working with oak

[crissey13]

Just wondering how this works with oak? Don't own one yet, but seriously looking things over. Love all the posts, good and bad, lets me see things from all different angles.

[pkunk]

red oak is not the best wood as it's open grain and brittle nature doesn't carve well. White oak however carves nicely.

[newcarver]

i have used cherry alot, seems to carve great for me, pine-bad, white oak-good, hard maple-good

[Rickrljones]

I just finished a project in red oak, you can see it in the Gallery, called USMC finished.

[Ron Smith]

I've done a lot of signs in red oak and have been pleased with most of the results. You can look at my posts in the gallery and see them. I do like cherry and maple better, but the red oak is okay for most of the signs I do. I don't do a lot of small details on mine. The red oak doesn't like small letters and details very well (it chips out ... alot). But for signs with larger letters, it does just fine.

[HandTurnedMaple]

I will just agree with everyone. Red oak is ok for recessed lettering, but it doesn't hold fine detail very well. Cherry holds detail very well. But regardless of what wood you choose anything raised that will come out of the machine 1/8" wide or narrower runs a risk of being chipped off. I just ran the Last Supper and the Red Deer that were graciously contributed to this forum. While every hand on the Last Supper survived, only half the antler tips of the deer survived. Both were cut from the same piece of cherry.

[crissey13]

Thanks for the info on oak. I'd like to ask PKUNK and Ron smith since it seems you've had your machines for about a year, how you like working with them, are you glad you made the investment, what kind of problems you've had with them, if any, and since you joined so close to Vamentine's Day, were these possibly gifts?

[pkunk]

Thanks for the info on oak. I'd like to ask PKUNK and Ron smith since it seems you've had your machines for about a year, how you like working with them, are you glad you made the investment, what kind of problems you've had with them, if any, and since you joined so close to Vamentine's Day, were these possibly gifts?
I gave myself a Christmas present last year & immediately paid it off with 1 job. Then shortly after another job of $1000 & ever since signs, etc have been trickling in. I've had numerous bug & gremlins to overcome but with CW's excellent backing it's really been no problem. It's the most fun tool in my shop.(over $20,000 worth of tools)

[Ron Smith]

Like pkunk, I made myself a present of it and have also had to go through some trials and tribulations, but since then it has paid for itself with jobs I have managed to land. I first received the machine with some pieces out of place, but when looking through the UPS damaged box, I managed to find everything. I tweaked it for a few weeks, getting the bugs worked out, then had a major malfunction. I had to return the unit to CarveWright. The machine I returned was also damaged beyond repair by UPS, who would not honor the $100 plus added insurance (for over $2000) that I paid to ship it back. CarveWright was kind enough to send me a new machine at no cost, even though it wasn't their fault it was damaged. Since then, there have been an error message here and there. The latest was the flex shaft overheating in mid project and kinking up. CarveWright sent me a replacement motor and shaft and cross my fingers, I haven't had any issues for over three months now. It seems to be running great. I would recommend it to anyone, with the caution of being patient and working through possible issues. It's a blast in the long run.