PR or alumilite or ???

[jaywood1207]

Which is stronger and less prone to chips? I have only turned a few pieces out of alumilite and it seems similar in terms of chipiness to inlace acrylester. Am I correct on this assumption? Is PR stronger and less chippy compared to alumilite?

 

[wolftat]

I have found it to be the opposite, the Alumilite is less chippy than PR. If you throw a PR blank at a cement wall it will break, the Alumilite blank will not.

 

[Brooks803]

I don't have alot of experience with alumilite, but I'm sure those experts will chime in sooner or later. I do turn and make PR blanks though. The chipping with PR can be caused by to much hardener or too much heat during the curing process. When I first started casting I could make a blank chip by looking at it, bc i used to much hardener. Now that I have my ratio's down I can turn any of my blanks with a dull gouge and get great results. There can be several reasons why it's chipping other than the composition of the PR. The type of PR used can have various effects like castin craft vs. silmar 41 for instance. Are your tools scary sharp? This is an absolute must for any type of acrylic, pr, alumilite, etc. Hope any of this helps.

 

[mywoodshopca]

If your doing anything with acrylics, make sure your tools are very sharp. I use replacement carbide bits in a homemade tool and have no problems at all with chipping.

 

[jaywood1207]

Thanks for the responses so far. I haven't cast anything and don't plan on casting anything in the near future. The reason I am asking is because I want to make some rings out of acrylic or alumilite or ??? and will be looking for somebody to cast for me in the sizes I need. I want to make sure that when I request this and find somebody that is willing to help out that we are using the right material. The acrylic acetate bottle stopper I have used for a couple so far seems pretty strong. I just don't know if it is stronger or the same as alumilite and wondering which material would perform best.

 

[PenMan1]

Alumalite is far less "chippy" than PR, but I like PR better because I can get a better shine on PR than Alumalite. I may be doing it wrong, but the only way I can get a really high gloss on Alumalite is to put a CA finish on it.

 

[Padre]

I turn both PR and Alumilite.

If you have really sharp tools, both are good to turn. I have found it is the sharpness of the tools in conjunction with the speed of the lathe that matters most.

As far as chippiness, I find both about the same.

 

[workinforwood]

I know my alumilite blanks are not chippy. They will throw some chips when they are square and first touched with a chisel, but once they are round the toss off a 20 foot long ribbon that can come back and wrap itself around the blank like crazy! I use a rotondo for my alumilite blanks and I can really hog serious material off a blank with no damage. If I try that with PR, the blank will look like shattered glass full of pits. The alumilite I use does polish up pretty good, but still not as much as PR. The alumilite though feels warmer in the hands, less hard, it has UV protection in it so it doesn't get all faded out, and if you drop a finished pen, it is unlikely to break. I prefer it over PR.

 

[gketell]

If I was doing "wood stabilization" I would use PR so that I could work it deep into the wood by repeated cycles of vacuum/pressure. For pretty much anything else I would use the new crystal clear alumalite. It shines as well as PR but solidifies faster with less odor and turns better (IMHO, YMMV).