[tcb16]

Lately I've been thinking about the past years that I've been carving, and back to when I first started. The pure excitement of learning a new carving trick would brighten my whole day, or on a couple occaisons completely turn around a day that I thought was down an out.

Anyway, I'm hoping with this thread some questions may pop up, and others will pipe in with some knowledge or past experience so we can all grown a bit as carvers...Any ideas?

Whats slowing you down?

Whats the toughest part about carving a ... (bear, eagle, etc.?)

[twoclones]

What slows me down the most is those dead end pockets! Like getting the wood out from between the legs of a dragon while leaving the wings and tail to cover the back of that pocket. The larger the pocket, the harder it is to get a clean surface in the back.

What I have been doing is to cut out wedges using a mark on the bar as a depth guide. After getting the initial set of wedges out of the pocket, I start to fantasize about a chainsaw scorp bar. LOL

Butch

Links to my most recent carvings:
Hound Dog - http://www.woodhacker.com/dogs.html
Eagle - http://www.woodhacker.com/eagle-1.html
Heron- http://www.woodhacker.com/heron-1.html
Owl - http://www.woodhacker.com/owl_horned-1.html
Welcome Bear - http://www.woodhacker.com/bear_welcome.html

[twoclones]

How about a tip on transporting chainsaws to and from jobs? Do you just set them in the truck, organize them in some kind of box, or somehow hang them up?

[tcb16]

What I've usually done is put them together in twos with the bars going through the handles of the other saw. This keeps em from moving around too much. From there I put em in a diamond plate toolbox and lock the box to the truck. A bit of overkill I think, but so far it keeps em dry and keeps em in my truck . Hope this helps, Tim

[twoclones]

Bars through handles is how I pack them as well. The problem I've been running into is accessing everything while on the job. I have 5 saws in the back of my little truck plus an Action Packer full of grinders and sanders plus a wooden toolbox for just about everything else. By the time I throw my drywall bench and/or a ladder on top, I've got a real mess. Maybe what I need is a small step-van...

My studio is pretty open air so out there I have a Jobox chained to an anchor in the ground for storing things. Talk about peace of mind :-)

[Alice in Wonderland]

twoclones, in my young days of chainsaw carvings lol, after I was done with the chs. I would use the Arbortech /Tungston Blade and that would get me into the corners and from there the Wecheer chisels, no problem .
I hope this helps
Alice

[tcb16]

Hi Alice,

I've been toying with the idea of buying the arbortech or an attachment wheel for an angle grinder with saw teeth. I've hurt a bit of news about injuries and the saw teeth breaking, do you have any words of wisdom on either the arbortech or grinder attachments?

Thanks,
Tim

[Alice in Wonderland]

Tim
I am only using the industrial blade and the Pro 4 woodcarver again just with the tungsten blade and I have used this tool for9 years and I had no problem with it,the first ones you only could get the attachment and I used the Bosh grinder,now they come attached to an original grinder from Arbortech.
I am not easy on my tools they have to work hard(or so my husband tells me lol)
I hope this helps
Alice
://www.arbortech.com.au/view/woodworking-information

[bghebert]

I use the lancelot system I even made one a little bigger than I can buy. I use my old chain off the powersaw. when I use them I use them hard. I never (knock-on-wood) had a problem with a tooth breaking off, but I must say you have to be extremly carefull with them, they'll jumb back at you and bite pretty good.

[brianh]

For sanding I use homemade flap sanding wheels I got this idea from another forum they work very well.

Get some old sanding belts if you have a furniture shop around they usually have some they are throwing out, they are still fine for the flap sander.

I cut them into 1" wide strips most of the wheels are from 6" wide belts so they are 6" in diameter, the ones pictured are a smaller 3" diameter from drum sander stock.

The mandrell is 1/4 threaded rod, I use a 2200 rpm electric drill with the wheels.
You can sand without taking away detail, they are great for getting rid of the fuzzies.