A new toy for the lathe

[Whaler]

I went to the Woodcraft show today and a Cole Jaw Set for my Nova midi followed me home. LOML said I could keep it.

They had some beautiful acrylic pen blanks so I picked up a couple. I have never worked with acrylic so any tips would be appreciated.

The General Tool Rep was turning pens on the General midi lathe, looks like a sweet piece of equipment. Very smooth and quiet.

[Jim Boyd]

Sharp tools, light cuts, wet sand with water and micro mesh and finish off with a fine polish like McGuires Swirl remover. Sanding thru 12000 mm really looks good by itself though

[Whaler]

Thanks Jim
That's what I had in mind but I hadn't thought about the Meguiers.

[Maax]

Those Cole jaws are going to come in handy, I'm finally using mine and they sure speed things up, when it comes to finishing the bottoms of bowls. I've only turned a couple of acrylic blanks and both were completely different in how they turned. They were hard on the tools, and one was really hard to turn with out a ripple affect up and down the blank. But they really stand out when done. Good luck with them. As I remember the hardest one came from Rockler, and the easiest was from WoodCraft.

[kwgeorge]

You will like those Cole jaws Dick but bear in mind you should use a speed of less than 800rpm when they are installed. Also take care when chucking a finished piece in them to complete the bottom as you can crush the piece relatively easy. Other than that I find them a real time saver and have my set permanently mounted in a chuck.