? on Bowl Piercing

[Gilbert Vega]

I'm working on a Mahogany hollowform that has an Ebony rim and would like to do some patterned piercing on the rim. I used a dremel on some scrap Ebony and it was relatively hard to actually cut through. I also have a Foredom that I plan in using to make the final cuts.

What burr or bit so you use to pierce through wood? The Ebony is approximately 1/8" thick. Thanks.

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Gilbert, you are going to have a lot of work in order to do a lot of piercing through 1/8" of ebony. If possible, I'd suggest that you try to get the wall thickness a little thinner. If you want to do a lot of piercing, I'd also recommend a higher speed rotary tool such as a PowerCrafter (400,000 rpm's). Regarding burrs, 1/16" spiral cutters.

I've attached a photo of a pierced vessel. This has a lot of piercing. To achieve my goal, this 16" tall piece has a wall of about 1/10" and the wood is a lot softer than ebony.

[Neal Addy]

Gilbert, if you are going to do any piercing then welcome to the "I gotta get a life" club! It is tedious.

Look at Dremel's engraving bits. The smaller the better. They give you a bit more control but are very slow to work with. Dremels will do the job if you have lots of time but a high-speed drill like the Powercrafter will make life much easier.

Like Malcolm said, a thinner wall works best. Not only will it be easier to work with but it will also look much nicer when finished.

[Jim Becker]

Malcolm brings up a very good point...for any kind of regular or extensive piercing work, you want a very high-speed tool like the PowerCrafter or similar. (~400K RPM) The slower speed tools (~35K RPM) like the common Fordham and Dremel units are more suitable for carving work. It's a matter of both efficiency as well as cutting ability/quality. And I also agree with "thin is in" for best effect.

[Daniel Heine]

Gilbert,

I would suggest trying a couple of the 1/8" shaft Typhoon or Kutzall burs. Both are available at your local Woodcraft store. These are very aggresive burs that are also available in 1/4" and 3/32" shaft sizes as well. Make sure to try it on a scrap piece of wood. The other alternatives might be a very high quality carbide bur, or possibly even a diamond bur.

Good Luck,
Dan Heine

[Bob Opsitos]

I also recommend the kutzall burrs, either in a dremel type tool or an air powerer die grinder type too. Harbor Freight carries a reasonable large marker sized air powered die grinder for cheap.

Also depending on the size of the peirced holes, I recommend drilling out the bulk of the waste with a small brad point. I've got one in progress that I'm doing this way, walls are thicker than they ought to be so, I drill 3 holes and then connect them with the tool. I've a powercrafter as well and it really doesn't work well for the thicker material straight up.

Bob

[Gilbert Vega]

Malcolm, as always very beautiful work. I've seen your demos at SWAT and I look forward to seeing you again in the future. I'll have to check with the CFO to see if funds are available for a PowerCrafter.:o

Thanks for the replies. Luckily (I think) the piercing will be on a 6" disk and not the whole vessel. I'll be going to the SA Woodcraft next week and I'll see what the have. Thanks guys.

[Neal Addy]

If you are thinking about a Powercrafter don't forget funds for a compressor. That's going to double the price. It's about the only thing keeping me from making the jump. Can't decide on the best compressor to use.