ScoJo
Member
I wondered if the forum could help me before I end up throwing away another $5 acrylic blank.
I did my first craft fair this weekend, and I had a woman who liked a particular acrylic that I used on one pen, but wanted to know if I could make a slim with it. The pen she was looking out turned out great - it was a Sedona rollerball. The acrylic is the "Cloud" acrylic that Woodcraft sells - white and translucent with blue swirls. I used white painted tubes in it.
I bought a slim kit and another blank, and I was concerned that with the slim you'd still be able to see glue, etc. through it because parts of the acrylic are almost clear. But the problem turned out worse. Unlike some of the other acrylics I've done, when I drilled it out at 7 mm the fit with the painted tube was pretty tight. Once I was getting down to the finer micro mesh grades, I realized that there were some parts of the leading edge of the brass tubing (given the direction I put them into the blanks) where the paint was scraped off leaving enough brass showing through where it ruined the look of the pen. I ended up scrapping it as a result.
When you work with the painted tubes, it would almost seem beneficial to get a little chatter and a little bigger hole to keep from scraping the paint off the tubes when you insert them. Is there another way to prevent this from happening? I'd really like to give this pen another shot, especially because it is my first "custom" request. Any help you have would be appreciated. At the prices I'm charging as a relatively new turner, I'll be lucky to break even on this one if I end up with any more waste.
I did my first craft fair this weekend, and I had a woman who liked a particular acrylic that I used on one pen, but wanted to know if I could make a slim with it. The pen she was looking out turned out great - it was a Sedona rollerball. The acrylic is the "Cloud" acrylic that Woodcraft sells - white and translucent with blue swirls. I used white painted tubes in it.
I bought a slim kit and another blank, and I was concerned that with the slim you'd still be able to see glue, etc. through it because parts of the acrylic are almost clear. But the problem turned out worse. Unlike some of the other acrylics I've done, when I drilled it out at 7 mm the fit with the painted tube was pretty tight. Once I was getting down to the finer micro mesh grades, I realized that there were some parts of the leading edge of the brass tubing (given the direction I put them into the blanks) where the paint was scraped off leaving enough brass showing through where it ruined the look of the pen. I ended up scrapping it as a result.
When you work with the painted tubes, it would almost seem beneficial to get a little chatter and a little bigger hole to keep from scraping the paint off the tubes when you insert them. Is there another way to prevent this from happening? I'd really like to give this pen another shot, especially because it is my first "custom" request. Any help you have would be appreciated. At the prices I'm charging as a relatively new turner, I'll be lucky to break even on this one if I end up with any more waste.