[ronrt]

I would like to cut some acrylic blanks into 1/4 inch discs and glue them together. Does anyone have any good suggestions for cutting these discs with minimal tooling marks and then a way of getting rid of these tool marks to glue up the discs in any order I want them in. What is the best adhesive to use to glue up acrylic pieces.

 

[Alchymist]

Whenever acrylic is cut the cut surfaces turn translucent, and must be polished back to transparency. It can be bonded with acetone.

 

[ronrt]

what I'm trying to do here is to cut red, white and blue blanks into 1/4 inch disks. Then I want to stack the disks onto a 7 mm tube starting with a red then a white and then a blue and then repeat in the same order. I know I have to drill the holes first in all three of the blanks and then cut the discs, (square until glued then turned round) about 1/4 inch thick. I know that sawing them is going to leave tool marks on the surfaces and I was thinking that I could just sand them a little to clean them up a little but I don't believe they need to be polished. All the cut surfaces are going to be glued together and stacked on the tube. When it's all glued together with the tube standing on end the colored disks will be horizontal. I hope I'm explaining myself clearly enough. I have just recently started turning acrylic pens so I'm not real familiar with cutting or glueing up any blanks for something a little different. I guess what my real questions are is what is the best blade to use to cut the square discs to minimize tool marks and just how smooth do the surfaces have to be to glue them together? And the second question is what type of glue would best hold these pieces together so that I can turn this stack of square discs round for pens etc. I was told acetone for glueing which is something I really know nothing about. Please advise if possible. I really appreciate any help I can get with this and again I hope I'm explaining myself well enough.

 

[Alchymist]

Still not sure what you are trying to do. Are you trying to make colored pieces of acrylic - washer like - from flat stock? If that's the case- get an appropriate sized hole saw, replace the center drill with a 7mm drill bit, and just cut away. Stack them on your brass tube, gluing as you go. Might have to polish the 7mm bit shank to get it into the hole saw body. Pictures help.

 

[preacherman]

This is a simple segmented pen design. The key is to have those segments smooth before you glue them together. The smother the ends of your segments are the better the line will look when you turn it down for the pen. If the segments are left with saw marks and globs of glue to fill the cracks it will not look very good. They would not need to be polished but sanded very well.

As far as glue I think I would try med or thick CA. I don't remember where but I saw an acrylic glue specifically for gluing acrylic blocks together.

Edit:

It is called weld on acrylic cement. Sold at PSI. I can't link it from my phone.

 

[Dave Paine]

I have not turned pens, but I have glued acryllic to make items for a fish tank, not the tank, a container for filter media.

I used CA glue because it was what I had available. The Weld-On may be a better product.

This video explains the product quite well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSIVa_TzN8w

 

[Alchymist]

I suspect the main ingredient in the Weld On glue is acetone.....:confused1:

 

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I would like to cut some acrylic blanks into 1/4 inch discs and glue them together. Does anyone have any good suggestions for cutting these discs with minimal tooling marks and then a way of getting rid of these tool marks to glue up the discs in any order I want them in. What is the best adhesive to use to glue up acrylic pieces.

Not sure what everyone is doing with acetone as a glue source but guessing they are looking to melt the pieces together. No need for this. I use med Ca because it gives me some open time. As far as blade goes i cut all my blanks on a tablesaw with a 60 tooth cutoff blade. A good quality and sharp blade is all that is needed. No sanding is needed. If you get tool marks from a tablesaw blade a couple things are wrong. One is the arbor is bent or not true and or the blade is warped or not sharp.

Here is a pen done with truestone. It basically is an acrylic. No sading of any of the cut pieces at all. Cut and glued.





Here is another example. This is all acrylic.