4" wood carving grinder *LINK*

Re: 4" wood carving grinder

J Barrett Irby Jr

I have not use a chain saw version or one like you posted. (call me chicken). I did buy one form Harbor Freight that is course carbide grit and it works well.

James Hamilton, the Stumpy Nubs guy got tangled up in one about a year ago and is recovering. Not good.

Got a saw mill near?

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

See if they have a debarker and will run your pieces for you. If you piece is too small (short) your option may be to mount it on a lathe and use a roughing gouge. I've had a Lancelot carver (chain saw chain segment held on a disc) for my 4" angle grinder for years that uses the cutters oriented on the outer edge; I wouldn't recommend it for this job; dangerous.

Re: Got a saw mill near?

Tom Dunlap

LOL...good idea if any of these pieces were close to cylindrical.

One is a hollow ash trunk 48" tall and 28" diameter

Another couple are clump pieces with 3-4 'legs' connected to a 'stump'

They were all cut in the fall so the bark, even when it was green, was not coming off without a fight.

Re: Got a saw mill near?

William Duffield

Until you described your subject matter, I was going to suggest using your chainsaw, which I have used on bark more successfully than either a drawknife or the Lancelot or a Cutzall burr on an angle grinder. I have used all three, but not extensively, mostly for rough carving the bowls of spoons and ladles.

For your randomly shaped logs with securely attached bark, however, I use my carving hatchet.

I do like the Kutzall burr much better the chainsaw blade disc, because I feel like I have better control of it. Any time I try this, I have a few rules: Always hold on to the angle grinder firmly with both hands, keep the guard in place, and wear my logging chaps. Like Barry suggests, you might want to watch Stumpy Nubs YouTube videos on his accident. Unlike a chainsaw, an angle grinder doesn't have any bumper spikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7xWHEWov8M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIQu1e8DGUw

I have two Makita angle grinders. One of them is for 4-1/2" discs, but it is not designed for left handers as the guard is not adjustable, and I can't find a comfortable way to hold it that also gives me the control I need for carving.

Re: 4" wood carving grinder

Don Stephan

Would a pressure washer work? Could direct the narrow spray tangent to the surface of the wood to minimize gouging into the sapwood.

Pressure washer

Tom Dunlap

I tried a pressure on green spring cut logs...nope. Even in the best season and conditions for debarking it didn't work. I don't recall the PSI but it was enough to whip the nozzle out of my hands if I didn't keep a good grip.

Chainsaws/discs

Tom Dunlap

Over my lifetime I've worn out dozens and dozens of saws. At one time, with two work crews, I had fifteen saws running. The capabilities and limits of chainsaws are very clear to me.

A chainsaw or one of the planer attachments wouldn't do what I want well enough without extra gouging and nicks that would have to be smoothed out later.

At a conference one year an engineer from Oregon Chain had high speed video showing clearly what happens when a saw kicks back. cutting with the tip, even with safety chain is so dangerous. The sawchain discs have become better with safety chain and double links between cutters...but they still terrify me. Using those discs on an angle grinder is as dangerous as using a chainsaw with one hand.

What I'm wondering is how the other discs work for hogging off bark and shaping.

Arbortech ! Works great

Michael van pelt

Take a look at Arbortech. High quality and it works great. Removes a lot of material quickly and precisely. The Industrial cutter is what I would recommend

Re: Arbortech !Looks good *LINK*

Tom Dunlap

Looks good. Not as cheap as the others options.

When the time comes to buy I'll find a vendor who has one setup for demo in the store


Arbortech

Draw knife

Tom Dunlap

My intro to drawknives was in about '65 at Boy Scout camp. We took down some aspen to make an entry gate for the road. The logs peeled easily because they were green and thin barked. All went well until I pulled the drawknife into my shin and cut myself. Off to the hospital for three stitches. I missed part of the Order of the Arrow ceremony at the campfire.

I bought a couple of drawknives from a WC member a few years ago. Good metal and they work for small stuff. I tried them on these logs and they weren't going to make it. Like I said up above the one I made from a 6" brush chipper knife worked but the joint pounding I was taking was brutal.

Re: 4" wood carving grinder

John K Jordan

I often use a chain saw to skim off significant amounts of bark.

I also have an Proxxon Marlin that came with a carbide burr, chainsaw disk, and other disks. It, however, uses 2" disks and might not be good for removing a lot of bark. It's not dangerous unless you let it run into your leg.

A large commercial sawmill here has a rotary debarker they run all the logs through before they saw them. I wonder if a someone near you has a similar piece of equipment and would be willing to debark your logs for a small fee.

JKJ

Re: 4" wood carving grinder

Nathan Murphey

If you have a good sharp hatchet and a few hours that would be the safest and least amount of mess. You could also use a good handheld planer like Mikita that would take off pretty fast but would be messy.

Re: 4" wood carving grinder

John K Jordan

>>>If you have a good sharp hatchet

Don't remember if mentioned here but trees cut when sap is active are far easier to separate from their bark than trees cut in the winter when dormant.

spring wood

Tom Dunlap

Arborists rarely have the luxury of taking trees down at a different time of year. Catch as catch can. I fully understand the physiology of the cambium and how that changes throughout the year.

chop/plane

Tom Dunlap

With my wood a hatchet doesn't work, I tried. THe joint pounding is more than I will put myself through.

When I used my chipper knife drawknife to clear off wood I tried using my electric planer to finish the log. It took off wood but the finish was terrible. Better results came from starting with my 3x21 belt sander, various sanding discs in my 4" and 6" angle grinders as well as my dual action palm sanders.

The hardest and most mundane part of this whole project is hogging off the bark. Getting that dialed in will move these projects along.