Acrylic Pen Blanks

[Daniel Heine]

Hello,

My son and I are thinking of making a supply of pens and such to sell at the fall festival in our home town. We'tre trying to raise enough money to upgrade some of the equipment in the shop. I have noticed at shows that I have attended, that the acrylic pens seem to sell very well. My problem is that I hate to spend $2.00 to $5.00 per blank. Is there anywhere you can buy blocks of this material that you can cut into blanks yourself? If any of you have tried selling your pens before, we could use all of the advice you have to offer.

Thank you for all of your help. SMC is an amazing place to learn, and grow.

Thanks,
Daniel & Zachary Heine

[Mike Vickery]

I am not aware of any place where you can buy acrylic blocks. There was a guy on a pen turning forum that was selling small blocks but they would not have saved you much money. Casting your own blanks out of Polyester resin is a way you can make your own blocks but there is a good initial investment and a learning curve to doing you own castings. If you can find corian (or other countertop material) cutoffs you can produce them very economically since you can often get the material for free but htey have a different look than the resin. Also it is usually 1/2 inch thick so you have to laminate for anything bigger than a slimline.
Until recently I was an all wood guy but fell in love with resin a little while ago. I do not sell that much but if you consider the amount of pens I have for sale in the 2 material they sell about the same ( I have about 4x as much wood pens and sell about 4x more wood pens). Alot will depend on the area you are in. I find the acrylic take more time to turn and sand but you can eliminate your finishing time so it is about a wash. Be carefull when drilling resin because it will break fairly easily.
PM me if you want any more info on drilling or finishing.

[Mike Vickery]

ps you van get Berea acrylic blanks
http://www.bargainhumidors.com/bh/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=PB-AA
for 2.40 a piece.

[Frank Fusco]

You may or may not have good sales results with synthetics. On the pen forums some report plastics as hot sellers, others can't give them away. I have one from a blank I picked up in a trade. At shows it is the first thing people pick up to look at but no one have bought it yet. As said, many make their own castings.