Thread: Tips please for holding odd shapes while I work on it

I have a sheet of foam rubber anti skid shelf material. Often that sits on a folded cotton blanket. Whole thing might be 30cm x 75cm.
Yes, I have to turn the carving around a lot, flip it over, trade end-for-end.

I am bashing away this evening on a 7.5cm x 30cm x 80cm bit of western red cedar.
Weapons are a 30oz lead core mallet and a 9/15 gouge or a 5/35. The wood doesn't "walk" too much, maybe I don't notice with the changing positions.

If I need to hold a carving in place, I have a bolt hole in the bench. Eye-bolt for that, 5cm nylon strap hooked in there and a stirrup/loop that I can step into. Mind you, that could be tricky when you've got fish fins to contend with.

I use a carver's screw , but sooner or later there comes a moment when it's just not enough , and I have to clamp the work on the bench - and then change the position time after time
With forms like this it's lottta fun

For power carving like that, I prefer the Triton Super Jaws. Rockwell make a version to for about $150. The rubber jaws hold pretty well and extentions can be fitted if one needs more depth. The whole clamp is portable so you can just pick it up and go outside where the mess of thrown chips and dust is easier to cope with. No way I know to avoid turning entirely but Underfoot put up an interesting clamping idea the other day (also mounted on a super jaws) which might help.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f10/ha...-balls-145877/

While I would prefer to use the Triton jaws I use what I have in the shed. I have the old heavy duty Black and Decker Workmate, it is a bit more substantial than the new ones.

I then put hardwood dowells with insulation tape around the bottom to stop them from falling through. Then, if need be, I have some old long style golfers socks that used to be prevalent but not as easy to find now, it is 2012.

I fill the socks with sand (You could use old football socks ) and place them infront of the dowells. As you close the jaws arond the object to be carved any irregular shape is quickly accomodated by the flexability in the sand sock.

It worked a treat for me when I was carving the torso of the lifesize Nutcracker Soldier and also when I was carving the nose, moustache and eyebrows with chisels and the Dremel.

Pete

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

I have a sheet of foam rubber anti skid shelf material. Often that sits on a folded cotton blanket. Whole thing might be 30cm x 75cm.
Yes, I have to turn the carving around a lot, flip it over, trade end-for-end.

I am bashing away this evening on a 7.5cm x 30cm x 80cm bit of western red cedar.
Weapons are a 30oz lead core mallet and a 9/15 gouge or a 5/35. The wood doesn't "walk" too much, maybe I don't notice with the changing positions.

If I need to hold a carving in place, I have a bolt hole in the bench. Eye-bolt for that, 5cm nylon strap hooked in there and a stirrup/loop that I can step into. Mind you, that could be tricky when you've got fish fins to contend with.

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What Robson has said has got me thinking. I often see those foam tubes that the young kids have in the pool to splash about with.

I wonder if they will miss one. They will surely have a place instead of a sand filled sock.

Pete

STAR: give it a go and tell us if that stuff is slippery. The anti skid matt is not.

I like my strap. I can't figure out how to flip a bit of cedar around
which is 30cm x 7.5cm x 75cm. It has to be left or right side and top or bottom (long edge) up, plus end-for-end.

I can bash a 30oz mallet into a 9/15 gouge in this project on the rubber matt and it does not "walk."

I have a nice English book on wood carving but I can't see yet how I could use a Carving Screw.

What really helps is a very solid support. I haven't got around to it yet but a simple thick metal plate, about 9 inch square, with holes in it on a post concreted in to the floor with some sort of ball uni joint halfway up the post is my ideal carving prop. There must be some truck or tractor part one can use for the uni joint.

Originally Posted by movay_2008

What really helps is a very solid support. I haven't got around to it yet but a simple thick metal plate, about 9 inch square, with holes in it on a post concreted in to the floor with some sort of ball uni joint halfway up the post is my ideal carving prop. There must be some truck or tractor part one can use for the uni joint.

------------------Movay. I have seen the thing you are talking about. If it is, it is called a Carver's Joint. There is a commercial version apparently in the States but quite a few have made their own and used the ball joint on a trailer hitch.

I am sure Dave ( Robson ) has seen it also. I will try to find a link. It was interesting to me but well over engineered for where I was twelve months ago, but for where some of you guys are i think it would be perfect.

Pete

Yeh, I think I've seen what you're talking about. The trouble with such devices is they just don't transfer enough impact directly to ground. Even small pieces need sizable chisel impacts. Underfoot's jaw-balls looks like it would do it. If he doesn't mind me tweeking the design; what I'd do is get a solid bit of timber - that could contain the entire ball - cut in down the middle, shape out two half domes and fit the ball back in with maybe a third of it protruding out the top. A big spring or two would go inside to aid loosening when repositioning, and quick lock clamps of some sort on bolts or pins, that go right through both bits of wood on either side of the ball, would be fitted so that the ball clamps in very tightly. For the carving mount, I'd put a massive bolt and nut right through the ball (recessed in) and weld sort of plate on top of that. There could be one or two slots so that you could tilt the carving below horizontal, that is; the pin going through the ball would be long enough to be able to slip down the slots.



https://www.woodworkforums.com/f10/ha...-balls-145877/

This is a disgusting thread = I spent half my time, all day yesterday, thinking about the mechanics of the work bench and hanging onto the wood! No moments of brilliance.

I think that Underfoot's Jaw-Balls is the right sized tool for the job. Somewhere, I saw a manufactured one, the ball couldn't have been any bigger that a cricket ball.
Perhaps one solution is to have several of these in different sizes?

The part I can't figure out is how to cope with the changing work height. The head and foot of one of my WIP Ravens are about 70-80 cm apart. Then, if I lay the bird on its side, just 7.5cm thick. I'd need to be able to adjust the ball height.

Stuart Antonenko is a well known carver in these parts, had my first carving lessons with him. We chatted at a recent wood show: his advice was to make up a sack of rice the size of a bed pillow. Easier to contain and not as heavy as sand.

I'll stick with the rubber mesh shelf matting for now.

Undie just filled in a bunch of details about his rig in the Hand Tools and Jaw Balls thread.
Size helps a lot. Think I will make a list and begin the scrounge.

Many thanks for all the suggestions. Quite a morale boost to realize this is not an uncommon issue.
It seems that finding solutions and building them is half the fun - or maybe even the 'real' creative outlet.
I googled the carver's joint, looks like a bit of overkill for me, just now, but the various bags and bolsters sound like something I will try, I have a couple of old Workmate benches that I can use outside the shed (sorry, Studio) with a Few dowels and a sand bag or two.
)

Let us know how you get on. I see lots of great ideas that are way ahead of where I am at the moment.

For tiny Carvings I often use an Aldi table vice that has a ball joint enabling it to be moved in all directions. then I use my Dremel. I can also use chisels and gouges providing i do not have to use a mallet.

For larger work, I have found the workmate satisfactory especially when I use the Arbotec and the anle grinder with a carbide disc.

It is also ok for light chisel and gouge work but for what Undie and Morvay do it would be much to light. They need the heft for what they do. they are way out of my league.

Pete

I don't want to hold it.
I don't want to clamp it.
I want it secure so I can carve both sides and work with the wood grain.

I've split out my own panels of western red cedar and smoothed them enough for transferring drawings. Rather than rough cut a blank, I will do that scroll saw thing last. The piece is a book matched bit maybe 3/8" thick, a bit less that that in other places, my panels are quite wavy and I don't care.

The tablet is a grid of 3/8" holes on 1" x 2" centers in pine (some long-forgotten project). The pegs are 3/8" dowel joint things. Two of them is enough but a third one is turning out to be nice as a second stop in the other direction.
Drill a couple of 3/8" holes in the waste wood. One peg is the anchor pivot so the work can be moved, rotated 360 degrees and be flipped over. The stop peg is moved so I can always carve with the grain. I like to make stop cuts then push a skew around the curves.
With luck these will become tail feathers for hummingbirds, about 3X life size.
I've put in about 8 hours on this thing and I am pleased with the security of the wood.