I,v been doing a bit of work on Nylon over the last few days, and trying a newly made carbide tool, but I think the HSS may be better.

Ian S C

Just been making some washers from , I think ,acrylic. Just used same HSS tool as aluminium, no lubricant.

Why not go and get some 10mm LED's from somewhere like Maplin ?
They come pre shaped and polished and the light will auto work….. ​

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/10mm-white-led-n83kg

Edited By Alex Collins on 17/10/2015 11:30:00

I've turned acrylic using an hss toolbit in my spherical turning attachment to make a lens for an optical centre finder. Found that material tended to 'pick-up' badly if it gets too hot, After some failures (experimentation?) I found that a fine feed, fairly low rpm and coolant gave a clean cut. I used WD40 as the coolant, and it seemed to work ok, with a much better finish than when machined dry – and no 'picking-up'.

This was followed by polishing with wet and dry of around 800 grit and then Solvol Autochrome metal polish. The metal polish transforms the finish and visibility through the lens.

It's Mark Noel. Wait 'til his 'multigrinder' appears in MEW

Neil

Red Leicester sounds good Grommet!! Lets get some in, shall we?

thanks Neil – catch with an old memory and no immediate access to mags.

He definately had a photo of some small cylinders of cheese and suggested that they would make a cheaper lubricant for cutting perspex than his first suggestion of lip salve

just rememembered that I had my usually UK based camera with me here in IoM – on which I have photos of Mark Noel’s article – pp26/29 MEW Dec 2013 – “The Lipsalve Lubricator” – Red Leicester is recommended for machining al alloys, brass + plastic – apparently a good lubricant, smells delicious and ‘any spares make good snacks’.
The article is both funny and informative – rather like his lectures + demos on physical archaeology

Edited By Frances IoM on 17/10/2015 19:20:22

Polish with flame from torchlamp. **LINK**