Turning colored acrylic

Re: Turning colored acrylic

Ken Vaughan

Neat!!!

Ed Davidson of yo-yo fame advised on his dvd to use cast acrylic rod. Fun stuff to work with.

Ed makes spectacular yo-yo with acrylic

Re: Turning colored acrylic

David Walser

Looks fun! How did you attach the finials and icicles to the ornaments?

Re: Turning colored acrylic

John K Jordan

David, I fastened the finials with epoxy. So it wouldn't show, I drilled a short hole into the wooden finials (before turning) and formed a small matching tenon on each end of the acrylic piece.

Ken, I didn't see that but yes, this is cast acrylic rod.

The challenge with turning things from plastic is to somehow avoid making them look like something mass produced $1.99 from China. One thing might be to never make two exactly the same shape and size. I'm also thinking of hand carving some texture or pattern on the acrylic. Stay tuned.

JKJ

Re: Turning colored acrylic

Lyle Jamieson

I bet a blackwood or ebony finial would be striking on the yellow acrylic.

Re: Turning colored acrylic

john lucas

One time time I turned a blackwood finial. It was solid black. I sanded it to a high sheen and then put some glossy finish on. It looked just like black plastic. I hated it. I now look for ebony and blackwood that has some brown streaks because it will look like real wood.

Re: Turning colored acrylic

John K Jordan

Yes, it would look good with black.

I sometimes make them out of ebony and blackwood but as John L said it's easy to make them look like plastic, especially with a high gloss finish. I took some finger tops to my kindergarten class today (good for developing coordination) and had one from clear acrylic and others from wood including one of ebony. The kids thought it was plastic too. It almost makes me want to leave tool marks to show it's made by hand.

It's not a huge problem for me since when I give one to someone I can tell them how it's hand made but it might be an issue for someone trying to sell them. I guess including them in a group along with others obviously made from wood might work, especially if they were all different.

JKJ

Re: Turning colored acrylic

mikeee12345

Corian is an easily sourced material and turns very well on a lathe. Many companies that install

counter-tops have scrap pieces left over from every job. The material is easily bonded together

with CA glue and holds together nicely. The product is available in many colors and designs.

You can also use it for laminating onto wood pieces or doing inlay work. Requires a sharp tool

on the lathe and will wear the cutting edge down quickly depending on the color and design of

the Corian materials. Some of the materials cut easily and some cut very hard depending on the

materials used in the composite blend.

Re: Turning colored acrylic

John K Jordan

Turning corian is a good tip. Earlier this year John Kaner from Anchorage Alaska sent me a box with a variety of corian pieces and I made some finials and ornaments. The corian I turned looks just like stone! It was easy to get a smooth cut (used Thompson spindle gouges and skew) and it polished like glass.

That was my first time turning the stuff and I didn't know how fragile it would be when small so I turned it a little thicker than I liked. Next time I'll take a chance and turn it thinner.

These pieces were glueups of thinner stock. Judging from the squeeze out they evidently used some type of non-glossy white glue (for the lighter pieces) that set up very hard.

For our Christmas ornament project for the Children's Hospital this year I want to make some with a variety of materials. Last year I sent one from basswood with chip carving. I wonder if I can glue a band of basswood in the center of two pieces of acrylic? It would need to be end grain basswood to the plastic since the carving needs to be in side grain. Ooo, or maybe a carved basswood globe with transparent blue acrylic finial.

I might try a solid aluminum ornament too, small so it won't be too heavy. I can drill out the center but I can't imagine hollowing it.

JKJ

Re: Turning colored acrylic

mikeee12345

Laminating the Corian with wood is quick and easy, use a medium grit sand paper and lay the sand paper on a flat surface and rub the surface of the Corian across the sand paper enough to take the smooth finish off of the surface and leave scratches in the surface, lightly sand the wood surface to create a good surface for the glue to bond onto. Medium or Thin CA glue can be used to bond the Corian to the wood, clamp it firm for 5 minutes on a small piece and longer lengths of time on larger pieces. The solid colors tend to turn the easiest compared to the stone colored material can contain a variety of materials mixed into the acrylic before it sets up. Some of these materials are mineral and stone which will dull your tools quickly, HSS tools or carbides work the best.