Turning Acetal on Wood Lathe

[efgee88]

Hi all,

Has anyone got any experience turning Acetal on a wood lathe using conventional wood turning tools.

What are the best tools to use on this stuff. Scraping type or cutting type.

My guess is an oland type of tool - am I correct?

What is the optimum RPM for cutting this type of material?


Appreciate your feedback and advice.

Cheers,

FrankG

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I turned many times nylon 6 on a woodlathe for making bushes.
Use for that a sharp parting tool.
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[Harry72]

efgee88, been here "polyacetal" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyoxymethylene_plastic) might be helpful to you.

[chrisb691]

All the tools seem to work okay, although I prefer scrapers. However, my command of the tools isn't the best, so a more proficient user may have better results with the cutting ones. My best suggestion, is to try them all, and to see what works best for you. There's nothing implicitly difficult in turning acetal.

[rodent]

I prefer a spear point scraper for most of my work in plastics .

[efgee88]

I prefer a spear point scraper for most of my work in plastics .
Hi Rodent,
Would you have a picture of that? Is it a bit like a scaled down version of a metal lathe cutting tool tip? And what is the best turning speed for this tool?

Thanks also for the other responses - it is in the database upstairs!

Cheers,

FrankG

[Harry72]

IMHO
Most plastics you use a scraping plunge cut on the lower half of centre(lower the tool post a tad) as Adam said a parting tool is best, never the upper half of centre it'll dig in every time(ie no skew chisel cuts, unless its scraping cut below centre) .
Speed depends on the plastic harder the plastic faster you can go typically.