Tips & Tricks: Carving - with Power

One very important thought:
If your power carving tools make ANY amount of airborne dust, please wear a dust mask or a respirator.

I am trying to recover from a severe respiratory ailment that may have been caused by inhalation of wood dust.
Doctors have not been able to give me an exact diagnosis, but they have told me all the things it is NOT, and I’m left with very little except the possibilty of a reaction (or poisoning) from not wearing my respirator when making a lot of dust.

It’s been a hard couple of months and I still have a way to go, so this is a serious warning.

ddwwb

-- The best things in life aren't THINGS.

Sorry Don for your problems and hope for a speedy recovery. This is a good lesson for all of us!!

-- Chuck Emery, Michigan,

I’m sorry about your illness and I hope that you will have a speedy recovery.

-- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau

ditto re: quick recovery

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Don’t wear Kevlar carving gloves or any type of glove when power-carving, that could snag and cause severe damage to your hand. I wear plain leather gloves when I am using certain large burrs or sanding drums in my flex-shaft tool that I control with a foot-pedal. These are used at lower rpms which reduces the risk somewhat. I have caused more damage in recent years with sanding drums than anything else….so i prefer to sand away a bit of cow-hide instead of my hide! Everything else I use both hands and have my work secured in some fashion. Some of my favorite bits are large 1/4” shaft carbide cutters for die grinders, similar to this . They give a smoother cut than a lot of the carbide burrs.

-- Mike P., Arkansas, http://mpounders1.blogspot.com

Power carving can be done without dust by using a recipricating handpiece on a Foredom type power tool. It works like a mini jackhammer and is quiet, dust free and easy to work with. Works for small carvings not large ones.

-- In God We Trust

When I am carving, power tools are just another tool in my arsenal.
When roughing or blocking a piece, it’s about 50-50 as to whether electricity is involved or not. It usually depends of how much wood is being removed.

When shaping a piece from the blocking stage, I will sometimes use a dremel style router, but usually only if there are areas of restricted accesss where it’s easier to reach with a power tool. A good quality set of gouges, chisels and knives can make short work of almost any project.

For the detailing stages only my small knives and gouges will do.

Carving is, for me, about having a vision of the finished piece. Getting from point A to B in the most efficient and effective manner possible determines which tool I use at any given moment.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251

I do almost all my carving with a 2 1/2 hp router. I use a lot of different cutters, from a 1/8” carbide spiral upcut bit to a 3/4” bull nose roughing burr. Here's a project post that shows my dedicated carving duplicator. I have to be accurate and each project has to be carved within a few thousands of an inch. I’d hate to carve a block of hard maple with chisels, rasps and files… I can’t imagine how long the carving would take.

-- Hal, Tennessee http://www.first285.com

Hal, It takes a long time! I made a full length Kentucky rifle from scratch ;-)

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0