redfishsc
Member
Here is a pen I posted in the SOYP forum but I wanted to mention the blank here. This is CSA's new "Pen Makers Choice" (PMC)resin. I ordered the "Polar Ice" blank.
Anyhow, this particular blank was transparent enough to see through before I ever even cut it. I painted the tubes white, which worked great.
However, I do not like this material. It misbehaves, IMO, more than I will care for.
Now, I talked to the tech's at CSA and they seemed to think the problems I had were an anomoly and they are sending me another blank, which I'll turn when I get the itch. I have a lot of pens to make until then can't complain there. CSA does have great service though.
1) The material is too soft. I can dig my fingernail into the finished product, which means it will take deep scratches easier than the harder celluloid, PR, and acrylic acetate.
2) The bird nests that form around the mandrel are hard to remove, since the softer material is less brittle-- IE, you can't crumble the bird nest off, you have to shred it apart. [B)]
3) Heat does not do this stuff favors. I know all plastics are heat intolerant, but I turned a LOT of PR resin and Acrylics, and they can handle some warmth. PMC will expand and seperate from the tube if you have too much heat, which isn't hard to do. This can easily be worked around but if you goof it you will wind up re-gluing the blank. It happened to me as I was putting the final Brasso-buff on the Jr Retro below.
4) It smells like all other AA blanks, but the stink HANGS AROUND. What I'm about to say is not an exaggeration: I have the pen in my pocket and I am in a library computer lab: I can smell the pen in my pocket right where I am sitting. No joke, it's that strong. I have not touched the pen all day long until 30 minutes ago when I came to the library and took it with me. Just plain weird. Hopefully it will go away with time. Hopefully, as this is too nice of a pen to be all raunchy.
Anyhow, this particular blank was transparent enough to see through before I ever even cut it. I painted the tubes white, which worked great.
However, I do not like this material. It misbehaves, IMO, more than I will care for.
Now, I talked to the tech's at CSA and they seemed to think the problems I had were an anomoly and they are sending me another blank, which I'll turn when I get the itch. I have a lot of pens to make until then can't complain there. CSA does have great service though.
1) The material is too soft. I can dig my fingernail into the finished product, which means it will take deep scratches easier than the harder celluloid, PR, and acrylic acetate.
2) The bird nests that form around the mandrel are hard to remove, since the softer material is less brittle-- IE, you can't crumble the bird nest off, you have to shred it apart. [B)]
3) Heat does not do this stuff favors. I know all plastics are heat intolerant, but I turned a LOT of PR resin and Acrylics, and they can handle some warmth. PMC will expand and seperate from the tube if you have too much heat, which isn't hard to do. This can easily be worked around but if you goof it you will wind up re-gluing the blank. It happened to me as I was putting the final Brasso-buff on the Jr Retro below.
4) It smells like all other AA blanks, but the stink HANGS AROUND. What I'm about to say is not an exaggeration: I have the pen in my pocket and I am in a library computer lab: I can smell the pen in my pocket right where I am sitting. No joke, it's that strong. I have not touched the pen all day long until 30 minutes ago when I came to the library and took it with me. Just plain weird. Hopefully it will go away with time. Hopefully, as this is too nice of a pen to be all raunchy.