Zebra Striped Celluloid

So there was a thread on the internet a while back discussing these flat sheets of Chinese celluloid that’s out there. Well, a guy in Europe who makes pens bought some of that up and made a few rods from it.  He glued the sheets together using solvents of some sort.

He gave me a rod and here are the results.

First – I gotta say when he told me what he was sending I was pretty excited.  Until I saw it.  It was only about 8 inches long and predrilled.  Not exactly how I like to work – but I made due.

Initially I wanted to turn a 14mm pen, comfortable for me, but when I threaded the barrel threads (for the cap) I was left with a mess.  THe threads were gone!  I figured out that since this stuff is SO SOFT, even a tiny bit of forward pressure while twisting the die over the barrel just ripped the threads off.  I turned a couple more threads and it was perfect.  I think you can see that in this pic…

So I’m totally fuming at myself and this stupid soft material.  Of course it is my fault for the threads being ruined.  But it does NOT turn like any other celluloid I’ve turned.  Instead of nice ribbons when turning, I get dust and little strings.  When threading I get no resistance – it’s like cutting into butter.  I can’t feel what’s going on inside the die. Well, at least I have enough material to turn it down and make a 13mm pen.  So I stuck the barrel between centers and started turning off the threads and thinning it down a bit.  The bad thing about turning between centers is that unless you press everything very tightly the barrel will stop as you’re cutting into it.  This was happening here.  I tightened my tailstock up against the barrel a little bit more and got it just right.  I turned some more of the bad threads off and noticed things seeming very off center.  I stopped the lathe and noticed that the strips were coming apart at a seam!  Ugh!!  So this isn’t going to work.

I put the project aside and emailed the gift giver.  I told him the problems I had and how it seemed brittle – which isn’t exactly right at all – but the shavings come off in dust rather than ribbons – which is weird for celluloid.  I also told him how soft it was and how I ruined the threads.  He said NONSENSE!  I thought he was mad at me.  I don’t know, maybe he was.  He said send it all back so he can look at it.

Well – I couldn’t do that.  🙂  So I stuck the barrel in a collet and turned half of it down, then flipped and turned the other half down, getting rid of the split part.  I threaded with 13mm threads, made some end pieces and a cap from the other piece of rod, and finished it!

I’ll send him a finished pen.  It’s not as cool as I was originally planning – but… there ya go.

I think the girls will really like it.  My students were all the time telling me to do pink and zebra stripes.  I have made a couple of pens according to student specs and they have been some of my most popular.  This one for example.