Frosted Acrylics from a Lathe

[RWinter]

I'm in a CNC course at my school, and I came up with an idea of making a light-up chess set. The pieces would be turned on an Emco Compact5 PC late. I was wondering the best way to achieve a frosted effect from clear acrylic stock, and what brands you would recommend, as well as any tips you may have to share.

Thanks in advance.

[Geof]

One tip: Use cast acrylic not extruded. Do a bit of Googling to find out about annealing the pieces after machining; this is not difficult and may even be possible in a regular cooking oven with care.

[chan luci]

if dont turn the rod for a smooth finish and use a sand paper, obviously, the finish would look frosted!! Why is this difficult?

[ImanCarrot]

*agrees with Geoff on Cast, not extruded* extruded includes inclusions, but with cast the impurities (hence inclusions) settle to the bottom of the cast and can be skimmed off.

If going for a "nicer" frosted finish I should sand blast it instead of sandpaper... may give you a more uniform finish. Obviously don't do this on your machine cos the stuff gets everywhere.

Get a hand drill (like the old ones our dads used to have), stick a countersunk hole thru a disk with a bolt to hold in the drill chuck, stick the drill in a vice, double sided tape the part onto the disk and turn with one hand and sandblast with the other

Remove Double sided tape residue with WD40. Clean with Ethanol (not Acetone).

Good cast Acrylic (optical Quality) can be obtained very reasonably in various diameters from RS Components here in the UK.
www.rswww.com.

I use that stuff for optics