Cutting pen blanks / acrylic on bandsaw

[Jordan Gilbert]

I haven't turned a acrylic pen blank since 2011 , I had a crappy 10'' craftsman band saw with a 1/2 blade and It worked pretty could . Now I have a monster 14'' rikon deluxe with and I bought a big timber wolf 3/4 3tpi blade . I am thinking it will be fine to cut wood pen blanks with it but the acrylic kind of scares me . Has anyone used a blade like this to cut wood / acrylic this small ?

[Keith Outten]

Jordan,

The very first thing I do when I get a new band saw is to make a sliding table for the saw. I cut pen blanks on my band saw exclusively because it is the safest machine for the job IMO. A slider allows you to setup stop blocks which help keep your hands away from the blade and give you perfect repeatability every time.
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[Jim Burr]

I haven't turned a acrylic pen blank since 2011 , I had a crappy 10'' craftsman band saw with a 1/2 blade and It worked pretty could . Now I have a monster 14'' rikon deluxe with and I bought a big timber wolf 3/4 3tpi blade . I am thinking it will be fine to cut wood pen blanks with it but the acrylic kind of scares me . Has anyone used a blade like this to cut wood / acrylic this small ?

Every week. A lot more clean up though...little acrylic feathers everywhere!.

[allen thunem]

I would use a finer tooth blade to alleviate chipping

[Donny Lawson]

That blade will work fine for "wood". That is basically a resaw blade. I would not use it for acrylics. With the blade being a 3TPI it might catch on the acrylic and bust it. (Been there and done that). Once was enough for me. If you still have your Craftsman 10"er just get a 8 or more tpi and cut acrylics on it. I've got a1/2" x 3tpi on my 14" saw and a 1/4" x 10tpi on my old Craftsman just for the acrylics and other finer cuts. 2 bandsaws is great unless you like changing blades alot.

[Jordan Gilbert]

I sold that "Piece" a while back . I will just buy a smaller blader I am going to need a small one to do bowl rounding and bandsaw boxes . What size do you guys think ? I can picture the acrylic grabbing like a piece of wood on a scroll saw except with a blade almost 100 times bigger and sharper , needless to say it freaks me out .

[Donny Lawson]

It only took one time for me to learn. As quick as the acrylic touched the 3tpi blade it grabbed it and shattered the end. I pulled back and checked to see if I still had all my fingers. It happened that quick. 3TPI blades are NOT good to cut Acrylic. Will not happen again.

[Joe Kaufman]

Try a narrower blade, such as 3/8 in and the slower blade speed - change the belt on the pulleys.

Generated heat and plastic tending to fuse to the blase is a problem. I wonder if a layer of clear packaging tape would provide any benefit, similar to scroll saw work.

Joe