Acrylic finishing issues

[Gary Simmons]

Im new to pen turning and this forum. However Im hooked and see improvement. I have recently tried some acrylic turning and use MM pads and have tried both dry and wet sanding. Both are leaving circle or spin streaks on the acrylic.
They shine but you can see swirls circling the acrylic. Can someone tell me what Im doing wrong? thanks

[John Terefenko]

You are not sanding the the blank correctly. When you turned the blank round and got to the final shape, what grit did you start with. If stated using anything other than the micromesh system you will have to work the first pad in that system real well. Do not sand with anything other than micromesh. When sanding move the pad back and forth quickly as you are sanding. Use water. never dry sand acrylic. Look for the slurry. When done with the first pad wipe the blank down before using the next pad and continue this before moving on. The first couple or 3 pads I would stop the lathe after you think you got the need sanding done and sand lengthwise on the blank and rotate by hand. Do this for the first 3 pads and from there on you should not need to do this. After all done with the pads use an acrylic scratch remover liquid and then a polish and you should be good to go.

[Jeff Nicol]

Gary, Like John said acrylic is plastic and you can get the scratches in it and still polish it out to a shine. If you are sanding dry the powder can heat up and make clumps that will create extra friction and put grooves in it to the acrylic too. We all learn this over time and you will get it down to a process also. Just go through the grits and make sure you get all the marks from the prior grit out and you should get there. I have used toothpaste as a final polish sometimes and it works great too. Just a little dab and some water at the right speed and very polished and smells good too!

Have fun,

Jeff

[David Walser]

Gary,

If it would help you see someone go through the process of sanding and finishing a plastic turning, take a look at some of the free videos by Ed Davidson, such as his series on Turning and finishing EPR (3-DResin) bottle stoppers. While Ed's videos usually feature polyester resin rather than acrylic resin, the process is the same. Note, too, that he doesn't use Micro Mesh. As he explains in several of his videos, he has nothing against using Micro Mesh. He just prefers using Tripoli and white diamond buffing compounds, instead. Some turners like to go through all the Micro Mesh grits and then buff. Ed thinks that's extra effort without any benefit. YMMV.

Here's a link to his tutorial page. Scroll down to see all the videos he has available. http://yoyospin.com/tutorials/

HTH

[Gary Simmons]

Glad i joined this forum.. Thanks for the quick responses. Looking forward to trying it out... I plan on visiting this site often and improving as I go along. Im hooked...

[Dean Thomas]

Glad that so many have jumped into this.

As I read down through, I'm not sure that anyone but John T really got into the issues that you need to look at. I have limited experience with acrylics, but have completed enough CA finishes to qualify, I think.

If you can truly see rings around the pen, you really are not sanding correctly or well. John's right on. How do you finish acrylic. Here's one technique. I'm NOT saying that it is "the" technique, but it is one that has worked for me and others.

• Cut the blank to size/shape and sharpen your tool unbelievably sharp for the final surface cut.
• Your sanding could start as high as 180 or 220 grit (some start at 320, even).
• Sand through the grits, pausing to wipe the piece between every grit to ensure that no bits of acrylic and no left-over grit remain.
• OPTION: Some turners stop the lathe and sand from end to end after every grit. I don't, but usually will do this at every other grit.
• My regime is often 180-220-320-400-600-800-1000, and 1200 grit paper when I have it. All of these are dry sanded. Yes, seven or eight pieces of sandpaper, THEN I do MicroMesh.
• I put my MM into clean water and then go get a coffee, maybe hit the head, check email, or something to allow the MM to soften up really well. I come back and make sure that there are no chunks on my MM, rubbing gently to ensure that its clean. I rinse the MM, change the water and then I start through the grits of the MM series, all nine levels from 1500 to 12,000.
• I lay plastic bags all over my lathe to protect it from the water. Because I have done ALL of the real work with the coarser grits, and because the rest of my abrasive regime is really only to get rid of the sanding marks, I don't spend much time with any of the MM sheets. Seconds, no more. Each "grit" makes a dramatic improvement over the previous sheet. The last sheet should bring a muffled "wow" from most observers.
• OPTION: Some folks evidently use the MM both while the lathe is on and "with the grain" with the lathe off and between grits. SOME...
• After my last MM grit. I use Meguiars #2 polish, same stuff that was originally formulated to bring a show-stopping finish to the fiberglas bodies of Corvettes and show cars; I'm told it is equivalent to 20,000 grit. I then finish it off with Meguiars #3 which is a high quality cleaner with a very light wax component. I think that Meguiars has reconfigured their products so that what I know as "#2" has a new number.

Meguiars also has a couple of products that are specifically designed to remove swirls on cars. Gotta believe that they could do it for pens, too.

One man's thoughts and processes.

[Michael Koch]

I am of the school of thought that Dean is. After the turning is done, I dry sand up to the Micro Mesh pads. From there it is wet all the way through to the last pad. The finish is perfect. A little Hut Acrylec polish and your done..MK

[Allen Neighbors]

I've only done two acrylic pens. I dry-sanded with paper through 400 grit, then 0000 steel wool, then 600 grit, then I used brown paper sack, then I buffed with Tripoli, then White Diamond, then Carnauba. I couldn't see any swirls or sanding marks, even with a 100w bulb held close.
Now I don't know if this is right or not, but it worked for those two pens.
I have some more acrylic blanks on order. And this time I'm gonna try the wet sanding with MM, and my original way, and check to see if there is any difference.
Just my .02, and you should have some change coming back. :U

[paul wiser]

i turned some aa this week. started with 800 wet or dry. went up to 1200 wet or dry, then used novus plastic polish step 3,2, then 1 turned out better than any i have ever done