Die grinder recommendations please

[SU2]

I'm using rasps and contemplating the terrier... but the rasps work well for me

Yeah that's exactly where I'm at, the rasps just work so well that I'm having trouble splurging on the terrier, would really love to try one in person to see how much faster it is compared to rasps but imagine it's a significant difference!!

 

[PaulH]

I've got a Makita that works great but the bit is the really important part. I've got bits from Graham Potter but for some work regular router bits work even better but they are more dangerous.
That said, I rarely use power tools to carve on trees anymore in favor of hand tools and thread carving. I think it is rare for machine carved deadwood to look at all natural on a tree. I mainly use my grinders for carving suiseki daizas now.
Even a Dremel can bite you if you're not careful. Mine got me just the other day...

 

[SU2]

I've got a Makita that works great but the bit is the really important part. I've got bits from Graham Potter but for some work regular router bits work even better but they are more dangerous.
That said, I rarely use power tools to carve on trees anymore in favor of hand tools and thread carving. I think it is rare for machine carved deadwood to look at all natural on a tree. I mainly useView attachment 162260 my grinders for carving suiseki daizas now.
Even a Dremel can bite you if you're not careful. Mine got me just the other day...

Can you give an example of what you mean by 'regular router bits'? When I googled 'die-grinder router bits' I got a huge variety of stuff and am too newbie on this to understand what's what, a link or pic would help a ton!

I couldn't imagine doing the carving I need to w/o power-tools, I've just got too-many yamadori 'stumps' that will need large amounts of wood removed to ever have a chance of becoming something worthwhile! Re not looking natural, isn't that just a matter of skill? And time? I guess I look at it like, well, if it's not looking 100.0% natural after a carving, it'll get there soon-enough as stuff grows...I've also got a propane torch which I thought would be useful for after-carving but haven't yet used it, honestly am unsure how/when it'd make sense to do it, I don't really see the 'loose rough bits' I got pretty clean results using my rasps (die-grinder) and rasp-disk (angle-grinder), smoother than I'd have thought TBH but with how it'll weather/age I feel like it'll get 'natural' in no time at all, though I've got no experience to corroborate that with..

 

[Vin]

Can you give an example of what you mean by 'regular router bits'? When I googled 'die-grinder router bits' I got a huge variety of stuff and am too newbie on this to understand what's what, a link or pic would help a ton!

There are literally thousands of types. Here is an example of one of the many types I use: https://www.amazon.com/Handle-T-Slo...22813&sr=1-73-spons&keywords=router+bit&psc=1

As @Paul stated, you have to be careful or they will bite you.

 

[PaulH]

These are the bits I use most often.




When I need to remove large quantities of wood I use a chainsaw or an angle grinder with a chainsaw wheel (from Harbor Freight).

 

[SU2]

There are literally thousands of types. Here is an example of one of the many types I use: https://www.amazon.com/Handle-T-Slo...22813&sr=1-73-spons&keywords=router+bit&psc=1

As @Paul stated, you have to be careful or they will bite you.

Ok I see the *type* you mean - as to that specific example though, I can't imagine those are rated for 25k rpm? Not at that price?! My die-grinder doesn't have variable speed so bits need to handle 25k otherwise they're a no-go for me, I mean I can go to home depot and see tons of bits that I'd love but my grinder would break them :/

 

[PaulH]

http://www.finewoodworking.com/2006/05/01/safe-speeds-for-big-router-bits

 

[SU2]

http://www.finewoodworking.com/2006/05/01/safe-speeds-for-big-router-bits

Well for my case, a 4.2A die-grinder (1/4" collet, 25k rpm) has a 1.5" disk size limit so 18k rpm would be ideal according to that - problem is my grinder isn't variable speed (though my understanding is I can make it one by getting a certain type of foot-power-pedal? Some loss in efficiency, but the ability to have variable-speed in a brushed grinder like mine)

So w/o variable speed, I have to get bits rated at 25k rpm, which seriously drives up the price (I see rasps rated at 20k that are cheap, and made for harder materials than wood- I wonder if they wouldn't be safe, it's a 25% jump in speed but the material being so much softer should make some difference, I dunno...seems like the type of thing not to risk but I'm new to this stuff I'd never used a grinder of any sort til the past couple months!)

 

[wsteinhoff]

I've got a Makita that works great but the bit is the really important part. I've got bits from Graham Potter but for some work regular router bits work even better but they are more dangerous.
That said, I rarely use power tools to carve on trees anymore in favor of hand tools and thread carving. I think it is rare for machine carved deadwood to look at all natural on a tree. I mainly useView attachment 162260 my grinders for carving suiseki daizas now.
Even a Dremel can bite you if you're not careful. Mine got me just the other day...

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of hand tools do you carve with? And what's thread carving?

 

[SU2]

When I need to remove large quantities of wood I use a chainsaw or an angle grinder with a chainsaw wheel (from Harbor Freight).

Forgot to ask you about this- have you used the Lancelot disk from King Arthur tools? It's only a bit more than the HF chainsaw wheel and I've heard good things, though if the HF one is fine I'd probably get it since it's still ~1/4 cheaper and I'd be able to have it the day I chose

Would love to hear your experiences with that HF chainsaw disk, especially how fast it removes wood relative to a rasp-disk of the same size! I really like my (HF) rasp cup disk, but it wasn't removing material as fast as I'd have liked...I almost grabbed the (real) chainsaw to use the tip of it to hog-out the center of where I was working, til I remembered that'd be chucking bar&chain lube all over my tree!! But yeah I've got a lot of material that needs removal, I also considered just using a sawzall to carve-out some of the center of what I was working with but the back&forth of it had me anxious it'd be too-much for the roots :/

 

[PaulH]

I use the slower rated rasp bits in my 25k Makita all the time but it may not be the safest thing. I always wear good quality eye protection though.
The disk I bought from Harboe Freight is a Lancelot. I works great!

 

[Giga]

I've been just using a dremel - not super powered but does a very good job and the control is much better. Though if you had crazy amount of carving then a makita is the way to go.

 

[PaulH]

And what's thread carving?

It's the technique of peeling down the wood fibers following the natural grain of the wood. I use a concave cutter to seperate a section and then peel it down with my jin pliers. Its a lot slower than machine carving but gives a very natural look and texture.

 

[wsteinhoff]

It's the technique of peeling down the wood fibers following the natural grain of the wood. I use a concave cutter to seperate a section and then peel it down with my jin pliers. Its a lot slower than machine carving but gives a very natural look and texture.

Thanks! A Google search would just come up with carving thread spools.

 

[JudyB]

I've been just using a dremel - not super powered but does a very good job and the control is much better. Though if you had crazy amount of carving then a makita is the way to go.

What bits are you using? I also only use a dremel, it's enough for me, might be slower, but sometimes that's a good thing. I just broke my flexishaft, will have to get another, but they are pretty cheap.
I used to get bits from treeline usa but they stopped making the triangular head ones.

 

[Giga]

I buy two of these for the bulk of it. I use my angle grinder and make one a triangle head and it chews through wood like butter.

then wire brush and various cutting bits

 

[SU2]

It's the technique of peeling down the wood fibers following the natural grain of the wood. I use a concave cutter to seperate a section and then peel it down with my jin pliers. Its a lot slower than machine carving but gives a very natural look and texture.

Concave cutters are 'knob cutters' right? If I'm thinking of the right thing then I can finally start using a great pair of cutters I was given but didn't know how to use right:


Have been in love with the straight-edge clippers but none of the cuts I made with the 'knob' one felt right so I'd stopped using it :/

 

[SU2]

I use the slower rated rasp bits in my 25k Makita all the time but it may not be the safest thing. I always wear good quality eye protection though.
The disk I bought from Harboe Freight is a Lancelot. I works great!

Wait, HF was stocking King Arthur stuff? My local HF has a generic chainsaw 4" disk for $30 (but there's always the 20% off coupons online so really $24), not the KA Lancelot one though :/

And yeah it may not be the height of safety but am sure the 20k rpm rated rasps are fine at 25k when used on wood, if they're able to hit much harder stuff at 20k I can't imagine 25k on wood would be their breaking-point!

I've been just using a dremel - not super powered but does a very good job and the control is much better. Though if you had crazy amount of carving then a makita is the way to go.

I was thinking that my die- and angle-grinders would be all I'd need, I thought the die-grinder would be sufficient for detail work but I just did my first real carving job yesterday and had a few errors (all with the die-grinder), am going to need a dremel or some smaller/weaker rotary tool as well as the die-grinder, am unsure if it's my skill level or the fact the HF die-grinder isn't the truest product, you hardly feel any bounce/kick but the rasps build-up real unevenly, I swapped the unit but the new one had the same degree of out-of-true ;/

 

[SU2]

I buy two of these for the bulk of it. I use my angle grinder and make one a triangle head and it chews through wood like butter.
View attachment 162366
then wire brush and various cutting bits

Where are you getting them? How much power are you putting to it?

I feel like something like that would be superior to the Terrier, simply because it's dividing the load/energy-transfer to the tree more (the Terrier has just 2 or 3 cutting tips, depending on model), seems a better design though I imagine it's not *as* fast at hogging-out wood as the Terrier. Very interested to see where you're ordering those, I've already got rasps but really want a more direct 'cutting' bit like that, and would probably choose one of those over the Terrier.

 

[Vin]

Concave cutters are 'knob cutters' right?

No. Concave cutters are branch cutters that have a curved profile. The bottom image in the circle are concave cutters.