I have seen reference to turning Corian for pens. Has anyone tried turning
other materials such as Silestone? It is another composite material used
for countertops.


Thanks for any input.
--
Fred Saunders

Hi Fred

I think you will have more input from the pen turners group, sorry I
don't have the url for them but if you google for pen turners, I'm sure
you will find them.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

I have turned it and have turned several other synthetics. The are easy to
turn but you need a light touch out you will overhead and damage the blank.

Brian

Hey,

I turn a fair bit of corian, as well as Acrylics for pens and other
small items. Overall they are fairly decent to work with. Typically they
give off nice curly strips. However as it has already been stated.
Becareful about applying too much presure as it will build up heat, and
can even shatter. The main downside I find about working with composite
materials can be the smell. I personally dont like the smell of turning
Corian. But I really like the results so I just use good ventilation,
and turn it during the warmer months of summer.

Donald Vivian

Fred Saunders wrote:

Has anyone tried turning
other materials such as Silestone?

I think just about any material available has been spun into pens,
pencils and all manner of deskware. Corian and some of its stablemates
are acrylic blends of sorts with different things mixed in. In other
words, they are fairly soft and plastic like. So are many resinous
products like the harder plastics that are being cast at home these
days. I have seen pens made of clear polycarbonate rod, and even pens
made from really strange looking left over plastics from the scrap bin
at our local plastic supply house.

But be careful. Something like Silestone is mostly quartz (as in the
rock crystal) and it will tear your tools to pieces. If I recall, they
claim 95% quartzite and only 5% resin for suspension.

Check these guys out for mo

http://www.penturners.org/forum/portal.asp

Robert

It has been many years since I turned any pens but this thread brought
to mind...

At the time I was doing it my wife was messing with Fimo, a clay-like
plastic which bakes hard in the oven. She wrapped a Fimo design around
several brass pen inserts, we baked them and then I turned it as if it
were any other material. I recall that it worked well.

Bill

wrote:
Fred Saunders wrote:

Has anyone tried turning
other materials such as Silestone?

I think just about any material available has been spun into pens,
pencils and all manner of deskware. Corian and some of its stablemates
are acrylic blends of sorts with different things mixed in. In other
words, they are fairly soft and plastic like. So are many resinous
products like the harder plastics that are being cast at home these
days. I have seen pens made of clear polycarbonate rod, and even pens
made from really strange looking left over plastics from the scrap bin
at our local plastic supply house.

But be careful. Something like Silestone is mostly quartz (as in the
rock crystal) and it will tear your tools to pieces. If I recall, they
claim 95% quartzite and only 5% resin for suspension.

Check these guys out for mo

http://www.penturners.org/forum/portal.asp

Robert