power carving newbie

[terry15]

Okay, I am ready to try power carving! I do want to purchase the Foredom machine but which one? I guess that I am most interested in relief carvng of scenes and a few ball/claw feet for my furniture projects. Probably mahogany or pine... I will need adequate power to move a fair amount of wood. What size Foredom? Is reversable necessary? the handpiece? a #30? What kind of general purpose burrs are needed? Thanking you in advance for your advice!

[whitecree]

I don't have a Foredom as yet, but the new SR model looks pretty good. 1/6 HP which is fairly heavy duty, although I kind of like their older "TX" model that has 1/3 HP. A little pricey, but may be worthwhile.

Handpieces, I would advise 2, at least. One for 1/4" shank and the other for smaller shanks. Foredom also has a chisel handpiece that I hear - mostly - good things about, so for me, that would be 3 handpieces.

Burrs will be a matter of what works for you. I like almost anything by Kutzall, but I think the most useful are the ball and flame shapes.

[terry15]

Thanks for the information! Other questions/thoughts...How about reversability? Is it important? Would I also need the (I don't know what you call it) the table adaptor so that I can dial up the speed, or is the floor pedal adequate? Are the ruby burrs better than the carbide tipped ones or do I need both? I am looking forward to getting a Foredom and trying it out......

[whitecree]

I know you can run into situations where the reverse gear could come in handy, and if you are a southpaw, it will save a lot of frustration. I doubt if I will bother with it, but that is what suits me. Your needs might be somewhat different than mine.

Ruby and carbide burrs are both handy to have. I - so far - prefer carbide, but the ruby cutters from what I read leave a smoother finish. Since I use my rotary tool (aka Dremel, but mine came from Sears ) mostly for roughout work, the smoothness a cutter leaves doesn't matter to me. Again, your preferences may differ.

[squbrigg]

I have an SR and I find it great. I use three handpieces for rotary carving and just picked up a fourth for recriprocating , but haven't tried it yet. I find the reverse useful, though I don't use it often, but when I do, it is indespensable!!

The standard SR has plenty of power for Pine and Mahogany, and even for Cherry, Maple, Ebony, Holly, Walnut, Afermosia and a host of others. Take your time, and try not to hog off too much wood in each pass/cut. Hold it with a good grip while you get use to it, it can hop away on you and trust me, a touch from a Typhoon burr will take a lot of skin off really fast!!!

Get a good selection of burrs, from coarse, medium, fine, some steel cutters and then diamond, ruby and stones, depending on what you're carving. Enjoy.

Bob