Prevent wood from bending during longer carvings?

1

Hi,

I was wondering if there is a trick to prevent the wood from bending after longer carving sessions (like last night after 6h).
It seems that sometimes the wood (even though its dry and hardwood, again my Jatoba wood i am using) starts bending itself towards the end of a carving job, which causes the tape to not stick anymore because the wood lifts off the corners and saw dust gets underneath which reduces the stickiness of the tape.

I got the vise but I cannot use it for this unfortunately because i am using 7.5 x 7.5 inches wood which on top of that also needs to be carved all around with no border, so it would probably hit the vise if i was to use it.

Any ideas how to prevent that?

Thanks
Oliver

2

Happened again :frowning:
This time i made sure the wood was 100% straight before i started. It was holding down very well on the waste board before the carving started. 4h into it, it started wiggling loose so i stopped it because at that point im sure it will come loose within the last 4h of the job. This is frustrating. Loosing Material, and time…
Anyways, I checked the wood once i took it off the table and now its definetely bend, about 1mm.
There must be a way to affix larger items without them comming loose all the time. Smaller ones (5x5) seem to work since they dont bend as much but as soon as they get larger, they come loose. I also tried cutting against the grain and with the grain, same result…

Any help appreciated!

3

Oliver, have you tried the blue fixturing wax we use in the bracelet video? It’ll be a lot stronger than the tape.

4

Hi Jorge!

No i have not tried that yet. Where can I get that?

Thanks
Oliver

5

@oliverblum

I had trouble with the tape sticking and found two solutions. You can take a shallower bite on each pass which puts less force on the part, but that also slows everything down. Better yet is to use a different tape.

I have tried four different kinds of tape and the best by far is PeachTree Woodworking tape. It is used to hold stock for turning bowls. I found that once I started using this I have not had a failure (knocking on wood… :slight_smile: I also tried a thicker carpet tape from Home Depot, it held great but then it was too hard to get off the bed and it was thick so if the cutter got into it everything got gummed up.

The Peachtree woodworking tape has made a big difference in the ease of use and reliability of long cuts with the Nomad. You can get it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Peachtree-Woodworking-Yards-Double-PW3599/dp/B0049RAEA6/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

1 Like
6

Thanks for the that info 2dsteve, i will try that tape as well as the wax.

7

@oliverblum

Did you figure out where to get the blue fixturing wax used in the Carbide3D videos?

8

Looks like you can get a couple different types of fixturing wax from the following source:

http://machinablewax.com/product.php?product=44

People that received the mega-pack got a small sample of the wax but there was no source or branding on it, just a little zip lock bag with some of the wax.