long day and some practice...

Dan Noren

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long day of running around today, church, drop off the table at the fair, grocery shopping, lunch, then over to our dad's to go to home depot with him, and then, finally, got some practice in. first time since the 40, and the first time turning acrylic in years. there were 2 of them, but one of my dad's friends liked it so much, i gave it away. i wound up with the better part of the blank, and the nicer kit (a titanium/gold that i didn't know i had). sanded to 12000 grit, and finished with hut high gloss stick.
 

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Wow !
The more I see of these the more I want to try one. I have made so few pens and have so many blanks I hate to start something else but that like others have posted is stunning.
How hard is it to work that stuff?
 
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Great-looking pen, Dan. :thumb: The colors in the kit go well with the blank.

Garry, I think I prefer turning acrylics. Once you get the hang of slicing a curl off the blank instead of chipping it, it cuts more consistently than most woods. A bit tougher, but more consistent. And for me, the big bonus with acrylics is the finishing. I just wet sand my way up the grits, then buff with a couple different compounds. I like to buff with a buffing wheel off the lathe, so I can go parallel to the barrel instead of perpendicular to it. That removes any traces of circular scratches left by the last stage of fine grit paper.
 
Very nice pen. I don't buff acrylics, I polish with a plastic polish on the lathe at high speed. When sanding, between the larger grits, I stop the lathe between grit and sand length ways turning the lathe by hand. This removes any swirl marks. Just different ways of achieving the same results. The reason I don't like to buff small things, I hve launched a few. It is a horrible feeling.
 
...The reason I don't like to buff small things, I hve launched a few. It is a horrible feeling.

I can understand and relate. My first buffing experiences were all with jewelry, and I know the feeling you get when something shoots out of your hands and across the room. :p After getting used to something like a necklace pendant, a pen barrel seems big. Still, I usually keep the barrels on the mandrel when I buff them
 
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