Hey guys just looking for a little help here, been doing quite a few carves lately and have experimented with bits ranging from 1/32 to 1/4" tapered ballnose all good quality zrn coated bits. tried cutting with, against and at a 45. keep the stepover to 7-9%. i do a rough and then cut the carves at 250ipm. using a 1.5kw water cooled spindle and the table is solid. Tried carves in white oak, pine and cedar with moisture content on all boards hovering around the 7% range. The carves turn out great but they all leave the little fuzzies!! I am trying to come up with an efficient repeatable way to clean these up; I had seen a video from the Ham D that he sandblasts his stuff but really haven’t heard or seen anyone else do it. Do any of you guys sandblast your carves? I’ve never used one before, don’t know anyone with one and my shop space is relatively limited so before i invest in a small blast cabinet I figured I’d throw it out to the forum for some feedback. thoughts, experiences and suggestions appreciated! I could try a different species of wood but I have an ample, extremely discounted supply of cedar and oak so would like to use those. Oh, I have done the double carve thing with decent results but when doing longer carves that just seems like a waste of machine a time and extra wear for no profit so not sustainable solution for me.
Sandblasting (or glass bead blasting) is a viable option for woods which are hard. Woods like pine or cedar may not behave as well.
Hey Bill,
oak and coniferous woods like pine and cedar are ring-porous woods with large pores. You may have less problems with this effect with diffuse-porous woods like maple, lime, alder or birch, or generally tree species that do not form heartwood.
I use 2 different methods
A small soft brass wire brush similar to what you would use to clean up soft suede shoes
I have just bit the bullet and invested a lot of money in a a commercial flap sander for finishing irregular edges on batch produced work its a much more industrial version of this Drum / Flap Sander at Grizzly.com
different grit loadings are available alone with brushes with grit bristles
Hope this helps
D