Knurling Acrylic

[Chaz]

Is there a tool that will cut a knurled pattern into a pen blank?

 

[hokie]

I can't imagine acrylic would respond to a knurling tool the same way metal does. My thought would be to apply right and left hand threading down the length of the blank with a metal lathe to create the cross-hatch effect.

 

[jttheclockman]

I do not think wood knurling tools would work either. If you have one give it a try. I would not do it on a mandrel because you will be putting alot of pressure on the blank. The only other thing is a Beall Pen Wizard.

 

[carlmorrell]

I just bought a clamp type knurling tool. I turn more metal these days than plastic. A few weeks ago, I made a tactical pen and was a little disappointed that the tip end did not have knurling. My first thought was to try knurling the bottom of the blank. I have some turned blanks that I can experiment on, stay tuned...

 

[carlmorrell]

Yeah, not a good idea. As soon as I turned up the pressure, the blank exploded. Based on my expertise an exhaustive tests (1 try), I would say leave the knurler for metal.

 

[jalbert]

I've had fine luck with knurling acrylic, but it's tricky. Speed and pressure are very important. Also some materials like ebonite and celluloid take knurling much better than acrylic

 

[TDahl]

Not sure what design you are looking for (diamond design or a horizontal line design like Jalbert's), but Rockler has a spiraling and texturing tool by Robert Sorby that might do the trick.