Page 42 - BSAM 2018 Q1

Photo 2 is the start of the new project. I had first thought to make some rough cuts with the bandsaw but the timber was too hard for my 14”, 1.5 hp machine, so I started with two particular tools. First was a Samurai cutter mounted to an Arbortech mini grinder sha and the second was an Arbortech Industrial cutter mounted to a standard angle grinder.
Photo 3 shows the Samurai cutter on the right with the Industrial cutter in the middle. On the le in the photo is a Arbortech Mini Grinder that I used later when I needed a thinner cutter than either of the others. e industrial cutter is very fast and aggressive and you need gloves and other body cover when using this because the waste timber shoots back with such force that it stings and damages your skin.
e rst step for me was to remove all the rough outer wood and get a basic outline shape as you see in Photos 4 and 5. An Arbortech Planer cutter on the le and a
“Squire” cutter on the right, both of which, I used brie y to remove mass timber, are shown in Photo 6. I should mention that this project is being done entirely from a rough mental concept and developing progressively. ere is no organized plan.
My very limited experience with the two previous root wood stands was a help.
Because there is so much wood to remove to create these things, it seems prudent to use the easiest way to do it, depending on the part of the stand to be worked on. To open up hollows I use a drill, making holes as close as possible to each other so that I can then use other bits to remove the wood connecting the holes to open up a larger space. See Photos 7 and 8 to get the idea.
I xed the work piece in a vice or clamped to a table when using the larger, more aggressive cutters. When getting down to the ner carving work with the small bits in a Dremel ex sha , I worked mostly with the work piece freehand.
e basic carving, to get the “threads” of wood along the length of the stand, was achieved using the Samurai and mini Arbortech cutters. The mini Arbortech cutter is about one third the thickness of the Samurai cutter, so it is possible to get ner detail both with curves and undercutting. ey are fairly aggressive cutters so care is needed. A er that, it is down to the small Dremel use cutters and small Ri er type les. See Photo 9.
In working all this out, I had decided on a particular front for the stand but obviously to make it more usable, I had to pay attention to the reverse view as well, to allow the stand to be used for a right or le direction bonsai. e basic shape of the platform is oval.
e larger cutters were used to remove large amounts of wood where needed but most of the work was done with the variety of cutters and burrs shown in Photo 10 used in a Dremel exible sha . All of these
40 | BCI | January/February/March 2018