Power carver purchase help

wonzal · 1 May 2012

Hi there,
I am a carpenter but have recently taken up whittling/carving.
I'm desperate to buy a power carver but keep going around in circles on what to get.
I'm wanting to carve a skull out of ak eventually so i want to buy somethingman enough to work on hardwoods.
On the other hand, at the moment I don't have a garage so have ben doing bits in the flat by hand with newspaper down!
I love it and find it very theraputic but would like a bit of power to help speed things up.

Any advice wuld be gratefully recieved.

Many tanks,

Oly

Lons · 1 May 2012

Hi Oly

If you mean rotary type then the RR is a Foredom machine. there are others however including a model from Axminster. If only light work then a handheld cheapo (engraver type) is ok but unlikely to last long. All these produce dust so will need extraction of some kind. On this type, the size, shape and feel of the handpiece is important - you hold it a bit like a pencil.

Mine is an old engineering model, very heavy duty but a bit temperamental.

You can also buy power chisels which accept different gouge shapes but I have no personal experience of those. and for larger work there is a long established Arbortech which is loosely based on an angle grinder.

Examples:
Foredom.. http://www.rutlands.co.uk/hand-tools/ca ... mplete-kit
Axi http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ax ... rod863044/
chisel type http://www.yandles.co.uk/product.php/si ... /ARBPCH350
Arbortech http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arbortech-Ful ... 483ff29676

cheers
Bob

wonzal · 2 May 2012

Bob,
I really appreciate your feed back. Good man!
I have seen the Axminster one and have been toying with going for one of each. Very difficult when there arn't any stockists of such tools tha i can find in my area.
What sort of carvings do you produce?

Lons · 2 May 2012

wonzal":30r9nxts said:
Bob,
I really appreciate your feed back. Good man!
I have seen the Axminster one and have been toying with going for one of each. Very difficult when there arn't any stockists of such tools tha i can find in my area.
What sort of carvings do you produce?

Hi Oly

I haven't done anything for a number of years and have a couple of half finished projects but some of my early efforts are on this thread carving-advice-needed-t41364.html. didn't use power on any of them though.

Bob

Lons · 15 Feb 2013

wilf-baker":3ocs2acj said:
I'm building my own!
search for Wilf Baker copy carver, in youtube to see me making it!

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men

Wilf Baker, Carved top guitar builder

Hi Wilf

Do you have plans for your copy carver or is it on the back of a *** packet?
I'm interested as I need to reproduce the stock of an old Diana air rifle which has been munched by woodworm. I can do it all by hand but it's a bit labour and time intensive.

Bob

adidat · 15 Feb 2013

resurrecting lots of old post can be confusing, not quite sure what your trying to achieve. maybe starting a thread about your duplicator would be a better idea??

adidat