anybody have experience with a Terrco carver?

Frank Fusco said:

Bryan, you don't "set" cutting depths with this. It is hand guided and weightless. Very hard to describe the situation. If you can, imagine using a router, hand-held, that has no weight, no guide fence, no guide bearings, no plate, no nothing for support. Just you and a high-speed cutting thing that doesn't want to do what you want it to do the instant it touches wood. I'm beginning to think a vise and rasp would be quicker. Haven't given up, the three wing bit is a help and I have a carbide burr on the way.

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So, you would have to have bits of different lengths to control the depth of cut, or have the blank close in size. I thought that the tracing stylus would be ajustable! At least something should be. If its a router , is the housing not ajustable up and down? I had thought of getting one for corbels ,but looks like I should take carving lessons.

Bryan Cowing said:

So, you would have to have bits of different lengths to control the depth of cut, or have the blank close in size. I thought that the tracing stylus would be adjustable! At least something should be. If its a router , is the housing not adjustable up and down? I had thought of getting one for corbels ,but looks like I should take carving lessons.

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My response above was probably a bit lacking. Yes, the tracing stylus does allow a bit of 'setting'. Problem is, if you use the same size stylus as the cutter it will attempt to make extreme cuts and grab and jump. I made up a bunch of oversize styli and try to control with that. Still, until I put in the three wing cutter bit the grab factor was pretty extreme, scary and dangerous. The only thing this unit does control is rotational force.
As for making carvings, corbels, etc., the same unit WITHOUT the gunstock optional attachment would probably be much easier to use. For small work, the 100 series is OK. To go larger, the 200. Contact Terrco and ask for their demo video. It isn't great but does give an idea of what these are all about. Mine, with, not only, the gunstock attachment, but the extended gunstock attachment is limited to only horizontal work. They don't tell you that up front. Unless I disassemble almost the entire unit (a lot of work, impossible for one person, double impossible with a low ceiling like I have) I can't do small vertical pieces like carvings. Fortunately, I was able to purchase a second 200 at a reasonable price from a widow. She indicated her husband tried using it once or twice and gave up. This basic unit has been on the market for many years. Originally, it was made by Woodmizer, the sawmill people. Then Terrco bought it and the design remains unchanged. Outmoded, low tech. BTW, a 100 might be coming up for sale near me soon. If you are interested, let me know. Was this a rant? I have $3000.00 invested and months of messing around and still not one completed item. I ain't a happy camper.

Terrco Duplicarver

Hi Frank,
I am interested in your progress with your carver. I have a dual spindle, that I have not had a chance to experiment with much. My spindle and stylus assembly float also. The cutters that I got with mine are both left and right hand. I tried to trace an item, just to experiment, using a 2 flute 1/4 inch diameter straight router bit. It tended to want to walk a bit and I did not like not having a depth control. I ran tracer milling machines back in the 70's and I used to machine parts in 2D by generating the profile. One machine, a Rockford Excello Kopy-Kat Tracer, had a gantry that you could raise the stylus and cutter assembly up or down .050 inch per revolution (20 TPI). This worked quite well. I was looking at my carver today after having read your posts and thought about adding and adjustable depth stop arm to the pivoting axis for the carver up and down travel. I think that if I were to make an arm that would clamp to the bar and use a threaded rod to ride on a bar (like a table surface) that I could gain depth control. Any thoughts? Regards, Keith

Keith, if you have a dual spindle Terrco, you probably have a KS5000 series. I believe the 200's only come in single spindle. And, with the problems I have been having, I can't even imagine how wild it might be to try using a double-trouble free floater. Can you post a picture of your unit?
Sorry, but I don't speek machineese very well so couldn't completely follow your post. However, later (probably tomorrow, cut grass today, company tonight) I'll be making an adjustable stylus. Instead of being just vertical like comes with the unit, I'll make it both vertically and horizontally adjustable. I have a hunk of high density poly/something that will be the place the vert. and horiz. meet. A thumbscrew will be used to adjust the horizontal guide. I'll set to just touch the master when the cutter touches the piece to be cut. (photo when made) After the cutter will no longer remove wood, I'll reset the guide and continue like that until a basic shape is achieved then switch to the stylus that is the same size and shape as the cutter for final (I hope) cutting and smoothing. If this fails, the unit will be up for sale. As it is, I don't expect to do any kind of production with it, even if my experiment works. The unit is simply too labor intensive. (and potentially very dangerous. that cutter jumping loose at 10,000+ rpm wouldn't be much fun walking up my arm) It will probably take almost a full day's work to make one gunstock. At that, I would have to price myself out of the market to make it worthwhile. Another Fusco Enterprise idea down the flusher. Oh, well. Why reverse life's course now?

Hi Frank, My Carver is a K-Star, as seen at the Terrco Website. I believe that the depth control that I wrote about in my last post would solve both of our problems with the free floating. It would give you control of the up and down floating of the spindle and cutter and would allow you to take a set depth of cut, let's say like starting at 1/8 inch from the top of the work part and tracing around the part. Then set it another 1/8 of an inch deeper, (1/4 inch total depth) and trace around the part again, and so on. I would recommend using an oversize stylus for roughing. The vertically and horizontally adjustable stylus can cause a lot of new issues. I have made and used them. If I get a chance I will set up a depth stop on my carver. The same type of depth setting stop should work on your machine also and solve a large majority of your carving problems and make it cost effective. Regards, Keith