Wanna hog off a lot? Microplane in drillpress....

[froglips]

Wow. And Wow.

I was over at Woodartz's shop helping with a project. We were doing some profile shaping of rough cut flat chair pieces.

I saw this wicked evil looking device behind the drill press.

"Bobby, is it ok if I try this?" He green lighted my scheme.

It was unreal. It very, very, very, very quickly removed stock down to a line. Night and day faster than the 60 grit drum we were using.

You can feed the work slow or push harder for some serious removal. I did feed the work into the rotation (left to right). But it worked equally as well right to left, in many cases for areas where grain direction changed, this worked like climb cutting with a router.

The words of caution apply, you want to be sure you have firm grip on the work and keep all 10 or so digits away from the cutters. But, one look at this mid-evil torture machine spinning, its self-safety inspiring to say the least.

The right to left, be as cautious as humanly possible, as that can launch the wood and pull your hands into the cutter.

You'd be hard pressed, I'd think to do delicate precision work with one. But, as a coarse removal, it was fantastic.

http://us.microplane.com/300412rotaryshaperdrillattachment.aspx

Jim

 

[Sealeveler]

Thanks for the tip.Tony

 

[CarvedTones]

Wanna see something really scary?

The toolrest is on what is normally to wrong side of the lathe. It is used as the "tipping point" for a workpiece. It works really well for getting to a line you didn't quite cut to.

 

[ScottM]

There is a good write up in the current issue of Woodsmith magazine.

 

[tommyt654]

FWIW Woodcraft has a $10 off $20 coupon code out there good till the 15th of the mo. I believe. So you could get the 2 inch item no. 828821 as well as the 1 inch item no. 146497 for around $28 minus the coupon for the $10 of $20 coupon code 12449 as well as free shipping coupon code 12126 and have these shipped in time for x-mas for around $18.:icon_cheers

 

[CarvedTones]

I got mine initially a couple of years ago as a kit that included the 1", 2" and the pattern following adapter (fancy name for a slick plastic washer that attaches to the bottom of the grater). I don't know the price, but I think they offered some savings as a kit.

Their handheld rasp with the interchageable profiles is another favorite of mine.

 

[Bas]

Can you use this in a hand drill?

 

[CarvedTones]

Can you use this in a hand drill?

You mean like this?

What kind of idiot would try that? :swoon:

:gar-Bi:gar-La;:gar-Bi

 

[DaveD]

A lot of drill presses have the chuck mounted on a jacobs tapered shaft. Only the taper is holding the chuck on. Jacobs tapers are not made to handle side loads and you may find the chuck coming loose at the most inopportune time.

Having said that I have gotten away with side loading my chuck numerous times. However there was that one time I had one of those 3"x6" sanding drums on it when it all came loose. :kamahlitu I now only do drilling with the drill press.

 

[Partman]

Jim, I love mine. I have the kit with the 1 and 2 inch cutter. :icon_thum

Danny

 

[froglips]

Excellent point.

Not to brag, but my Shopsmith arbor uses a flat and set screw to hold the drill chuck on. So that won't be a problem.

Shopsmith + Microplane, it slices, it dices

Jim

A lot of drill presses have the chuck mounted on a jacobs tapered shaft. Only the taper is holding the chuck on. Jacobs tapers are not made to handle side loads and you may find the chuck coming loose at the most inopportune time.

Having said that I have gotten away with side loading my chuck numerous times. However there was that one time I had one of those 3"x6" sanding drums on it when it all came loose. :kamahlitu I now only do drilling with the drill press.

 

[Gotcha6]

Can you grate cheese with one of those? :gar-La;
Looks like a valuable tool to have.

 

[CarvedTones]

Can you grate cheese with one of those? :gar-La;
Looks like a valuable tool to have.

Actually, yes - well sort of...

The official website:

http://us.microplane.com/

has woodworking third on the list behind grating cheese and a real dark horse in the pole position - scraping your feet...

 

[Gotcha6]

I don't think I could get my foot up to the drill press table..............:gar-La;
That looks like a company that isn't waiting around in case someone 'moves their cheese'.:rotflm:

 

[woodArtz]

I knew there was a reason I bought that darn thing. :gar-Bi

 

[Trent Mason]

Wow, I can think of so many times when I could've used that! :BangHead::BangHead::BangHead:

Thanks for sharing. :icon_thum

 

[jhreed]

I bought one and was disappointed. it did not seem to take off any material. maybe my speed was wrong. what rpm are you running your drill press?
James

 

[froglips]

I'm not sure, I'll check next time I'm over there.

I did find that it took some fussing on my part to get a good cut. Pressure and speed were much different than I would've expected.

I was also working on 5/4 cypress, if that is a factor. Might behave differently on other materials.

Jim

 

[CarvedTones]

I use different speeds for different materials and applications. If you look close at the picture I posted earlier of it in a hand drill, you can see the "chips" I was taking were more like large pieces of sawdust (but they are small chips; very little dust is in the air when you use one of these). That was rock maple and a lot of the cutting was on end grain. I used a pretty fast speed because I did not want it to gain much traction. The lathe (another pic earlier in the thread) was run around 750 and I was doing side grain on oak and hickory. If you look close on the picture you will see pieces that are closer to toothpick size than sawdust. In both cases I exerted a fair amount of side pressure (note the handle on the hand drill). On soft woods I like slower speed wth lots of torque and on hard wood I like it much faster.

 

[Glennbear]

Thanks for the review on the Microplane drum :thumbs_up. I have a set of the 5" discs for my ROS and have found them very handy. :wsmile: