Chuck Gillen

Member
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3
Hello,
I've done almost everything and am now looking to try wood carving. I'm not very artistic but have seen some pictures on the Internet and would like to try wood carving.
Has anyone done any carving with any mini grinder?
Apparently Arbortech is one of the newest ones and it looks really cool on what you can do, but I would like some suggestions from anyone who does this as well on what brand and what I should look for and invest in.

Thanks
 
I have done a limited amount of woodcarving. But enough to learn regular carving knives are the best way to go. With a rotary tool you can move in only one direction. I find this very limiting. However some people use them a lot. There are many wood carving forums available, I'll bet you can get good input from one of those. Also look for a club in your area.
 
Depends on what you're looking to do...

I haven't used the Arbortech stuff much personally (but my cousin who does mid scale carving has a lot).. its pretty aggressive and I would classify it as a "medium" sized tool, its quite aggressive at material removal and doesn't do super fine details.

I do have a couple of Saburrtooth blades for my angle grinder that are vaguely similar I've used for roughing some medium sized stuff (large spoons mostly..) https://www.saburrtooth.com/ - they don't cut quite as cleanly as the Arbortech blades though.

With either/any of the angle grinder like setups keep BOTH hands on the tool at all times until its spun down and set down. I had one get away from me and while I still have

I also have an ancient foredom flex shaft carver, its pretty useful for a wide range of things (or would be if I had more bits.. for it..). I picked it up pretty cheaply at an estate sale where it had been used for ~20 years by a gunsmith so it certainly held up pretty well (I did pull it apart and re-lube everything but it seemed mostly solid other than that). You're not going to do sculptural scale work with it, but its somewhat useful for small bits and details.

I also have a proxxon MicroMot 50/E https://www.proxxon.com/us/micromot/38515.php which I've used for some really small detail work like the button and crochet hook below. This is basically a fancier dremel (better speed control with the foot peddle and a somewhat smaller/lighter handpiece). Its especially useful for really hard stuff like the ebony there. I wouldn't try to use it for doing bulk material removal or work much bigger than say fist sized. I do like the proxxon cutting burrs a LOT as they cut super clean (much cleaner than the ball of fuzz carbide type burrs like dremel sells.

IMG_20150318_175415636.jpg
 
I was thinking of tree trunks but I've seen videos where you can use regular boards to do stuff. Sounds like knives are a better way to go. Guess I have some thinking to do.
Thank you very much . . . And thanks for welcoming me to the forum.
 
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