I am going to try carving....

Every year I buy myself a christmas present. This year its going to be some carving tools. I used to be a tile contractor, so I have a angle grinder and lots of experience with it. I am thinking of getting either the arbortec or lancelot wheels, and a dremel. Any tips or information would be great. Thanks.

Alright, dive on in.
You have the right idea. Get some tools and carve a tiki. Once you get to that point, you will be bitten and will forever want to carve tiki. Go for it and Post pictures. We Wanna See

Watch out...you are going to be hooked. I recently started myself and now have dreams of the next project and how to carve better, etc...Have fun with it, be patient and ask questions. There is so much tallent here and everyone is willing to help.

By the way, chisels bite, be careful.

Arbortech Power Chisels can handle the heavy work, but lancelot & Dremels can only take so much abuse. They (Dremel & Lancelot) are great for detail.
Party on!

Bigkahuna627, Welcome to TC. The first, most basic thing you will need is some chisels. If you're short on bucks, you can get some flat Stanleys just to get yourself started. The better chisels will cost more. A set of nice Flexcuts (6 piece set) will be around $150 or so.

The Lancelot is nice for removing lots of wood. It is too heavy duty for small details though, and will really kick back if you nudge it in the wrong direction. Be super careful with this tool - it can really jack you up if your attention wanders for a second or if you're tired.

Instead of the Dremel, you may want to consider an 1/8 hp Foredom flex shaft kit. The Dremel is a little low on power, and will only accomodate 1/8" shaft tools. The Foredom will work for 1/8, 1/4, and 3/32 shafts. You can also use it to spin drum sanding sleeves, or with a reciprocating chisel handpiece (GREAT for detailing). It's an all-around useful tool.

There's lots of tool tips great in THIS POST. Check it out and you will find the answers to some of the other questions that you haven't asked yet.

Good luck & keep us posted. Post more questions as you go - we all love to help out and see works in progress.

Aaron

BigKahuna627,

If you ever want to work with a chainsaw, give me a PM and we'll chat. I think the chisel jockeys' techniques are pretty well covered in the thread AA directed you to. Good luck, and post some pics as you get going!

-Gman

I vote for a chainsaw. I'm a chainsaw hack myself and its the tool I grab at my starting point for just about everything I carve, even the little stuff.

I agree with AA about the lancelot. Be very careful with this wicked beast. It can remove wood at a terrifying rate, but those chainsaw teeth are moving at 10,000+rpms and an angle grinder does not have a chain-brake like a chainsaw does in case of kickback. Lancelots do tend to grab in and want to walk. It will screw-up everything it touches, flesh included. I use mine less and less as I get better with the chainsaw.

A lancelot's diameter also does not allow a great amount of detail work.

Other than that grab a log and start. Show us your work.

Hope this helps.
JP