Anybody ever worked with Acetyl (sp)

Mark Williams

Mark Williams

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Is Acetal available in rods or something that could be used to make a hawk handle?

Mark

Found some at onlinemetals.com

Wonder how it is to work?
 
Yes it's acetal and the common trade name is delrin. Check www.mcmaster.com for properties and sizes. I've used it for radio antenna parts ,it's got high dielectric strength amd mechanical strength and resists UV. Easy to work with.
 
Thanks mete,
Much cheaper than onlinemetals. Does it respond well to sanding or would it just get furry?
 
It hand sands fine. Using a belt sander is a smelly mess but possible. Short quick passes on the belt otherwise you can melt it and gum up your belt. The lower the grit the better then hand sand to smooth it up.
 
It machines very well mark, it's extremely impact resistant, almost unbreakable and not too bad looking. Now the bad part. Nothing and I mean nothing will stick to it. Not paint or epoxy or anything else.
This makes mounting a handle difficult.
The best answer is to make a traditional hawk where the handle goes in from the top.

ospho1.jpg


As far as I know it only comes in black and white. I could only get white.

On this hatchet I made the head to take a conventional handle because the top strap holes needed to have a flush surface.

I have two cross pins going through the hatchet and handle and I milled a recess at the top and melted the handle into it.

One last drawback is that it will burn quite easily...with a nearly invisible flame. When I first started experimenting with it I was checking the melting point. I melted some and sat down to write notes. The damn thing was burning and I couldn't see the flames. I caught a rag on fire before I realized it and dumped it in the dunk bucket.

The bottom line is for a non traditional plastic handle...it isn't bad! :confused:
 
Peter how did you melt the top of the handle without making it look bad and without discoloring it? do you have a pic of the top of it?
 
It really only looks bad if you burn it Terry. Anyway what I did was melt the top while tapping it with a hammer. Basically pining it. When the recess was filled, I sanded the top flush with the top of the hatchet.

It's just a matter of leaving enough to work with and still sand. I'll have to take a picture. That was one I took in answer to someone's post about a rust preventative. The hatchet has ospho on it.

Some of the people who use the stuff, put two wood screws down through top in the edges of the handle. This allows the screw head to overlap the eye and hold the handle. That looks pretty bad to me but it works.
 
I don't know Ray but if it is....I may have to go scrounging. Just remember...never get the yellow plastic! :barf:
 
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