[John_M]

Am new to carving so please bear with me lol. Was wondering if anyone has used a Turbo carver or a high speed carver ? Looking for one possibly that someone no longer has use for. Am on SSD so cant afford much and if you have one you want to get rid one please let me know. I appreciate any help anyone can offer. Sincerely, John

[slopchops]

I have used them and if you use them a lot, they burn up in about three months. They will really move the media and do wonderful work, but cost wise, you better have deep pockets.

[susieq]

John,
check through past threads in this section. This question gets asked alot and if you read back through the old threads it will give you a lot of insight into the different high speed carvers and their proper uses.

Turbo carver is probably an air turbine.....very similar to what dentists use these days. Good for gunstock checking, carving ostritch eggs and engraving. Not too many folks use them for woodcarving.

Other highspeed options are the micro motors. They run at anywhere from 38,000 to 50,000 rpms, depending on the model you buy. The best one for the money, in my opinion, is the Master Carver. It has high torque and runs at 50,000 rpms and costs about $300 new. other models can go much higher than that and won't give you any more rpms....

highspeed carvers, especially micro motors are not for heavy work. They are strictly for fine detail and will burn up if abused....so you need to figure out if that fits your needs..... read some of the older threads to find out more.

[Ron T]

Hi John M,

I don't know if you've heard of the Wecheer high torque engraver. It runs at 3,000 - 23,000 rpm. Of course that's not as fast as the 450,000 turbos but it has a small pen like barrel so it's easy to hold. They're about $50.

It depends on what you want it for too. The micro motors all run $300 +.

[John_M]

Hey all thanks for all the advice, my neighbor loaned me his recrepiting carver to do a wood sprity, got it done and turned out better than i had thought, my neighbor is also a carver and model maker, use to work for Disney, very nice man and very helpfull. I still think at times i would like to get a Turbo carver so i can learn gunstock carving but jsut dont have that kind of money. Oh by the way i sold my Wood Sprit to another neighbor for $50 i know not much but what the heck its the experience one gets. I also have done a wolf howeling at the moon which i have kept for now, but the the same neighbor might buy it also she likes the work. Did them on old logs after stripping off the bark and doing alittle sanding. I do have to admit this is alot of fun and want to do more jsut need to figure out how get more patterns, hate to say this part but free ones if possible, like i mention am on ssd and jsut cannot aford much. also need to get a printer right now all am doing is getting stuff out of magizines to carve. If any one can tell me where i can get free patterns im all ears. I apprecaite all the response and help everyone had offered you allare a great bunch of fine people. Sincerely, John_M PS: anyone can email me at: shadow061@yahoo.com