Turn acrylic on wood lathe or metal lathe?

Re: Turn acrylic on wood lathe or metal lathe?

Tom Mullane

>Penturners turn acrylic all the time to make fancy pens....

One of the secrets is scary sharp tools...

Your right acrylic stinks when turned and just off the tool has a lousy finish...

I generally use a scew to get the best finish I can and then start sanding with 400 grit wet/dry using it wet and go up from the 600grit to 12000grit MicroMesh sanding wet. Finally I use either Hut or Novus Plastic Polish to get any little swirl marks out and get a glass like finish...

Here is a picture of an acrylic Atlas style pen I did...

Re: Turn acrylic on wood lathe or metal lathe?

Tom Mullane

>MMM picture did not come up... here it is again

Re: Turn acrylic on wood lathe or metal lathe? *LINK*

YoYoSpin

>Tim,

Turning acrylic on a wood lathe is not a problem. But there are several "tricks' to turning acrylic. First, be sure you have the right "acrylic". There are two kinds...extruded and cast. You want the cast variety, as it�s easier to turn and won�t heat up (melt) as easily. An easy way to tell which one you have is to cut a piece on the band saw. If the cut surface shows signs of melting, you've got the extruded stuff.

Next, use scrapers with the burr removed...this will keep you from having catches and what looks like shattered glass dig-ins.

As for finishing, don't bother with dry sanding acrylic...always wet sand. I wet sand from 220 to 600 grit, then robustly buff using the first two wheels on the Beall system...Tripoli and White Diamond.

There's a link to a very good acrylic supplier out of Utah, below.

best regards,

Ed D.




Cast Acrylic rod supplier

Re: Turn acrylic on wood lathe or metal lathe?

Fred in NC

>I think part of the question was whether to turn it in a metal or wood lathe. The answer is simple. A metal lathe is good for cutting straight or tapered barrels. To cut a graceful curve you need to do it by hand, in a wood lathe (or CNC !!!).

I totally agree with the above post, you need to make sure you have CAST acrylic, it is the only kind that turns well.

Pipe stems have a HOLE !!!! You will find it hard to drill the hole after the shape is turned. So drill your hole first. You can chuck the rod in the mandrel, and use a drill in a drill chuck in the tailstock. Then, get a STIFF metal rod of the same diameter, and put it through the hole, almost to the other end, leaving a little clearance for a live center at the other end. I would recommend using a drill chuck in the headstock, and chuck THE ROD ONLY. This way you will be able to turn the outside shape concentric to the hole.

Hope this helps !