vinyl siding trimboard

[its_virgil]

A friend who sells and installs vinyl siding has just finished a large multi-building apartment complex. He wanted to know if I could make pens from the vinyl siding trimboards. Sure, says I...bring some over. I do hope he never wants more than two or three. The vinyl is not that dense or hard. Too much sanding and it tends to melt. It did turn ok, but is soft. I sanded and finished with CA. It was very difficult to keep clean. Here are the results. Comments welcome: good, bad, or indifferent.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

 

[Ron Mc]

Don,
These pens look very elegant to me. Let me ask you a question....Would this material work as a white accent color in segmented pens? How does it cut?

 

[alamocdc]

Don, I actually like those. Looks like it could be used for wedding related pens.[^]

 

[wags54]

Well Don I like the results real nice looking pens. But I shall take you word for it and stay away from the vinyl. My limited experience says that would be the thing to do LOL

 

[Johnathan]

They look great. I'm sorry to hear they were such a pain to make. Great final product.

 

[its_virgil]

Ron: I think the material would work as accent material. It cuts very easily and rather cleanly. The only major problem I had was keeping it clean and white. It turned very nicely...stuff came off in ribbons like other plastics. My only concern would be sanding dust from darker woods.

Billy: It may just make some nice wedding pens. I may continue to experiment with it...maybe use some other colors.

Wiley: Give it a try. Nothing difficult about turning or sanding. I finished it with CA. Neither CA nor two part epoxy had any effect on the vinyl. Keeping it clean was the hard part.

Johnathan: Thanks...yes, I think the final product turned out quite well. But I had to exeriment with a two or three tries to learn not what to do and what to do to make it work.

To the rest: I did not intend to make it sound so difficult to make these pens. The material may have some future in my pen making. The major problem I had was keeping the white vinyl clean due to the material not being very dense. It turned very nicely...no problem there. It sanded nicely...it was not effected by CA, epoxy or denatured alcohol. I would not be opposed to making more pens if these work out. If you have a source for this material...get some and give it a try. It should be free from some of the vinyl installers...it just goes to the landfill.

do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by Ron Mc
<br />Don,
These pens look very elegant to me. Let me ask you a question....Would this material work as a white accent color in segmented pens? How does it cut?

 

[Tea Clipper]

I like those Don, especially the centerband accents - very classsy!

 

[airrat]

very interesting. nice job

 

[Randy_]

Vinyl is pretty slippery stuff. I mix up epoxy on the lids of cottage cheese containers because I can pop the dried residue off when a project is done and have a fresh surface to start with for a new pen. Vinyl probably means you are using some sort of PVC....you will excuse me if I don't type out the full name.....and is used in everything from garbage cans to medical appliances. I assume there are hundreds of formulations for each specific application so the properties of vinyl water pipe will be different from those of vinyl siding.

That being the case, I'm wondering, Don, if you did any testing to see how well epoxy and CA stick to the material. Is that CA finish really adhering to the vinyl or is it just a shell that surrounds the vinyl and will crack and peel off at the first impact or abrasion.

As I'm sure you know PVC pipe is glued together...actually solvent bonded...with some sort of organic solvent that is pretty nasty stuff. Have you by chance experimented to see if that vinyl is affected by PVC pipe cleaner or glue. Not that I expect you to be sticking your pens in that stuff on a regular basis, just trying to get an idea as to how your material behaves relative to plastic water pipe.

Did you sand those pens with MM and did you go all the way to 12000?

As has been mentioned by others, they are nice looking pens!! I wonder if they can be laser engraved? The white color would make a wonderful background for all sorts of lasered designs!!

 

[Glenn McCullough]

Don,
I like 'em, nice job... I also am wondering about the engraving. My local engraver says the burnt residue or chemical reaction given off of pvc will damage his engraver, so he cant do it. He does corian and antler, just not pvc. I should check with Ken Nelson.
Glenn

 

[bgray]

Pretty cool...I've always liked alternative materials.

I do pharmaceutical sales, and call on a lot of orthopedic surgeons. One of my docs gave me some bone cement to play around with, and I made a pen out of bone cement for him.

It was very hard to get rid of bubbles (had to fill them), and the pen looked pretty bland overall, but it was exactly what he wanted....not a pretty pen, but a pen made from bone cement. When he is talking to patients, he can show them what will be in their hip!!!

I think that it's neat to take a material that someone uses in their trade, and make a pen out of that material...whatever it may be...

 

[its_virgil]

<b>Ron:</b> Thanks… the center band material is pickguard. I thought it would look nice with the white vinyl and black chrome plating.

<b>Tom:</b> Thanks for the favorable comments.

<b>Randy:</b> I’ve now turned this vinyl trimboard and I’ve also turned PVC rod(same as PVC pipe but in a rod) and the PVC rod is much denser and harder. The PVC rod turned very nicely and sanded and polished nicely with MM. I also put a CA finish on the PVC rod and as far as I know the finish is still intact. If I ever need some solid white pens, I would probably use the white PVC rod instead of the vinyl trimboard. It is much better material for pen making.

I did no testing…just glued in the tubes with epoxy. I actually glued three of the vinyl blanks on a 10†tube at one time and could not twist the blanks prior to separating them. But I think had I put my full force into the twisting I may have twisted the vinyl and the glue joint would have held. I really believe the CA actually stuck to the trimboard. I had to remove the first coat on the first pen, used a scraper to lightly remove the CA and it came off like it does on wood. No reason to think it was not bonded to the vinyl.

I did not do any testing with PVC cleaner or glue, but I could. In fact I will and I’ll let you know. But, I don’t see any reason to use PVC glue. It will not bond to anything but PVC, I don’t think. I’ll try to bond two pieces of the trim board with some PVC glue.

I sanded only to 600 regular sandpaper. Maybe I should have used MM. Don’t know why I didn’t. Still have more experimenting to do.

<b>Glenn:</b> Thanks and I need to check with my local engraver. I’m sure Ken could give use the answer also. But I suspect that this stuff may be too soft to engrave

<b>bgray:</b> I too like to try other materials. It is fun and people really like having a pen made from something they use in their trade or profession. Thanks for looking and commenting.

Do a good turn daily!
Don

 

[DCBluesman]

Engraving will depend on the composition of the vinyl. Most laser engravers will not engrave poly vinyl chloride (PVC) as the process creates hydrochloric acid which is bad for the machine and for the engraver's health. In many parts of the country, it cannot be (legally) vented, either.

 

[Randy_]

Originally posted by its_virgil
<br />.....I did not do any testing with PVC cleaner or glue, but I could. In fact I will and I’ll let you know. But, I don’t see any reason to use PVC glue. It will not bond to anything but PVC, I don’t think. I’ll try to bond two pieces of the trim board with some PVC glue.

Thanks for all of the information, Don!! Very interesting. I did not mean to suggest using PVC cement in the penmaking process. I agree that it would not work. I was thinking along the lines of the reaction giving some sort of a clue about how similar or dissimilar your vinyl board is to PVC pipe.

Which reminds me...oops...guess that should be in another thread.

 

[pete00]

thanks for sharing, i like em.

 

[elody21]

I love it that we will try anything to make a pen if it will turn! These look really great. I think I would like to see them in a gold finish. They would be great for a nurse etc..maybe in a pen for around the neck. I made about 40 landyard pen one time for a convention for my friends and they went wild! Very inovative!!!! (spelling?)

 

[PenWorks]

Very nice work Don, but a little to plain jane for my taiste.
With your luck, he will probablly order a gross of them for his clients []