Shock Absorber pen with engraving

[Scott Woodson]

Got a few of these pen kits and wanted something for the motorhead friend down the street...he loves it!!!! Still have difficulty getting the very fine scratches out of acrylic. Used micro mesh and then rubbing compound, but still see them in strong light. Does anyone have another method for getting a clean shine on acrylic?

Thanks

Scott

[Donny Lawson]

I'm not a Ford man but that is a very nice pen. The colors go great with it.

[Dick Mahany]

I use Novus #3 followed by Novus #2 plastic polish after going through all micro mesh grits to 12000. If you see fine scratches, could it be that some are residuals from the coaser grits that didn't get completely leveled. Fun pen by the way however Chevy is spelled incorrectly :D!

[Jim Burr]

Cool pen Scott...and I'm a diehard Ford guy!!
Fresh micro mesh and clean water all the up through the grits, light touch with the pads...don't forget the horizontal sanding with the lathe off. I use Hutts, but there are other products that work well.

[Dick Mahany]

Cool pen Scott....don't forget the horizontal sanding with the lathe off. I use Hutts, but there are other products that work well.

i like Jim's comment about the horizontal sanding with the lathe off as it makes it easy to spot scratches and remove them as you move to higher grits with the lathe on.

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a cool pen.

[Billy Tallant]

That is a sharp looking pen Scott!

[John Sanford]

Where did you get the pen kit??

[Dan Masshardt]

I believe penn state industries sells that kit. Shock absorber.

[Josh Bowman]

Scott, I did some experimenting with acrylic last month and just sanded it up to 1800 then used the Beall buffing system to take it the rest of the way. I never noted any scratches in the finish.

[Scott Woodson]

Penn State Industries kit

[Scott Woodson]

Scott, I did some experimenting with acrylic last month and just sanded it up to 1800 then used the Beall buffing system to take it the rest of the way. I never noted any scratches in the finish.

Josh,

I have the buffing wheels, never thought about running it through on that...I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Thanks all for the tips, I'm going to make a couple more as I like the way this one turned out, just waiting for more kits to make.

Scott

[Marvin Hasenak]

A metal polisher's trick, sand one way with one grit, and the next cross sand until you see no scratches, then move to the next. For plastic on a lathe, first grit sand while turning. Next grit hand sand left and right until no scratches show from the previous grit. Next grit, sand while the item is turning, stop and move to the next grit, going right and left across the previous grit's scratches until none of the previous grit's scratches are not visible. Continue this through the sanding grits.

[Scott Woodson]

A metal polisher's trick.
Thanks, never heard of that one before...will give it a try.

[Brian Ashton]

Got a few of these pen kits and wanted something for the motorhead friend down the street...he loves it!!!! Still have difficulty getting the very fine scratches out of acrylic. Used micro mesh and then rubbing compound, but still see them in strong light. Does anyone have another method for getting a clean shine on acrylic?

Thanks

Scott

I'm not a pen guy but that is an excellent idea. You need to make more and see what the viability is for them.

[Scott Woodson]

... You need to make more and see what the viability is for them.
Brian,

I'd like to make more, but don't want to get too visible as concerns about copyright start to creep up :-(