High speed micro carvers

[Jack Gaskins]

Anyone got any suggestions on those mini air carvers that run at really high rpms. I am a newbie woodturner and wanted to get one for embelishing some stuff on my turnings. Dont know really which product to start looking at.

[Al Navas]

Jack,

I bought my wife a Powercrafter air turbine tool. You can find the info at: http://www.powercrafter.biz/information.htm . It is wonderful, but not inexpensive; she loves it, and I have to agree that it is terrific!

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[Jack Gaskins]

Jack,

I bought my wife a Powercrafter air turbine tool. You can find the info at: http://www.powercrafter.biz/information.htm . It is wonderful, but not inexpensive; she loves it, and I have to agree that it is terrific!

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Thanks Al. I went and took a look at it,,,,$350 . Holy cow. Good tools sure do come at a premium price dont they.

[Mark Yundt]

I have both the Ram as well as the NSK micro motors, not air driven. Like them both but definitely I give the nod to the NSK. I bought the Ram as a back up when the other needed servicing. Yes, good tools aren't cheap. The Ram if I remember is also in the Holy cow area..and the NSK is in the HOLY COW range. Others I've heard good things about is the relatively new Foredom high speed micro tool. That too is in the YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME range.
As far as the air tools go I had the chance to play with one at a show. Have to say it was pretty incredible. Due to my limited use I'm not sure how well it would work if pushed to any extent as far as removing larger amounts of wood would work.I was limited to what might be called engraving depth and it seemed to just brush away the wood. Speed I believe was in the 400,000 rpm range. Sounds insane compared to the 30-50,000 range of most micro motors.
My tools were bought originally for carving decorative wildfowl as they are done in tupelo, not a great carving wood but responds well to power. Now they serve as detailers for cleaning up small areas and sanding hard to get at areas.

[Darryl Hazen]

I have owned a Powercrafter for 20 years. (used to be called a Paragraver.) They are awesome. Once you get used to the slight torque of the hand piece they can do some amazing things. They use dental drill bits.