Acrylic chips

[PetrolP]

Anyone got any idea how to make acrylic chips to cast into resin for pen blanks?
Any insight would be gratefully received
Thanks
Peter

 

[JohnU]

Small Wood chipper, hammer on thin pours, … and I haven't tried it yet but I'm wondering about a nut grinder. We had one as a kid with the handle crank and the nuts went in the top, but it would have to be thinner pieces to grind.

 

[jocat54]

I have made a lot of acrylic chips. I have quite a bit of 5/8 thick acrylic and turn it on my metal lathe into round rods when the need arises. you could quite possibly do that on wood lathe--slowly

 

[duncsuss]

... to make acrylic chips ...

Do you mean chips of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA, Lucite, Plexiglass) or are you using the word "acrylic" as a generic term for "plastic" (which might be epoxy resin or urethane resin or polyester resin).

If you do mean PMMA, then the first step would be to buy it, because it's not a material that is easily manufactured as a hobby. To break it up you could use a hammer and chisel, pliers, or any number of weapons.

If you mean the same type of resin that you plan to cast (actually re-cast) them in, do as JohnU says and pour thin layers which are easier to break up, drop in a mould and fill up with a contrasting resin. You could break the thin layers by snapping or chop them up with a paper guillotine, maybe even heavy duty shears or tin snips.

 

[bugradx2]

Small Wood chipper, hammer on thin pours, … and I haven't tried it yet but I'm wondering about a nut grinder. We had one as a kid with the handle crank and the nuts went in the top, but it would have to be thinner pieces to grind.

What about a round grater on a drill?

 

[Aurelius]

The tool you're looking for is called a granulator. It is used in plastic recycling to break up plastics.
They are big and noisy and expensive but, if you want to turn a big pile of plastic into a big pile of little bits of plastic, they are what you want.