turned off the lathe and looked at my chisel, the front of it was flat.

It seems like I need a grinding wheel that is harder than the wheel on my sharpener. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the top part of the bevel is absolutely flat.

 

[LEAP]

What did it do to your drill bit?

 

[Monty]

Was this a --- "Seamed like a good idea at the time" --- episode?

 

[twoofakind]

I would think it would have a sandpaper effect in the material as you exposed the sand in the blank. Sounds interesting though.

Andy

 

[Gary Max]

Nope never done anything near that smart-----and I am going to stick to that story no matter what you might hear.
So what's the pen look like??????????PICS????????????????

 

[wood-of-1kind]

I have used sand as an inlay material (mixed with CA). Yes, it's 'abrasive to turn but both my skew and gouge weren't dulled too bad. How large of an area were you trying to cover? By the way, the results were great and it really added personality to the pen IMO.

-Peter-

 

[Stevej72]

Here's a picture of the drill bit. I don't think I've ever have one quick this dull. When I cut the blank with my band saw, sparks were flying, so I hope I didn't ruin the blade as I only put it on two ago.

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This is what the blank looks like so far. I polished it up a little bit with Abranet to see if it was going to be worthwhile finishing the pen.

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[Dario]

Man, you really pushed that bit! [:0][:0][:0] Must be smoking hot by the time you finished. Good thing (or bad) that you didn't blow the blank right away.

You need to watch your tools more...I mean, I would have stopped long before they reached that condition (both drill bit and gouge).

 

[Tanner]

I see enough sand down here in Arizona. I don't want to see it in a pen too.[] I wonder if those flat scrapers would do the trick?

 

[skiprat]

Good idea, looks like you invented a mini grinding wheel[]

I would save the blank and fit it to the mandrel on ever pen, that way you only have to move about two inches to sharpen it[)]

 

[Bob A]

Haha, I shouldn't admit this but you're not alone Steve. I had a similar situation in which I bought some colored sand for inlays. Nothing I tried would come close to getting the sand and CA flush to my blank. I even tried sanding the sand.[]

 

[fiferb]

You may want to use an old file to bring it closer to shape. It looks like you have a long way to go to turn that blank down. Good luck.

 

[thewishman]

Originally posted by Bob A
<br />I even tried sanding the sand.[]

Isn't this the definition of insandity?

Chris

 

[broitblat]

I have also used colored sand for inlays (on a bottle stopper). It did take a lot of work to sand it flush, but I was able to do it. I'm not sure the result was worth the effort in my case, but...

-Barry

 

[Stevej72]

And got the blank turned down to size by running the lathe at slow speed and running my belt Sander up against the blank with 80 grit sandpaper. Then I used my skew to shape it somewhat. I'll put a picture of it up when I get it finished.