I was asked to make a pen for our Training Department’s Christmas gift basket at work and I had a couple of “slimline” kits and thought I would make a pen and pencil set. I made them out of an acrylic called Licorice Allsorts (for obvious reasons). When I had them turned, before I started with the micro-mesh finishers, I used my EEE Cream to take out any tools marks that were left in the blank. The EEE Cream is so named because it has a Tripoli (hence Triple E) grit in it that, through friction, gets finer and finer as you polish with it. When I was finished with the EEE, the blank had a beautiful lustre with no discernable tool marks. After the EEE I used my Micromesh finishing pads. These are a series of 9 pads that start at 1500 grit and step down to 12000 grit. A great way to polish acrylic, not unlike the way glass is polished.
This is the pencil from the set. The fun began after I had the pencil completed. I turned the pen and it came out very nicely as well. Unfortunately I made a mistake pressing the transmission in as it went too far to retract the pen tip. I tried to pull it out with vice grips, but I broke off the transmission at the brass coupler leaving the brass part stuck in the tube. I decided to try to drill it out, but it was very difficult to hold the piece and I ended up chipping a part of tube away, making it worthless. At least I got the pencil.
To Everything, Turn...Turn...Turn 