OK. I'm fairly new to rod building. I have 7 rods under my belt and I'm looking for something new and the acrylic acetate pen blanks for real inserts have really got my attention.

That being said, I have a few questions:
1) I have a Grizzly mini lathe and drill. Can I even turn the acrylic blanks with the proper tools with this setup?
2) What (inexpensive) tools can I use to drill acrylic acetate pen blanks to mount on a mandrel to turn. I won't purchase a drill press, so what do I need to drill the hole with my existing drill so that it is centered?
3) How do I mount the acrylic blank to the mandrel to turn so that I can remove when I'm finished turning? Does the acrylic blank hole size need to be the same as the mandel (ie, 1/2" hole size, 1/2" manderl OD)?

I think that is it for now.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Geoff

If you have a 3 jaw chuck for the lathe and can mount a drill in the tailstock, then you can drill the material with the lathe. You might want to look into the mandrels that Lamar Fishing has on the list on the left. The threaded ones for turning wood would work. You would drill the material out to fit on the mandrel and try to get it close to the blank size for the least amount of reaming. Woodcraft has some long drills if standard drills are not long enough. I end up using the micro sanding sheets Woodcraft has to get a smooth finish on the material.

Like Mike said, A 3 or 4 jaw chuck and a drill chuck to fit in the tailstock (about $25). The problem is that it is hard to find pen stock (or any stock, for that matter) more than 5/8" dia. which isn't big enough for reel seats. I found some really sharp 7/8" stock at [www.woodturnerscatalog.com] I don't know about others, but I don't think that I have ever bored a truly centered hole. I bore a 3/8" hole, mount it on one of Andy Dear's new type mandrels and turn it concentric. I turn it round with a 4 in hand file or a Stanley Sure form file than switch to standard lathe tools.
One tip! Drill VERY slow or the heat will soften the stock and deform it.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

I would doubt that the Grizzley hobby lathe has enough horsepower to get the job done in less than a week, assuming of course you mean the one that uses the electric drill. I turn a lot of acrylic and it can be pretty tough stuff. Nearly all of what you will find available is not round, and while the catalog may say it is 3/4 x 3/4, I have yet to find one that is truly square. Since the stuff isn't round, a 3 jaw chuck is useless unless you first turn the material round between centers. If this is something you want to do more than a couple of times, you need to get a real lathe, like a Jet Mini, Delta Midi or Rikon Mini. Then you also need a decent 4 jaw scroll chuck, jacobs chuck for the tailstock and some lathe tools, specifically a round nose scraper, parting tool and a skew.

MIni lathe & hobby lathe are 2 different beasts...which do you have?

Sorry guys - I have a hobby lathe and use the grizzly Heavy-Duty 1/2" Electric Drill.

Thanks,
Geoff

Since you mentioned the drill, I assumed you had the hobby lathe. I would not try to drill acrylic acetate by hand. You're going to need to keep the hole really well centered and you just can't do that by hand. If there is some way to attach a chuck to the tailstock you could do it that way, but without a drill press and decent vise there just isn't any other way to do it. But, even if you can get it drilled straight and centered, there is still the issue of not really having enough power to turn something this hard. The hobby lathe is fine for cork or softwoods but it just isn't adequate for anything else.