Official Luthiers Forum!

Howdy Gang,
A buddy put me onto this Proxxon tool
http://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-38642-SGM-Power-Carver/dp/B0017O6DPY
and I'm wondering if folks here have used this and what your thoughts are. I isn't exactly super-cheap but not too expensive if it is a good tool. I'm thinking of using it for roughing out mandolin plate. With that in mind, what gouge or spoon bit sizes do you use/recommend. It comes with three basic bits but I'm guessing others might be good to have on hand. If you have alternative tools I'd love to hear about those as well.

Any advice appreciated,
Alan D.

I've done a very limited number of Violin plate carving. I seem to recall that the Violin makers thought this tool a little on the light side (power) for carving plates. There are other alternatives such as the Tokyo Automach and the Foredom flexible shaft. Please note that I haven't used these tools, I've just heard about them being used in respect to Violin plate carving.
Then again some of the Violin makers swear by just a very long handled carving gouge. With practice it can be a lot quicker than most people realise.

Thanks for the feedback on that. I did see lots of handpiece type things to go onto a cable drive like the Foredom and I've got a cable drive for my Black&Decker RTX. I'm assuming that these convert the rotary to impact drive, perhaps this is just the same thing that the Proxxon does.

I did look for the Tokyo Automach but all the sites seem to be in Japan and I didn't see any place to actually buy or price it, mostly just kanji discussions and reports.

Thanks,
Alan D.