Q-Tip M asked:
I really want to get into woodworking/carving, especially carving cool pieces of wood with a dremmel tool. Space is limited in the garage and stuff. any tips on getting started?
I really want to get into woodworking/carving, especially carving cool pieces of wood with a dremmel tool. Space is limited in the garage and stuff. any tips on getting started?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
All you need is a good table, a vice, a decent set of wood chisles…and if you want to cheat, a dremmel. also its nice to have a hammer.
tip 1:Wood carving is something that isn’t extremely hard to start playing around with. But before you start cutting away, get a sketch book. What ever idea you have, just jot it down. You may see something you didn’t see before, or you may developer better ideas. And don’t stick to the one drawing, take the general idea and rework it into another sketch. No artist gets it right the first time, i’ve seen some pretty bad sketches by Di Vinci, Raphael, Michelangilo, and many others. What made them good was thier ability to learn from thier mistakes. And to more mistakes you make the more you can learn. So don’t worry if you sketches don’t look like a piece of art, they are just meant to be an intermediary between you mind and your eye.
Tip 2:when you are working with the wood, place it in a vice, but this is the tricky part, you must do it in a way that doesn’t create marks in the wood. there are rubber accessories you can by to put on the teeth of a vice to help with this problem, but it is still possible to make dents if you tighten it down too hard.
tip 3: don’t rush! make a cut then step back and take a look, see if you did it right, as you get better you do this less and less but you still do it. the only thing that separates the greats from the not so greats are the size, not the amount, of the mistakes.
Dremel tools are not cheating!!! That’s like saying a power saw is cheating for a carpender.
That said learing to use all the tools available will let you pick which is the best tool for the job, and often especialy in the early shaping stages a power tool is the way to go. I have used power tools and chisels on many projects, one big issue for anyone working indoors is dust, and debris. Dremel tools will create lots of fine dust that will get everywhere. The handy clamp benches by craftsman will give you a nice place to work, outside.
Most dremels don’t have a lot of power so you may do well to start by drawing on your piece, then using a handsaw and electric drill to remove bulk materials.
One of the biggest things I have learned in my many years of carving is start by drawing, then cut close to the drawing lines then switch to detail tools. It saves so much time. I still use chisels lots, they are often the appropriate tool, but by knowing which tool to use when I produce more work with less frustration.
There are books that beginners can use to follow through and make the learning process easier.