Dental burs for power carving

[Joseph R Bruno]

I'm looking to obtain the smallest burrs possible for carving details in my miniatures. Does anyone know how dental burs are sized? Tried looking up a few on amazon and its giving me a headache. Is there a numbering system or something? If I want a bur that is 1mm x 1mm is there some sort of standard size I can search for? I'm looking for a reverse cone shape to do miniature dovetails. I assume these bits would fit a dremel with the dremel chuck.

[Charles Lent]

Dental burrs have 1/16" diameter shanks and are intended to spin at 3-4 hundred thousand RPM, so trying to use them in a Dremel or similar tool will not be very effective. SCM Power Carver and Turbo Carver sell the wood and metal carver form of air powered dental drills and they sell the bits to use with them, but you can save significantly if you buy the bits (burrs) from a dental supply company. Here are a few links to get you started, but there are many more sources available on the internet. I bought a set of burrs and keep spares of the ones that I use heavily. My set has labels attached to the base for each burr and I just buy more by these numbers when replacements are needed. I have never seen a listing that gives the dimensions of each, but you may be able to get this from a dental supply. I've never tried to make dovetails with my carver, which was sold by Paragrave (now Profitable Hobbies), but I can see no reason why it wouldn't work. They make burrs of almost every imaginable shape, so you should be able to find one or a group that is similar to a dovetail.


Charley

http://paragrave.com/

http://www.turbocarver.com/

http://www.scmsysteminc.com/power_carver.php

http://royaldentalsupply.com/burs.html

[Matt Lau]

Just to add, you can always ask your dentist for used burrs.

Some of us discard burrs after one use because it makes a difference in patient sensitivity.
Of course, I'd recommend carbine burs for wood.
Diamond burrs are better for stone and teeth.

-Matt

[Jerry Herrington]

Ditto what Matt said. I throw away 3 or 4 burs every day.

[Robyn Horton]

take a look at this site , she travels around to different woodshows selling drill bits and burrs
http://bitlady.com/rootDiamond_Carving_BurrsDiamond_Carving_BurrHYPHE N1HYPHEN16th_inch.html