[Bonnie]

I do woodcarving but currently I'm more focused on carving gourds. Carving gourds is pretty much the same as carving wood, but the gourds don't have a grain. You can do some pretty nice high relief on some of the thicker ones.

I currently use a combination of tools - a Dremel for some stuff, a Foredom for most, and a Turbocarver (air tool) for the fine detailing. Lately I've been thinking of adding a micromotor tool.

I'd love to hear opinions both positive and negative on some of these units. There are so many that I would love to make a more informed choice. I am a Foredom distributor, but I don't want to automatically add the Foredom micromotor if there are better options. That being said, I prefer to use mostly 1/8" shank bits - I know many of these tools are automatically set up for 3/32" shanks - so ease of changing over to the large shanks would be a factor. Customer service, initial price, reliability, etc., those are some of the other things I'd find important. Power also - can the tool take heavier carving or does it accept small 3/32" shafts because it has less power?

Does anyone have a combo carving/woodburning unit? Any pros or cons here? I do travel with my tools to teach so portability is nice too.

By the way, if you want to see my site on gourds I welcome you to visit. I have pages of free tutorials, photos and lots of other interesting stuff. The website address should appear below my signature if I've done this right.