1st Acrylic Pen

[Billy Tallant]

I've been only turning wood pens until this weekend. Saw some of Bernie's pens posted last week. That inspired me to buy a couple of acrylic blanks. This is my 1st attempt on acrylic. Finish was micromesh down to 12000. Then buff out with Renn wax.

http://www.btwoodcrafts.com/pens/acrylic1.jpg

[Steve Schlumpf]

Good looking pen Billy! How did you like turning acrylic?

[Billy Tallant]

Steve,

Actually I liked it. Found out I had to be a little more careful drilling the blank out. I use a pen vise but not anchored to anything when I drill. The acrylic seemed to want to catch while drilling. So I just slowed down the drilling. Turning was great. I just followed Bernie's example. Turned the corners down with roughing gouge, then practiced my skew work.

What I really enjoyed most was the micromesh. I've never used it before, so this was the first time using it. I could not believe the finish that it put on the pen. Micromesh & Renn wax both new to me. After using both this weekend, I will be using them extensively from now on.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Haven't used the MM yet as most of my projects are fairly large when compared to a pen - but I see the results posted here! I did pick up some Ren wax a while ago and have been very pleased using it!

Glad you found another material for your pens! Never hurts to have a variety!

[Harlan Coverdale]

That's a nice pen Billy. Acrylics can be a lot of fun to turn. I like how easily they finish, with either MM or wet sanded to about 600 then Beall buffed, no carnauba necessary. The Tripoli removes all the wet 600 scratches and the White Diamond shines it up the rest of the way. I saw a video of Ed Davidson doing acrylic bottlestoppers that way and tried it on pens. It worked great.