need tips

[islandtreeguy]

hey all,
just wanted some tips on a good detail setup and what to use for what.
Carving bar? disk sander? also, when do you seal a carving and what do you use? I imagine some kind of varnish or something. Any advice would be helpful

 

[twoclones]

Detail tools...

Bars:
I do most of my carving with the biggest saw I can get into the piece just to reduce my time but when it comes to detail, the 12" dime tip is what I reach for most often. I have no preference of manufacturer. And I recently bought a used saw with a really short [8"?] roller tip bar which I'm finding to be really useful.

Sanders:
Ryobi 4" angle grinder with a 24 grit flap wheel for 90% of my carvings.
Makita 30mm belt sander for smaller areas, dragon scales, beaks, etc.
Largish orbital sander for bench seats and large curves like whales and dolphins.

Sealant:
Keep changing my mind. Currently back to spar varnish. I paint the end grain, cracks, etc with a brush to get lots in on the first coat then spray it twice more before sending the carving out the gate. If the wood was really dry, I sometimes start with a coat of boiled linseed oil the apply varnish when the oil is dry.
A few cans of spray paint can be handy to darken shadow areas which were difficult to burn, make the carving base the color of grass or water, add a little snow to a mountain scene, etc.

Other:
Makita 1/4" die grinder [variable speed] with a small assortment of burs and rasps [rotary files]. Chuck-up a rotary file with a flat end and secure the die grinder in a vise or clamped to a table. Run at a low speed and hollow out the end of the rasp by using a dremel with a grinding stone bit. This homemade tool is great for making eyes because it carves and burns at the same time.
Dremel with a short, course bit and a grinding stone bit.
Weed burner and propane tank. Hand held propane torches have their place but when the carving gets to be over 18" tall, I want a flame thrower!

Note on a carving which you've sanded after burning to remove some of the black, like a killer whale's white patches and belly, the burned material can contaminate your varnish when using a brush. In that case, spray the first coat to avoid dirtying up your sanded areas.

That should eat up a couple weeks pay

Butch
www.WoodHacker.com

 

[lumberjackchef]

TC hit a lot of good points. I will add a couple of more things that I have found helpful too.

Securing your work- I take a large diameter stump and cut it off about two feet high. This means once I secure my work I don't have to do much bending over at all! Then i take about 4 long lag bolts and screw them down into my log leaving about 3-4 inches or so exposed. Then I take a cutoff tool and get rid of the heads and sharpen them up to a nice point. Now all I have to do to secure a piece of wood is pick it up and give it a nice solid assisted drop. I have used other methods but I prefer this one to every other one that I have tried.

I also will also use a torch to burn little black bears and such. Then i take a nylon bristled household scrub brush and go over the entire burnt area. Spray it off with my compressed air and then do a little touch up with some spray paint.

I also prefer to use a spar varnish for my carvings. One thing you will notice if you do not finish a carving on the same day that you start it is some major checking. One way to minimize this is to keep the unfinished carving in a moist shady environment until you are ready to do the finish work on it. Never leave an unfinished carving in the direct sunlight on a hot day. I for got to put a couple of mine away one time and the were split up pretty badly.

I have also heard of people putting on some poly and just carving it right off when they were ready to finish the carving. I have done some touch up work on several carving after being polyed and it works very well. but to do this on a regular basis would be a little cost prohibitive for me considering I have to pay about 50 bucks for a gallon of spar varnish.

For eyes I use a lot of different sized marbles. I will drill out the appropriate size with my rechargeable drill and spade bit. Then I take my dremel with a sanding wheel and smooth out the edges of the hole to make it look like an eye socket.

I bought a little Echo 346 already set up with a Cannon 10" dime tip set up with 1/4" chain off of ebay with an extra saw to boot for under 150 bucks when i started out. I bet I carved 150 items with that 1 bar/2 chain combo.
I like the bar so well I just purchased another one from a seller on ebay the other day for about 60 bucks with chain, extra drive links, presets, and that even included shipping!

Different strokes for different folks, you just gotta get out there and experiment and see what works for you! Happy carving.

 

[twoclones]

... I have to pay about 50 bucks for a gallon of spar varnish.

Owie, Owie, OWIE!!!

Lately I've been paying $35 per gallon here in Eastern Washington for the Helmsman Spar.


Butch
www.MisterChainsaw.com

 

[lumberjackchef]

Owie, Owie, OWIE!!!

Lately I've been paying $35 per gallon here in Eastern Washington for the Helmsman Spar.


Butch
www.MisterChainsaw.com

Yeah With tax last time it was about 48.50. I noticed even at WM the quarts of Helmsman Spar have jumped to about 15 bucks.:rant: Gas went down everything else went up a bout 15-20%.

 

[islandtreeguy]

hey thanks guys
my next investment will probably be the angle grinder. right now I got a husky 142 with a 14" bar. seems to work pretty good but it is hard to work on the detail. sounds like i should look on e-bay for a detail saw setup.
Ok one more question, how do I tell when the wood is dry enough to seal it?

 

[twoclones]

hey thanks guys
my next investment will probably be the angle grinder. right now I got a husky 142 with a 14" bar. seems to work pretty good but it is hard to work on the detail. sounds like i should look on e-bay for a detail saw setup.
Ok one more question, how do I tell when the wood is dry enough to seal it?

Note that cheap angle grinders last me about 3 months which is why I bought the Ryobi and the extended warranty from Home Depot. I've gotten it replaced once on the extended warranty

I recommend you talk to a local wood carver. Here it's slightly hotter than H*ll and we have very little humidity or rain. If I carve it, I seal it immediately unless it's dripping wet. Then I wait an hour or two.

 

[mmstihl038]

Well I'm kinda new and still experimenting a lot, but here's a few things I've learned. You can get a B&W rotary tool at Wal-Mart for like $28 that's basically the same as an $80 dremel. The main difference is that the dremel has replaceable brushes, but you'll probably break or burn up something besides the brushes anyway, so you might as well go with the B&W and expect to have to replace it on a semi-regular basis. Might as well get two while your at it. BTW the B&W will take all the dremel add-ons. Hate the idea of a power tool being disposable, but at less than $30 you'll spend less on rotary tools than you will on sanding discs and if you're careful not to put any weight on it or jam it in a crack it will last a while. You can go through a dozen of them for the price of one foredom / mastercarver.

I like the laminate cutters. I haven't invested in a good die grinder yet, but they're similar and run at a similar rpm. The laminate cutters are quite a bit cheaper and more readily available. The biggest difference being that the die grinders have longer and narrower snouts so get into tight places better. I have a dewalt and a rotozip. Both have minor issues. The chuck lock on my rotozip broke the first time I used it. On the dewalt the chuck lock button won't stay on and the lock tends to slip. But they both work. For the rotozip they make a flexshaft. I have it, but haven't really used it much yet. Not sure how long it will last, or if they sell replacement cables like they do for the foredoms et al. The little sanding discs for the dremels suck.

Tried a lot of different bits. Straight and dovetail router bits are fast, but hard, really impossible, to control. When they jump there's no holding it back and they'll put some nasty gouges in your work. I really like a slot cutter bit, basically a mini skill saw blade. You can rake it across and remove a pretty large swath and it behaves itself most of the time. The burs are well behaved, but slower than router bits. The hardware store burs and rasps don't work well, you have to order the specialized carving ones.

The Carbide Nugget Abrasive Discs are absolutely wicked what they do to wood, just shred it up. But they're surprisingly well behaved. Where gloves with these, especially removing them from the grinder. Just bumping into them will tear your up good. Don't even think about trying to change one without unplugging it first.

I like the 3M sandblaster multilayer sanding discs. They mold wood like clay, at least for a while, but you can go through a few of them on a carving if you use them a lot and they're not cheap. Also, make a lot of really fine dust, so respirator is advisable. The B&W multi-layer discs they sell at Wal-Mart don't hold up well at all. They're more a hassle than a savings.

My foredom foot pedal seems to work fine with about every tool I've ran through it. Works great for slowing down the laminate cutters. Does anyone see any problems with using it this way? Am I overloading something or is it hard on my tools?