How do you repair chip-outs?

[Rcnewcomb]

I'm curious how others dear with chip-out flaws on carvings. The best answer is to prevent it by using material that is lees prone to chip out, but wood still has some variability.

Typically I use the glue/sawdust method to fill larger chip outs. Usually I use Titebond, but in some cases I will use Superglue and sawdust.

For smaller chip outs I may just sand, chisel, or use scrapers to smooth out discontinuities.

How do others deal with these small imperfections on an overall acceptable carving?

[Tex_Lawrence]

Randall, the last time that much chip out happened to me, I used the Dremel bristle brush to soften them and add "scratches."

Then I finished with sealer/light stain.

Then I used dark glaze to turn the whole thing into an "antique."

Glue and sawdust always highlights a faux pas on my machine. Fixing them will convert my piece to a painted piece!

Lemons to lemonade.

[Leo]

I use magic sculpt. It is a two part epoxy sculpting putty. After the repair it is to be painted. I don't like mixing sawdust and glue. I just hate the look.

It I really wanted a great looking end product in wood, I would make a new one. I find hard Maple the best. Cherry is also pretty good.

[TReischl]

Sort of like you said in the original post, try to avoid the chipouts in the first place.

I have a sign laying around here somewhere with lots of small raised lettering that was done in soft pine. Not V carved, pocketed. No chipouts. Yea, I am a regular miracle worker I tell ya. That sign was attempt No 3 IIRC.

A 1/8 end mill was acceptable as far as inside radii went, problem was, that end mill also destroyed the letters no matter what I did. The answer was to profile the letters with a 1.5mm (approx .06 inch) cutter. Did that first, then came back with a larger cutter to remove the larger waste areas.

I do that trick quite a bit nowadays, really small cutter, cut the work outlined, then have at it with a larger cutter. Sometimes I will lie about the diameter of the larger cutter so that it does not touch the side walls. For instance, if I am going to use a 1/8 cutter to remove waste I will tell the software it is a .130 dia cutter.

Anyway, that is how I go about things. Of course I am not doing production nor do I work for profit, so I can fiddle around a long time to get things looking good.

[Leo]

Another thig to consider - step the Z down 1/8 or 1/4 deeper and recut it - make sure the cutter is like brandy new. It will likely chip out again, but just maybe, who knows.

[Phil]

In some cases I will bring out my hand carving chisels. I have a nice set of small Flexcut chisels. Remove enough material to eliminate the chipout area, make a patch as close to that which is needed, glue in the patch and clean up the repair with the Flexcut chisels. Matching the grain and color is very important. Not a solution for every chipout problem.

Phil

[TReischl]

Tooling can have quite an impact also.

When I know that I am dealing with material that is prone to chipout (like soft pine) I try to use HSS tools rather than carbide. I also try to avoid tools like V bits. V bits pound at the wood, they really do not slice it, pounding helps to chip things.

[BKeith]

Never had to deal with that much. I make Native American Style Flutes and some woods are just prone to chip out when cutting some of the passages or drilling the sound holes. Some are so bad about it, you burn the sound holes with a red-hot tapered rod (don't think that would work here). A common practice to repair them is to make a thick paste with small chips/saw dust and super glue and press into them. However, we are dealing with one or two splinters and small area of chip out, not long spans.