acryllic pen blank finishing

[cody michael]

how do you finish acryllic pens? just like wood? just sand them? any adviceon doing the acrylic vs wood. i'm going to start the first one tommorrow.

[Tony Pridmore]

Cody,

For acrylic pens I sand to 400 grit with dry sandpaper, then switch to wet sanding with micromesh grits 1500 - 12000. Sanding is followed by a plastic polish bought from an auto parts store.

Tony

[Bernie Weishapl]

I dry sand to about 2000 grit and then take to the buffing wheel with tripoli, white diamond and Ren Wax.

[Rick Gibson]

I sand to 1200 grit and then switch to a liquid auto body polish with scratch and swirl remover.

[Mark Hix]

Same as Bernie just not as fine....I go to 600 ususally.

[Dan Forman]

When turning, I use a round nosed scraper for gross shaping, and a skew for cleaning up. Go easy, small bites and sharp tools. For finishing, I start with 220 or 320 depending on what is needed, then wet sand 400 and 600, then buff on the Beall system.

Be sure to paint the inside of the blank and outside of the tubes if the blank is translucent.

Dan

[Mike Wenman]

With all of the acrylic I have turned for pens and bottle stoppers, I wet-sand up to 600 grit, wiping the blank off real good between grits, then wet sand with micro-mesh pads up to 24000 grit. After that, take the blank over to the buffing wheels and run thru with white diamond and then a little ren-wax.

Mike

[Gary Herrmann]

then wet sand with micro-mesh pads up to 24000 grit.
Mike

Mike, where do you get 24000 grit micro-mesh?

[Robert Snowden]

Mike please let us know where to get MM 24000.I thought 12000 was fine but alway's looking for something beter.

[cody michael]

okay thanks. i don't have any buffing equipment so i'll try the car wax

[Guy Germaine]

Don't laugh, but I usually sand to 1000 grit, then use Mother's Aluminum polish. Does a great job

[Mauricio Ulloa]

Michael,

I use the sanding kit for plastics that is sold at pennstateind.com. The code is PKFINKIT and it's about $14.

Another way to finish it is to sand it like if it was a regular wooden pen up to a 400 grit and then to use the One Step Plastic polish sold by them as well. The code is ONESTEP and it costs about $12.

Any of these two methods provide excellent results.

Good luck with those turnings!

Mauricio

[Robert Parrish]

Same as Mark.

[Sid Matheny]

I sand up to 12000 MM and plastic polish or Brasso.

Sid

[Chris Stolicky]

Finishing acrylics is more about 'polishing' than it is 'finishing' when we think from a wood perspective. I find its the art of getting rid of scratches and creating a good shine.

I usually finishing turning with a skew and go right to wet sanding with a plastic sanding kit up to 12k. Depending on how I feel, I will use automotive polishing compound (~$1.77 at automotive store) and/or Huts plastic polish. I sometimes even skip the 12k because the polishing compounds seem to do a good job without it. Once you use either or both of these polishes, I think white diamond actually brings you back a step. I usually just buff with the wax wheel and ren. wax.

Make sure you clean the blank well in between the grits when sanding.