Carving station

[Don Peek]

Looking for ideas for a shopmade carviing station. I want to use my chuck and a bolt two to match my spidle sizes. I'm not interested in a banjo or lathe mounted stand. Anyone have any pictures, ideas. or plans.
Don

 

[john lucas]

Well I made a couple of homemade versions. They sort of worked. Then I purchased one of the articulated carving posts from http://www.bestwoodtools.com/ It works so much better and fits on my workbench or on my lathe. Well worth the money.
If you must build your own an easy way to do it is to put 2 boards together with a hinge. Make a way to lock one board at any angle, kind of like the old drafting table tops that go from 0 to 90 degrees. Then put your bolt through this and make a way to lock it in any position as it rotates. This is quick and easy and works well.

 

[Don Peek]

Thanks John, kinda what I had in my mind. I'm still working out the details. The bought versions look great but I just don't want to spend the bucks right now.

 

[Robert Manning]

Turn a tenon on the end of a piece of square stock slightly larger than the inside diameter of your chuck's threads. Then you can simply screw your chuck onto the tenon and clamp the square end in your woodworking vise at any angle you choose. It couldn't be easier.

 

[Rob Wallace]

Look at Andi's Blog.....

Don:

Have a look at Andi Wolfe's Blog from 2007 HERE

She shows several photos of her carving station, and these (along with her descriptions) may give you some ideas about layout and accessories. Andi does a lot of carving (often for long periods of time) and probably has worked out a fairly efficient station set-up.

I also own one of the Bestwood Tools articulated carving stands, and find it to be very versatile. I rarely use it at the lathe, but I can pop it into the banjo if need be. I have a permanently-mounted aluminum 1" holder (supplied by Bestwood) to mount the stand at my carving bench.

If you intend on doing any form of power carving and sanding at your carving station, I strongly suggest you work out some form of efficient dust collection. I have used several different test set-ups to see how I liked the performance of each version (....mocked-up with cardboard and duct tape ... ....queue 'Red-Green' Theme Song!). It helped me determine that the final, "real" version of my carving station will have both down-draft dust collection and "from the back" dust collection (....and I will be able to use either individually or both at the same time, selectable with blast gates).

You may also want to look into some task lighting, and if your eyes are less-than-perfect (like mine), a magnifier of some sort is very helpful (I have a ring fluorescent light and wide field magnifier that I use all the time!).

The surface on which you rest your carvings should also be considered - carpet remnants and other padding are helpful, as is the netting-like rubberized non-slip matting used with routers, especially if you intend to use down draft dust collection.

Just a few thoughts for you to ponder - I'm still on the same trail, but probably just a bit ahead of you. 🙂

Rob Wallace

 

[Joe Greiner]

Turn a tenon on the end of a piece of square stock slightly larger than the inside diameter of your chuck's threads. Then you can simply screw your chuck onto the tenon and clamp the square end in your woodworking vise at any angle you choose. It couldn't be easier.

Oh yes, it could. Google [rotating jaws bench vise]. I got mine at a garage sale, and I think Lowes and Home Depot have them for the neighborhood of $50. Sears, with index stops for a lot more, which is a nice feature I haven't needed. Also very useful for ordinary cutting, and filing the ends of metal workpieces. In combination with a tilt gauge, the second-best tool in my shop. OK, maybe third.

 

[john lucas]

One thing I keep meaning to build is a bowling ball carving stand. You make 2 rings that are a little smaller in diameter than a bowling ball. Weld nuts on one ring in 3 locations. Weld small rings on the other ring. These are held together with bolts.
Snug up 2 of the bolts until the ball is held loosely. As you tighten the 3rd one it locks the ball into any position. I suppose you could make a sort of cam action for this 3rd bolt to make it easier. I thought I would use a short piece of 8" pipe as the base ring and weld this to a piece of flat steel that could be bolted to the top of a log. This would be the stand.
Then just drill the ball and insert a piece of all thread with the same pitch as your chuck.
Another alternative along the same line that I saw once was a sort of 3 legged 2x6 stand that works sort of like pliers to lock the ball in place. The one I saw had 2 fixed braces between the legs and one brace that was sort of V shaped. When you stepped on the center it force the legs apart and clamped the ball at the top. Wish I had a picture of it.
I have the bowling ball. Bought it for #1 at a yard sale. I just haven't take the time to build the rig. I think it wild be a lot more solid for large pieces.

 

[DOCworks]

resting the carved piece

I really like using a sand bag or a shooting bag, although these are filled with lead shot most times. Dixie Biggs even sells them, they work really well you can shape them and then push the piece into them. Great support. I make them different sizes depending on the vessel I'm working on. Empty out the sand when not in use. Living in Florida I just reuse the sand in the yard, lousy soil.

 

[Steve Worcester]

I use a Trent Bosch stand (the manual version) and drilled a hole through the top and side and adapted it to vacuum chucking.
It can mount in the banjo or standalone

 

[Robert Manning]

OK, here's the picture.

It's unnecessary to thread the tenon, in fact, it's probably a disadvantage. The chuck screws onto the over-sized tenon and against the shoulder really tight, forming it's own threads. This one is 1" x 8 tpi African mahogany and it's actually rectangular.

BTW
There's a four legged bowling ball carvers stand on page 66 of Fine Woodworking Techniques 5 which is from issues No. 26-31.