Some months ago I ran across this chainsaw blade attachment for angle grinders and posted about it here. The idea of using such a tool to rough shape a blank seemed to me like a better idea than most of the other options available to those of us without a duplicator. Here's a link to what I am referring to: Grinder attachment

At the time my suggestion was met with much skepticism and outright scorn. I took the advice and held off, but curiosity about its effectiveness eventually got the better of me so I bought one. While I have not yet tried shaping an entire blank yet, I tried it out yesterday on some scrap walnut bandsawed from a blank, and I have to report that the results are very encouraging. I'm sure I won't convince anyone set in their ways, but this thing melts wood away like butter!

Control is excellent using both hands with the 90 degree handle. It will take wood off fast, so caution is needed, but it is very sharp and leaves a surprisingly smooth finish if you go slowly. I will post a photo of the first stock I rough with it.

FYI...

Yeah, I have seen these and I just thought it was a good way to cut your arm off. Now that I hear that they actually work, I will have to get one.

I watched a couple of guys in BC making bears, fish, wooden cowboys and indians using those critters dpcd. They could chew wood off like the dickens. The one guy let me give it a whirl and if you have any amount of backwoods skill with a chainsaw and angle grinder they are pretty simple to use and control. I thought they would be pretty chunky, grabby and rippy. But you can plane and feather with them exactly like you can with a small chainsaw. The downside is they don't last long in dirty wood and you have to resharpen them. The guy told me that if you let it get too dull the teeth heat up super fast and the temper comes out so you have to be refileing them every 20 minutes or so.

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Originally posted by speerchucker30x378: I thought they would be pretty chunky, grabby and rippy. But you can plane and feather with them exactly like you can with a small chainsaw.

That was my concern too, but I agree they can plane quite well. Control is actually better than a chainsaw because without the bar your hands are closer to the cutters so you have more "feel". I found that with one elbow braced against my body I could make a pretty even lateral cut. Looking forward to giving it a real workout...

I put a 4.5" carbide tipped arbor cutter on my angle grinder.. made a bushing... was to be used to help make hollowed out drums ....

oh, boy, does it take off wood ... and on a 15amp grinder, if you let it run up to full speed and use light cuts, lots of chips fly.....

after 15 minutes, i though better of the situation .. well, my wife caught me at it... we (she) decided that we (she) think its bloody unsafe...

used a "chain saw" arbor on it .... if the 4.5" chainsaw was a toothpitch, the carbide was a pneumatic powered, water cooled rook drill....

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r

A 4 1/2" flap disc will take wood off so fast
it will scare you, and not near as dangerous.

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Originally posted by brad may:
A 4 1/2" flap disc will take wood off so fast
it will scare you, and not near as dangerous.

Need a good dust mask though...

"Clunky, grabby and rippy"; those are the exact words I was thinking of if my vocabulary allowed me to use those words.

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Originally posted by dpcd:
"Clunky, grabby and rippy"; those are the exact words I was thinking of if my vocabulary allowed me to use those words.

Canukian is a tough language to grasp dpcd. It's almost as hard as Mandarin. You guys are lucky as I can just barely transpose it into Mercan.

Although a good friend of mine uses an angle grinder with grinding wheel to shape stocks, I never have. I prefer block planes and a ferrier's rasp. Sure, it takes longer but I still have all my fingers at their issued lengths.

all i can see is a trip to the ER

Seems like a DADO blade or any other kind of stack blade would work just as well and a whole lot safer.

I see lots of ruined stock blanks and one serious injury before that thing goes into the trash. Stick with the rasps, planes,chisels and files.

Dave

Some of you sound like my mother...

Doesn't Duane have something like that? Scares me.
Don

I recall a Duane Wiebe post where he posted a pic of himself removing wood in a similar fashion. However, instead of the stock being secured and the cutting blade being manipulated by hand, the blade was secured and he held the stock in his hand- moving the stock against the blade, removing excess would very quickly. Looked dangerous too, but it obviously gets the job done.

I don't do woodworking, but I do use a similar tool for trimming cow hooves.

here is one brand that is used by both wood and hoof trimmers:

http://www.rotoclipinc.com/ (a brand I started with, but not one I would buy for wood carving)

I asked a guy doing a chainsaw carving demo once and he said that the kickback can be rather aggressive with the wheels on wood.

the problem with the chain-saw bladed ones vs a flat/round blade is they do get dull a lot faster which equates to more dangerous and more likely to kick back

I recall that it was something similar looking to that which Duane was using on a buffer motor to rough shape his stocks. (as Colorado Matt pointed out) Looks like a handy tool, but pricey! ("original" disc is not too bad...)

That hoof disc looks safer than the chain saw one. But costs 250. If someone will buy me one, I will test it out for them.

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Originally posted by montea6b:
Some of you sound like my mother...

Does your Mom make gun stocks?

Hmm as I type looking at the finger I ran through the table saw and thumb that I opened up with a carving tool. $hit happens. I'd much rather take the manual carving tool vs the 10" table saw if I had to do it again.

I'm sure you can remove a lot of wood in a hurry. Not only do you need to worry about your own skin but one OOPS might have just ruined a high $$ piece of wood.

Crap I've come close with a simple band saw.

Too each his own