My assistant had a suggestion

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Woodchipper

Woodchipper

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My wife is aware of my struggle with acrylic/synthetic blanks. She wakes up in the early hours of the day and watches TV or browses on her phone. Anyway...she mentioned one YouTube video where the person used a disk sander to round off the corners, speeding up turning time. I had done this once long ago, once but never got into the habit. Today, I put the blank on the mandrel with HDPE bushings and started turning. Arrggh! Hit the brass nut that now has a smooth area. Went to the belt sander that is sitting flat. Carefully hit all four corners and "turned" it a bit to a rough round. Then off to the lathe! Cut turning time way down. Happy camper. Rather a happy turner.😁
 
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Hey, what ever floats your boat man! Revisiting old techniques sometimes pays off.
How about something like this
Bandsaw Jig

corners jig?

I'm sure there is a simple design for a jig to cut off the corners of a blank on a band saw. If you use one and like it, would you save me from reinventing one?
www.penturners.org

Pen blanks corner removers jig...!

Hi peoples, Following what I mention on a recent thread about saving fragile blanks in particular but, applicable to any pen blanks regardless if they are wood, acrylic or a combination on both, saving at the same time your tools from constant sharpening, by removing the square corner of the...
www.penturners.org
 
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Is a major reason for giving up square blanks and moving to round ones. However, if you have favorites that are square, then making a jig to cut the corners off with either a bandsaw or table saw before mounting them on the lathe could be your solution.

If you can't cut off the corners, lock your blank into your lathe as tight as you can, turn the speed up to the max of the lathe and carefully trim down the edges with light pressure until the blank is round. The increased speed reduces the 'air' time of the tool, which will give you less chatter and bouncing with more cut time while reducing the tear out.

Kevin
 
As mentioned whatever works for you best. But I bet you $1 that turning a blank from square to round is ten times faster than sanding it with whatever tool you want to use. Just need to practice techniques and use good sharp tools. I have mentined this numerous times that my go to is using round carbide cutter to get me close to shape and then finish with skew. But if it make you a better pn turner to either cut the corners off in some fasion or sand them off then by all means go for it.
 
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