tools for 3d wood carving

[chris]

I am looking to carve wood with intricate detail down to a depth of 50mm below the top of the stock.

I can only find ball nose end mills in small diameters with 50mm overall length. Can anyone point to a source of longer small diameter ball nose cutters or perhaps somewhere that could make some custom tooling for me.

Thanks
Chris

[NB70]

What sort of diameter are you looking for? Wealden Tools do long core box carving bits - the smallest diameter is 4mm.
Wealden Tool Company Limited Carving Core Box - Long (http://www.wealdentool.com/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Carving_Core_Box___Long_693.html)

[phill05]

Have a look here 75mm long, superb cutters to use, not cheep but very very good.

Beckwith Decor Products (http://www.beckwithdecor.com/)

Phill

[chris]

Thanks for the links. Could you explain what a 'core box carving bit' is please and how it differs from other bits.

I won't know how small I need to go until I experiment. 4mm might do it.

Chris

[phill05]

You don't need core box cutters these are for cutting a half round and are very short, you need the BDP tapered cutters 75 mm long 40 mm cutting length to get down to 50 mm deep,

BDP001B is a 1/16” diameter tapered ballnose with a 1” LOC on a 1/4” shank, 3” OAL with 0.0312” radius and 3 degree taper per side Chipload .003 - .005

Phill

[NB70]

Phil is right - of course you wouldn't use the core box cutters on their own. You would use them for shallow finishing passes after you have done the main roughing out with a bigger end mill.
Nathan