Turning Cast Resin?

[Tom Albrecht]

I have just recently turned some cast a pine cones, nut shells, and dried flowers in some resin from ebay, and some in alumilite.

For those of you who are familiar with turning resins, do you find that the NR scrapers work best, as I have?

The carbide cutters are way too aggressive and make a mess for me.

 

[Richard Coers]

I find high rpm and a skew to do the best. Have a wire brush around to break up the curls winding up on the part or the lathe.

 

[Mike Johnson]

A freshly sharpened skew or scrapper at higher speeds with a light touch works for most resins I have turned over the years.

 

[Joe Sheble]

I started with regular carbide cutter, but the resin really chipped badly. I tried backing off on the tool, and not being so aggressive, but that just takes forever. So I picked up the 3 different negative rakes from EasyWood Tools, and the difference was like day and night. Negative rakes cut the resin like butter.

 

[Tom Albrecht]

I find high rpm and a skew to do the best. Have a wire brush around to break up the curls winding up on the part or the lathe.

That wire brush idea works great, thanks.

 

[Dave Hulett]

I have gotten great results with Hunter carbide tools. I also use scrapers, including negative rake. need to turn pretty fast.