My first "Acrylic" Pen

[Donny Lawson]

I finally bought me a acrylic blank and thought I'd give it a try.There is a little more work involved but the results are well worth it.C&C welcome.
Donny

[Matt Ranum]

There is a learning curve when using acrylics but they do make some great pens. Nice job by the way.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking pen Donny. After sanding mine to 1200 I take it to my beall buff. Really puts a shine and takes the sanding marks out in short order.

[Donny Lawson]

After using the MM to 12000 I polished it up with Huts polish for the fine scratches.
Donny

[Michael James]

I made my sister a fountain pen out of a similar pattern, I think it was called "dragon".
I blew up a blank before I understood what "sharp" meant in the world of turning.. sharp, sharp and sharper is best, with slooooooooooooow drilling and roughing. I find that men tend to like wood pens better, and the girls like the acrylics.
Beware the zebra and sno leopard over at penn state or crafe supplies dont remember which..... that stuff is called acrylic but does not act like it. It's a beautiful pattern but way too much babying for my patience. Kept chipping like glass....
mj

[David Hullum]

Looks great I love turning Acrylic. The shine is crazy. :D

[Karl Card]

I made my sister a fountain pen out of a similar pattern, I think it was called "dragon".
I blew up a blank before I understood what "sharp" meant in the world of turning.. sharp, sharp and sharper is best, with slooooooooooooow drilling and roughing. I find that men tend to like wood pens better, and the girls like the acrylics.
Beware the zebra and sno leopard over at penn state or crafe supplies dont remember which..... that stuff is called acrylic but does not act like it. It's a beautiful pattern but way too much babying for my patience. Kept chipping like glass....
mj


I also have had other "acrylic" blanks from penn state that did nothing but chip instead of turn. I dont like paying 4.99 a blank but Wood Craft has , so far, had some nice acrylic turning blanks.

As far as finishing I use sand paper to 600 grit or whatever I feel I need on that particular piece, then I use corian counter top cleaner. Very light abrasive and I got some pretty good size bottles for 25 cents apiece on close out.. works nice.

[David Hullum]

your tools have to be more than razor sharp.

[Karl Card]

your tools have to be more than razor sharp.


that is true but I have to say that I still have had some blanks that were sold as acrylic and were very hard, I really dont know how to explain it but they seemed very brittle. I am sure there are different things put into acrylic by different manufactueres so that each company probably has different texture etc...

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice pen Donny! Sure like the bright color!

[Donny Lawson]

This blank came from the Woodcraft store.Looks like I need to make another trip up there. I will buy more than 1 this time.
Donny