any one here ever use an angle grinder?

[curtis rosche]

i found an angle grinder to use to carve out that bowl that i started by hand a while back, i have one of those black carbon grinding disks with the white strings in it, on the grinder right now, and when i tried using it on a scrap peice, it just gumed up and burnt the wood. what disk in needed?

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Here's what you need I think Curtis

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=43424&cat=1,130,43409

[curtis rosche]

i would love to have a arbor tech or one of those others, but i dont think its justified for a one time use

[Maria Alvarado]

Curtis

King Arthur tools make special wheels for the angle grinder that act like circular chainsaws and are made exactly for the purpose. Kutzall makes carbide grinder wheels for circular rasping (Woodcraft carries them). Arbortech (an australian company; carried by Woodcraft & Highland Woodworking) also makes several wheel styles for angle grinder attachment. I own the arbortech mini (it's a 2-inch wheel grinder) that I really enjoy and have used for bowls like the pic below. A lathe is faster, but you have other degrees of freedom with the grinder, and some folks use them for post-turning embellishments.

Happy Grinding!

[curtis rosche]

im not really using it to carve, i have already carved it out roughly with chisels, what i am looking to do is smooth out the ridges left by the chisels and drill. there are a couple of spots that are thin, so if i had somthing aggresive like an arbor tech or the chainsaw wheel or the rasp thingy, i think that it would go through those thin spots very quick and ruin the peice. thats a amazing bowl by the way.
where are you located?
the grinder isnt even mine, i just want to finish this peice, it was one of those peices you just can throw away

[Maria Alvarado]

In that case, you might power sand starting with 60 grit discs, depending on your tool marks. I was once informed that this was cheating, but I chose to ignore it ;). You could also try a curved scraper, but power sanding would be useful for turning as well. You can make/buy a padded disc holder that fits in a drill and get velcro-backed sanding discs. This can be aggressive too, so be careful in your thin areas. You can see a few sanding heat generated cracks in my bowl.

[Tim Thomas]

Curtis, does the abrasive disc you are using have an open mesh? Like a screen type fabric? If not you may want to see if you can find an abrasive mesh disc like that. It should allow the waste material to pass through the abrasive rather than clog it up. I know I have seen discs like this before, but I'm having trouble finding a picture online to show you an example. I'll update this post if I find something...

[curtis rosche]

i have seen the mesh disks, no the one i am using is not open, it is a metal grinding disk, it looks like a thicker version of those black cutoff disks for a dremel

[Bernie Weishapl]

Curtis it might help to post a picture of the bowl so we can see what you are trying to do. Are you carving the bowl or just trying to finish the inside. If just trying to finish the inside why not take a bowl gouge, sharpen it and take some final light cuts. Then sand. Power sand starting at 60 grit up to 320 with a angle drill. Maybe I am not seeing what you are trying to do.

[curtis rosche]

bernie, this is not a turning, i just posted it here because i figured that there would be more people who us a grinder to detail or shape some of there bowls, since most of the poeple in carving section ar more into the intricate hand carvings, if i can find my camera i will take a picture tonight

[Bernie Weishapl]

I think that would be helpful Curtis.

[curtis rosche]

i took some pictures of it but they didnt show enough depth or detail, i tried to take some that did show detail but they were blurry.

its and endgrain peice, i beleive to be maple burl, part of it is spalted, which made it so that some of the soft spots chipped out instead of cutting. the burl has made it so that some of the other spots has a curled and twisted tearout. i wish the camera would show it but it wont

[Bernie Weishapl]

I would have to agree now that I read your other post. I think power sanding would be your best bet and you could be careful of the thin spots.

[Scott Conners]

When I did log furniture I used a 4.5" or 5" angle grinder with a blue flap disk sanding wheel. I think they were about 40 grit, but I'm unsure. The coarser grits avoid burning/heating, but obviously take more sanding after. These can be used very light or plenty aggressive, test on scrap first. The 40g leaves a surface (on pine/fir/spruce - I never tried them on hardwood) that is easily sanded out with a good random orbit sander starting with 220.
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8958/flapsa0.jpg (http://www.lehighvalleyabrasives.com/servlet/the-12/Flap-Disc-4-dsh-1-fdsh-2%22-40/Detail)
(Not pushing Lehigh Valley, I know nothing of them, they just have good pictures)

[Bob Hallowell]

Umm.. Charlene welcome to the furom. Did you make that? if so that is awesome and please start a new thread to introduce yourself and so off some of your work.

Bob

[Jim Becker]

In that case, you might power sand starting with 60 grit discs, depending on your tool marks. I was once informed that this was cheating, but I chose to ignore it.

Ignoring the "cheating" claim is a good technique. Frankly, it doesn't really matter "how" you get there...it's the end result that's most important, IMHO.

Welcome to SMC!
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Curtis, I believe that 3M has a variety of angle grinder abrasive options that might be useful for you in smoothing out your carved piece. The biggest issue with the grinder is the size. You may want to consider employing a power drill (also preferably an angled unit such as the Souix that many of us use for power sanding turnings) as it may get into places that the grinder cannot. And honestly, you can do some good work with hand sanding using custom blocks to support the abrasives...you'll be surprised at how much you can remove just with hand sanding with an aggressive abrasive. Just be sure to work up through all the subsequent grits, cleaning the piece between grits with mineral spirits to insure you don't scratch with pieces of abrasive that got knocked off the paper in the previous pass.