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Nice toolguy's cheesegrater for the next BBQ!

I can't see it revolutionising or replacing the techniques commonly used unless it sees it's own way through an entire body's worth of work (pricewise) as it's not exactly expensive. I wouldn't trust it with the last 2mm/16th" of working wood though....

This could prove to be a good thread to watch if anyone has had results with this beasty.

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I can't remember who brought this up once before. It might have been Greg, but that is probably wrong. Either way I don't remember exactly what conclusion it came to, but I can see having some tearout issues. I know someone had used it and said it worked well for what they were doing, but they feel fairly flimzy to me and I can just see tearout happening in certain woods. Again, try it and see, but be careful. If you have a Rockler near you they sell them in that version and some other both power and handheld I believe. Anyhow, if you try it give us a post on how it goes. Good looking out though. J

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I bought one from rockler a little while back. I rough cut a mahogany body out with a bandsaw, then used this thing in a drill press with a body template to complete it to the final shape.

It works just like the robosander, only hogs out wood much faster. That's a good and bad thing, because it takes no time at all to do the job, but you have to be really careful not to take away too much wood. Also, could be very dangerous with the exposed blades. No tear-out whatsoever like you get sometimes with a router, and it spits out little wood shavings instead of fine dust like the sander.

I would guess it would work well for making the forearem contours and beer belly cuts, but I haven't tried it for that yet.

The package listed a recommended speed for your drill, I don't remember exactly what it was.

Overall, I liked it and got good results. I'll use it again.

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I bought one from rockler a little while back. I rough cut a mahogany body out with a bandsaw, then used this thing in a drill press with a body template to complete it to the final shape.

It works just like the robosander, only hogs out wood much faster. That's a good and bad thing, because it takes no time at all to do the job, but you have to be really careful not to take away too much wood. Also, could be very dangerous with the exposed blades. No tear-out whatsoever like you get sometimes with a router, and it spits out little wood shavings instead of fine dust like the sander.

I would guess it would work well for making the forearem contours and beer belly cuts, but I haven't tried it for that yet.

The package listed a recommended speed for your drill, I don't remember exactly what it was.

Overall, I liked it and got good results. I'll use it again.

Oooh! I didn't even think about accidentally touching a knuckle to that thing, lol, that would be extremely painful, its like a couple thousand rpm cheesegrater, except in that case it will make hamburger. :D

Anyhow, thats cool it worked for you. Let us know how long they last, once you use it for a while, it should last quite a while for woods like mahog. Probably not so long on tougher woods, although if you use it like you did, you won't need it for much wood removal. What kind of finish did it leave, fairly smooth like a plane or did it need clean up. Do you think it could tearout in other woods that are more prone to tearout than mahogany? Anyhow, glad to hear some more on it. I see it and think about it everytime I am at rockler, but I always talk myself out of it and use the drum sander and routers. Although, Jon has got me on the belt sanders now. I'll try to find the other thread from a while back, maybe it has some more good info. J

I found a couple of threads, most of it sounds good, but s few still feel that the router and sanders are a better way to go. The hand micro- planers sound cool also and slightly less scary than powered ones. There are a few more threads to look at. Many like them and many just prefer another way. Some say the same about them being a little flimzy, others mention they can kick if the pressure isn't right, and some say they might be a little tough rough and take too much off. But honestly, no one really had any negative experiences that would keep me from trying them, I think their best feature is lack of sawdust, that alone almost makes me want to use them. Many people also said they felt it worked great on the harder woods which surprised me, but I think some said it blunted fairly quick on the tougher stuff. I dunno, I say try it and if you like it and it works, use it. There are usually many ways to do things and some work better for some people.

Microplane Thread

Microplane2

Edited by jmrentis
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Yeah, I totally agree, whatever works. It's all personal preference.

I still did some fine sanding after using the microplane thing, but the surface was reasonably smooth. It probably wasn't as smooth as a routered surface, but close. I've only used it on the mahogany, so I don't know how it will perform on harder woods.

I like the speed of routers, but you have the tear-out possibility. I like the robosander, but you have the dust. To me, this is kind of a compromise between the two. It's cheap enough that if you don't like it, it's not that big of a deal.

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