[Bill Short]

Good day folks,

I am an 'almost retired' fom my day job, ship modeler living in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Canada. My hobby is building 16th - 18th century wooden ship models. In the pursuit of this hobby, I do a lot of miniature carving of ornamentation for the ships. My chosen wood is European or English Boxwood and I am currently using a belt driven dental drill with 3/32" burs as my carving tool, suplemented with miniature hand chisels, gravers and Xacto knives.

I have always had it in my mind to purchase a good quality micro-motor at some stage to add to my tool arsenal. As I mainly carve at rpm's under 3000, I am looking for a good quality tool which can handle this. Some of the units I have seen on the web are:

NSK Volvere Vmax
NSK Emax Ultra
NSK Espert 500
Buffalo Dental X50 Brushless Electric Lab Handpiece
Buffalo Dental X35 Oremium Electric Lab Handpiece system
Buffalo Dental M35 Compact Electric Lab Handpiece system
Ram NextGen Brushless Micromotor
Foredom 1050 Micromotor Kit, Brushless, High Torque
TPS Micromotor set 35,000 rpm

I was wondering if I could get some opinions on these units. I have attached a photo of my ship stern with over 200 carvings on it. The height of the stern is approximately 10".


Regards,
Bill

[Bill Short]

Here is the photo of my ship's stern which is about 10" in height.



Regards,
Bill

[Janel]

Welcome Bill!

Small carving indeed! Could you supply us with a little larger image or good closeups of some of the detail? My magnifying glass sees the pixels of the screen but not the details very well at this size.

I met another small scale ship builder some years ago, and found this sort of work fascinating.

I use the NSK Emax, and like it a lot. The motor in the handpiece with the coiled wire to the base controller is comfortable to use. The tools with a flex-shaft that is stiff, will swing with the suspended motor and will cause wrist strain, and is more difficult to have fine control.

It is great to see you here. Do you have images of the ships in progress?

Janel

[Jim Kelso]

Welcome Bill. Really intriguing work. I agree with Janel that we want to see more and closer if possible.
I have the NSK Presto and like it. It's higher speed but I think the NSK brand is good.

Jim

[Bill Short]

Janel, on May 13 2008, 03:41 PM, said:

Welcome Bill!

Small carving indeed! Could you supply us with a little larger image or good closeups of some of the detail? My magnifying glass sees the pixels of the screen but not the details very well at this size.

I met another small scale ship builder some years ago, and found this sort of work fascinating.

I use the NSK Emax, and like it a lot. The motor in the handpiece with the coiled wire to the base controller is comfortable to use. The tools with a flex-shaft that is stiff, will swing with the suspended motor and will cause wrist strain, and is more difficult to have fine control.

It is great to see you here. Do you have images of the ships in progress?

Janel

[Bill Short]

The following are close-up photos of three of the carvings. They are all boxwood and the largest of the three is 1.5" x 1.5".








I do have many photos of the ship in progress.

Regards,
Bill

[StixnCanes]

Welome Bill,

You couldn't have found a better place to ask questions and get information, (but not from me, I'm a novice).

Great work on your ship and detail ornamentation.

[Janel]

Hi Bill,

Do you stick the little carvings to something while you work on them? That is itty bitty work! Thanks for the detail shots of some of the carvings.

Are these scale models of former ships that sailed the seas?

Janel

[Bill Short]

Hi Janel,

I usually have a small handle attached to each carving that gets removed at the finish. I use a maple cutting board as my carving bench. See Photo below of a carving in progress.



The ship I am modeling is The Sovereign of The Seas (1637) which was built for Charles I of England. It fought against the French and was burned in harbour in Catham England in 1696. It was the most adorned ship as far as ornamentation is concerned. It was so expensive that a ship's tax was imposed to build her and that combined with other events led to a civil war and Charles I beheading.

Regards,
Bill

Janel, on May 13 2008, 10:01 PM, said:

Hi Bill,

Do you stick the little carvings to something while you work on them? That is itty bitty work! Thanks for the detail shots of some of the carvings.

Are these scale models of former ships that sailed the seas?

Janel

[Mike Ruslander]

Welcome. Amazing dexterity!

[Janel]

Hi Bill,

We have had some discussion about micro grinders before on the forum. Go here for one thread to read through. Use the SEARCH function for other leads.

Janel

[tsterling]

Ditto on the NSK. I have two, and almost always use them at max RPM (35,000). Very nice work, also - welcome to the Path, Bill.