electric gouge

[tartarine]

hello I am having some problems with my hand and therefore  I am looking for an electric gouge to carve mapple for example. I already have a dremel but it does not carve, it polishes( different motion)

have you ever used one of these gouges? does it work?

thank you for your help

[Mr. Bean]

I did and put it back in its box where it will remain for a long time.

[nathan slobodkin]

Likewise. Tried one back in the days when I was making two white cellos a month. Slower and harder to control than a regular gouge with an obnoxious noise and vibration besides.

Have you tried doing more work with a scrub plane or large spokeshave?  You can shape and size wooden planes to whatever is needed and a thickly set but well sharpened plane can remove a lot of wood in a hurry.

[tartarine]

19 minutes ago, nathan slobodkin said:

Likewise. Tried one back in the days when I was making two white cellos a month. Slower and harder to control than a regular gouge with an obnoxious noise and vibration besides.

Have you tried doing more work with a scrub plane or large spokeshave?  You can shape and size wooden planes to whatever is needed and a thickly set but well sharpened plane can remove a lot of wood in a hurry.

thank you for the suggestion, i will have a go

but i was also i terested in using one to hollow the pegbox…..

[nathan slobodkin]

1 minute ago, tartarine said:

thank you for the suggestion, i will have a go

but i was also i terested in using one to hollow the pegbox…..

I use qn electric drill for that.. After the scroll is finished but while the neck is still square I clamp the neck in the bench tail vise with the back of the scroll on the bench top or a raised block and CAREFULLY drill over lapping holes in a zig zag pattern all down the box. I use tape to mark a stop on the drill bit at the proper depth and slant the drill somewhat to get under the throat. I still have to use a gouge and chisel to get to final dementions and depth but most of the wood is either removed by the drill or easily broken out at the bottom.

I sympethise with your need to adapt new methods of work. My hands are just as old as the rest of me and let me know it at the end of the day.

[Don Noon]

Over half a century ago, I broke the scaphoid bones in both of my wrists.  I never got them reset, and naturally now there's arthritis.  Pushing is the worst.  I tried a handle extension on the gouges for better 2-hand operation, but the better solution for me was to make a 5" round, padded disc with a pocket to hold the end of the gouge, so I could use my shoulder or chest to push.  (Actually, the latest solution is CNC, but that applies to almost nobody else.)

You might want to read through a previous identical topic:  

 

[FiddleDoug]

There are other potential methods for doing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2n1W5THyGQ 

But more seriously, a copy router might be your answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1t2v0eBS3E

You can find plans for making copy routers yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n026Ergj1l8

 

[tartarine]

2 hours ago, Don Noon said:

Over half a century ago, I broke the scaphoid bones in both of my wrists.  I never got them reset, and naturally now there's arthritis.  Pushing is the worst.  I tried a handle extension on the gouges for better 2-hand operation, but the better solution for me was to make a 5" round, padded disc with a pocket to hold the end of the gouge, so I could use my shoulder or chest to push.  (Actually, the latest solution is CNC, but that applies to almost nobody else.)

You might want to read through a previous identical topic:  

 

thank that was quite helpful

[tartarine]

thanks that was quite helpful -:)

[Anders Buen]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8tHwKGsQFB/?igsh=MTBpZ3Q5bWJ2azN4OA==

[Victor Roman]

9 hours ago, tartarine said:

hello I am having some problems with my hand and therefore  I am looking for an electric gouge to carve mapple for example. I already have a dremel but it does not carve, it polishes( different motion)

have you ever used one of these gouges? does it work?

thank you for your help

http://www.automach.com/pages/frame31/prod2-e.html

[Arnold Schnitzer]

I mainly build Double Bass and Cello. As you can imagine, there's a lot of rough carving to be done. I use several rotating tools from Arbortech, as well as their Power Chisel. I also use an Automach for a few smaller jobs. These tools have saved my body lots of wear and tear. The caveat is; they can do a lot of damage in brief seconds if your attention wavers or you catch an edge.

[The Violin Beautiful]

I haven’t used a power chisel but I’ve heard that they can be rather aggressive and lead to a lot of cracked plates. I imagine that, like with most tools, there’s a learning curve, and with enough practice it might be possible to get reasonable results.

Given how efficient traditional edge tools are when set up well and used with good technique, I do wonder whether it might be possible to get the power and precision of the gouge by using an extended handle with a ball or brace at the end to place against the shoulder/chest. That would put the effort into the body so that the hands could mostly just guide the cutting edge. 

[La Folia]

On 9/15/2024 at 11:26 AM, Anders Buen said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8tHwKGsQFB/?igsh=MTBpZ3Q5bWJ2azN4OA==

Very funny!  Those look like gadulkas -- a Bulgarian folk instrument, now made in China.

If that's a joke, someone spent a lot of time on it.

[bick]

Why not use a sander with a really low grit? I really do like the copy router idea though. 

 

Do the broad strokes quicker with automatic tools and finesse the important stuff with hand tools? 

[LCF]

4 hours ago, La Folia said:

Very funny!  Those look like gadulkas -- a Bulgarian folk instrument, now made in China.

If that's a joke, someone spent a lot of time on it.

Way too big for a gadulka.

Some type of lute. 

[La Folia]

17 hours ago, LCF said:

Way too big for a gadulka.

Some type of lute. 

Yeah, I guess it is way too big, but it's way too crude for a lute.  The text says they are pipas.

I think they need to be introduced to chain saws for making instruments. 

[LCF]

2 hours ago, La Folia said:

Yeah, way to big, but way too crude for a lute.  The text says they are pipas.

I think they need to be introduced to chain saws for making instruments. 

Pipa is a refined type of lute used in Chinese classical music. There are various lutes ranging from Europe across to China which have carved backs. 

To the contrary I think the worker is highly skilled and doing a good job of it. 

[La Folia]

6 hours ago, LCF said:

Pipa is a refined type of lute used in Chinese classical music. There are various lutes ranging from Europe across to China which have carved backs. 

To the contrary I think the worker is highly skilled and doing a good job of it. 

Well, I learned something.

I still think they could benefit from the Maestronet tradition of using big power tools such as Sawzalls and chain saws.  The adz is better suited for finishing work. 

[Whittler]

Many of the commercial wood carvers in my area of Oregon use Kutzall burrs for high-volume production carving. I've observed one fellow using a large convex disc / mushroom type cutting head attached to a high rpm angle grinder, and it really hogs off the material, as one might expect. The process looked very efficient and controllable, with dust clearing easily into a vacuum collector. Makes a hell of a racket (the guy wears industrial ear muff type hearing protection), and of course a high-rpm burr could be dangerous if mishandled even for a split second. If I were in your position I'd probably look into one of those flex-shaft cutting tools (like many wooden duck decoy carvers use) w/ a Kutzall burr head installed, and try to find a way to couple it to a quieter DC motor, if possible. 

Regards

[HoGo]

One should decide whether the vibrations of the angle grinder or similar powerful motor and associated collateral damage to hands holding it are not worse than use of gouges. Perhaps gouges pushed by upper torso a'la chinese workers at factories or planes pulled by both hands may be better alternative.

[Anders Buen]

On 9/16/2024 at 7:03 PM, La Folia said:

Very funny!  Those look like gadulkas -- a Bulgarian folk instrument, now made in China.

If that's a joke, someone spent a lot of time on it.

I think it is called a Pipa, it is a chinese plucked instrument. I think they use a kind of large picker to pluck it. 
The working method there with a crossedge axe would be kinder to a hurting hand. At least it could be considered. I do not know how maple responds to such hard impacts, and cuts. 

[Whittler]

The guy with the angle grinder / Kutzall rig was carving large sculptures for the tourist trade- I'm not in any way suggesting this would benefit the OP. A flex-carving rig w/ much smaller Kutzall burr as described, would, I think, be virtually vibrationless and easily controllable in use. Japanese type pull-planes might be modified / adapted by fitting some sort of wrist strap to take the pressure away from the guiding hand, for finish carving. Hope this maybe helps.

 

[J.DiLisio]

The Arbortech Ball Gouge works pretty well with some practice.  I've used it to quickly take off mass from violin and viola backs.  The downside is the potential for ruining a nice piece of wood with one careless slip.

[Dennis J]

I watched a video recently featuring a successful older maker having trouble gouging a maple back. It appeared to me that the main problem was a blunt gouge. Perhaps even experienced makers don't realise how important it is. 

A slightly domed, low angle single bevel of about 20 degrees is needed and it surprises me how many makers have to use brute force to do the job.

If the bevel is domed it is possible to use a light mallet smoothly without the danger of it digging in too far.