Found a cure for this!

[Woodchipper]

It's called Lakapraktis. Lack of practice at turning caused the demise of two nice acrylic blanks. One got a catch and broke off half of the blank. Naturally I was about 80% finished. The other had a catch and resulted in a ring of little dimples and not enough blank to eliminate them. Got the third blank turning on the lathe and realized I wasn't "finding the bevel" and moving the tool to start cutting. I was presenting the roughing gouge head on! Duh! It's odd but my wife diagnosed the illness right off. Should have sent her to medical school.

 

[RobS]

Sounds like you are turning polyester and not acrylic. Try a negative take scraper or a negative take carbide cutter.

 

[Woodchipper]

Don't have either one as you suggest. Just was careful in presenting the roughing gouge. My grandson had a couple of catches but fortunately had enough material to "erase" the dimples.
These are the first pens I have turned in ages.
BTW, this wound up as a duplicate thread.