Use care when turning Acrylic!!!

[Bobby McCarley]

Had a really close call today. I was drilling a piece of acrylic for a pen when the bit got caught as it was exiting the piece. It tried to spin the jacob chuck I was using to hold the bit and the piece just exploded along with the bit breaking. Pieces flew everywhere, but luckly none of them made contact with me. I'm not sure if I want to try this again or not.

Bobby
Louisiana

[Don Baer]

WOW... didja have to go change your underware..:eek:

Glad you wern't hurt.

[Frank Fusco]

Bob, I would encourage you to join the forum The Pen Shop
and post your experience and photo there. A lot of the members are acrylic pen turners and several cast their own. I have never seen an experience like yours posted before. At the request of the owner, who is in the process of publishing a Penturners Almanac, I wrote a section for him comparing wood with acrylics for pens. Your experience with as much information as you could share (who you got the blank from, type of bit, drill press speed, etc.) could be valuable information. My personal taste is not synthetics but a lot of folks do creative work with them. Please consider this and/or contact me off-forum.
Frank

[Blake McCully]

Tough break, Bobby, no pun intended:( . I drill all my blanks on a drill press using a blank vise from Craft Supply and never had a problem.

Really like acrylic, gives folks a nice choice.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I also use a pen vice. Don't like holding anything when drilling. Sorry about the mishap but glad you weren't hurt.

[Wally Durt]

Did the drill flutes clog with the plastic as it became heated? I take light cuts and continually withdraw the bit to allow the material ro remain cool and to clear the flutes.