BigShed
Member
Having finished (finally) my pen for the pen swap (my fifth pen), I decided to have a play with the blanks I bought at Carbatec for the princely sum of $0.50 each.
Not having turned anything but wood, and not too much of that (I am very much a beginner), I didn't know what to expect.
I thought it might be good practice for when I start turning the acrylic pens for my granddaughters wedding (30/3), but am still waiting for some white and black blanks I ordered from Craft Supplies a few days ago.
So, got out a not very attractive looking blank, sort of a muddy blue, wonder why I bought it, must have been cheap!
Decide to use some spare Sierra tubes that came with my last order from Bear Tooth Woods, so needed to drill a 27/64" hole (about 10.7mm).
Got out my trusty centre punch to mark the centre starting point...........
Strike 1
, cut to length blank split in half with just a gentle tap
on the centre punch.
Hmmmm........this stuff doesn't behave like wood at all (wonder whether acrylic will do the same thing?)
So, use the other half of the blank, don't use the centre punch, boy this stuff is pretty hard to drill.
Oops, 3/4 down the blank it splits again.
Obviously need to go slower and clear the hole more often than you do with wood.
OK, try another colour, this time a muddy brown, very uninspiring....
Easy does it, eureka got it drilled, do another blue one, yep got the hang of it.
Glue tubes in, used 5 min epoxy, let it dry overnight, belts and braces and all that.
Back at the lathe this afternoon, start turning the muddy brown one. First used 15mm gouge to knock it into a sort of round shape, boy this stuff is hard!
The on to the skew chisel (15mm), had to sharpen it twice before I was almost finished, should have sharpened it again (thank heavens for the Triton Wet Grinder!), didn't and just pushed a bit harder.
Oops, two chips came out of the edge nect to the bushing, bugger.
Tried to repair with CA and some shavings/dust, but wouldn't stay in.
Decided to finsh it off anyway to see how it would polish up. As you can see in picture 3, this stuff polishes beautifully, Ubeaut EEE only on that, done on the lathe (fingers get a bit warm but!)
Muddy colour all gone, looks almost like an expensive wood blank.
]
OK, try one of the muddy blue ones
This time sharpened the skew more often, and we have success!
Went through the same sanding routine as on the brown one (320 al oxide dry,
400 wet&dry used dry, then 800 wd, 1200 finally 2000 wd and lastly 0000 steel
wool).
This gave quite a good result, just needing a polish.
As I now knew the EEE would do the job, wanted to try the polishing kit I bought at Carbatec at the same time as the blanks. It has 3 x 4" mops and some polishing compound, finest is white diamond.(picture 4)
So put the mop on the lathe
and at fairly high speed applied some
white diamond compound, quick polish whilst the blank was still on the mandrel
(along the length of the blank) and it came up very nicely (picture 6.
All in all not a bad afternoon's learning session.
Not having turned anything but wood, and not too much of that (I am very much a beginner), I didn't know what to expect.
I thought it might be good practice for when I start turning the acrylic pens for my granddaughters wedding (30/3), but am still waiting for some white and black blanks I ordered from Craft Supplies a few days ago.
So, got out a not very attractive looking blank, sort of a muddy blue, wonder why I bought it, must have been cheap!
Decide to use some spare Sierra tubes that came with my last order from Bear Tooth Woods, so needed to drill a 27/64" hole (about 10.7mm).
Got out my trusty centre punch to mark the centre starting point...........
Strike 1
, cut to length blank split in half with just a gentle tap
on the centre punch.
Hmmmm........this stuff doesn't behave like wood at all (wonder whether acrylic will do the same thing?)
So, use the other half of the blank, don't use the centre punch, boy this stuff is pretty hard to drill.
Oops, 3/4 down the blank it splits again.
Obviously need to go slower and clear the hole more often than you do with wood.
OK, try another colour, this time a muddy brown, very uninspiring....
Easy does it, eureka got it drilled, do another blue one, yep got the hang of it.
Glue tubes in, used 5 min epoxy, let it dry overnight, belts and braces and all that.
Back at the lathe this afternoon, start turning the muddy brown one. First used 15mm gouge to knock it into a sort of round shape, boy this stuff is hard!
The on to the skew chisel (15mm), had to sharpen it twice before I was almost finished, should have sharpened it again (thank heavens for the Triton Wet Grinder!), didn't and just pushed a bit harder.
Oops, two chips came out of the edge nect to the bushing, bugger.
Tried to repair with CA and some shavings/dust, but wouldn't stay in.
Decided to finsh it off anyway to see how it would polish up. As you can see in picture 3, this stuff polishes beautifully, Ubeaut EEE only on that, done on the lathe (fingers get a bit warm but!)
Muddy colour all gone, looks almost like an expensive wood blank.
]
OK, try one of the muddy blue ones
This time sharpened the skew more often, and we have success!
Went through the same sanding routine as on the brown one (320 al oxide dry,
400 wet&dry used dry, then 800 wd, 1200 finally 2000 wd and lastly 0000 steel
wool).
This gave quite a good result, just needing a polish.
As I now knew the EEE would do the job, wanted to try the polishing kit I bought at Carbatec at the same time as the blanks. It has 3 x 4" mops and some polishing compound, finest is white diamond.(picture 4)
So put the mop on the lathe
and at fairly high speed applied some
white diamond compound, quick polish whilst the blank was still on the mandrel
(along the length of the blank) and it came up very nicely (picture 6.
All in all not a bad afternoon's learning session.