Thread: Some acrylic brushes

Hello all,

Been on an acrylic kick here the last few weeks. Interesting material for sure.

A little bit of a learning curve on this stuff. A bit more finesse is required with the tools, it can get interesting quickly if you try to hog off material too fast. Heres a casualty, was like some sort of plastic fragmentation device , sh$@ ricocheted off the ceiling and walls behind me, quite sporty.

Heres a good size hunk. Razor sharp and would have hit me right between the eyes, smacked right off the respirator lens.


Ok now, here are a few that I have finished up.

Managed to salvage a little bit of that blank in the first pic. a little stubby.

Definitely interesting material.

nice work! haven't tried any yet but a good reminder to wear face protection. thanks for sharing!

Love them! Very nice work.

Yup, acrylic behaves very weird on the lathe. It's hard to keep a nice line of solid cutting going for an extended period. I find turning up the speed to over 2000rpm helps considerably. I also find that a small bowl with about a 50% sharp edge is where I get the best results. Not sure why, but a fresh edge on the gouge just wants to toss small fragments all over the shop. shooting for one continuous strand is the ticket.

I also find micro mesh to be not necessary for acrylic. Wet sand to 2500 and hit with plastic polish at high speed.

Thanks guys,

I will have to check the speed, Im on the third pully anyway, so about mid speed, will run it faster tomorrow, still have a couple others to do yet. Yeah I cheat on the sanding as well, watched a few pen makers really going through the grits, seemed overkill. I went through an abbreviated progression for sure. that plastic polish is killer! Really enjoy the instant gratification of a friction finish, now I just need a magic version for wood hahaa

I also noticed the same thing, I have not sharpened my tools in about three brushes now and it seems to be going very smoothly. The scraper almost feels like I'm carving wax.

Thanks for the tips, will definitely try faster speed tomorrow.