Mike Powell

[Mike Powell]

Hi Guys, my name is Mike, and Ive only been turning for a couple of weeks (fathers day). I have a very inexpensive lathe, since it is my first, I didnt want to go all out. I have made a few easy bowls and just completed my first pen.

I have a simple question. If I chose to turn acrylic pen blanks would I need a special set of tools for that, or will the normal one work?


Thanks for the info in advance.

Mike

 

[Owen Lowe]

Welcome to the addiction, Mike!

I'm not a pen turner, but have turned a lot of acrylic. Standard woodturning tools will work just fine. The thing to be careful about is that acrylic has a tendency to "shatter". Not blow apart shatter, but chip out really badly when it's heavily scraped instead of cut. If you scrape, it needs to be a freshly sharpened tool and done lightly.

 

[john lucas]

Use sharp tools and don't force the cut. If your hearing a chipping noise and there's tear out then you are pushing too hard or your tools are dull or both. I just use my regular tools.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Welcome, Mike. In addition to what John and Owen said, I might mention that when cutting with a nice sharp tool and using light cuts, you will get very longs strings of acrylic that show you are making good clean cut. The other side of turning acrylic is that these long shavings are statically charged and also wrap around the mandrel. So periodically you need to stop and clear them away. It is not as bad as trying to brush away Styrofoam pieces where the more you brush, the more tenaciously the particles cling, but it does cling a lot more than wood shavings do. If you do not always wear respiratory protection, I highly recommend doing so while sanding acrylic. BTW, I believe that it is a very good idea to always wear dust protection, not just when sanding.

 

[Owen Lowe]

The other side of turning acrylic is that these long shavings are statically charged and also wrap around the mandrel. So periodically you need to stop and clear them away. It is not as bad as trying to brush away Styrofoam pieces where the more you brush, the more tenaciously the particles cling, but it does cling a lot more than wood shavings do.

What ^him^ say! Though I'd argue that it is as bad as Styrofoam; strings cling to everything: wall behind lathe, lathe bed, hands and arms, smock. And, yes, they will wrap around the chuck, mandrel, tailcenter, they are equal oppoprtunity clingers and wrappers. I keep a ShopVac handy to capture the mess. (I'd rather turn alabaster than acrylic! - at least that debris can go in the compost bin.)

You may not experience this to a huge degree turning a pen, but just be aware of the characteristics.

 

[Mike Powell]

Thanks for all the information guys, I greatly appriciate it.

 

[Lou Kinsey]

Sand wet, less dust. Micro mesh works great.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Those antistatic dryer cloths will help the cling problem, won't hurt anything else you're doing.

 

[Hu Lowery]

once used works great for many things

Those antistatic dryer cloths will help the cling problem, won't hurt anything else you're doing.

Those antistatic cloths work great for cleaning glass screens and anything you want antistatic properties on, once used in the dryer takes away pretty much all of the gumminess and still leaves adequate antistatic properties.

Hu