- Scope of use
- Design features
- Operating rules
- The working process
- Expert advice
The electric chisel very quickly gained popularity among craftsmen due to its versatility, because with its help it is possible to process wooden, plastic and aluminum blanks equally effectively. Despite the fact that the tool appeared on the market not so long ago, it is widely represented in the foreign and domestic markets and demonstrates remarkable technical capabilities.
Scope of use
The electric chisel, also known to carpenters as an electric scraper, was created on the basis of a conventional mechanical tool for working wood and a universal machine for a similar purpose. Due to its compact design, this equipment allows you to perform the most sophisticated and small procedures, while providing much more productivity than a simple chisel. The electric device, which is easy to operate due to its light weight, easily removes a layer of wood from the surface of the workpiece and removes certain areas of the material, while the width and length of the workpiece does not matter.
With its help, artistic woodcarving is carried out, which implies many small patterns. When restoring furniture, craftsmen use this power tool to remove old coatings and remove adhesives from the treated surface before finishing.
It is convenient that with the help of a multi-cutter you can cope with both rough processing of the part, removing an impressive layer of material, and more meticulous work, when the wood is removed in minimum quantity. This feature was made possible by adjusting the power of the scraper. Regardless of the brand and model of universal electrical products, as well as their power and configuration, they all work according to the same scheme.
The nozzle mounted on the tool operates on the principle of high-frequency reciprocating movements, which allows you to choose a layer of material with an increased degree of efficiency by analogy with a professional machine. Since in this case all work is carried out by the master manually, manufacturers supply the device with a convenient handle-holder.
Design features
Modern electric chisels include the following mandatory parts and elements in their design:
- plastic reinforced body, equipped with an ergonomic handle;
- start/shutdown button and speed controller;
- an indicator signaling the equipment blocking and indicating the selected speed mode;
- connector for fixing a replaceable cutting nozzle.
The fact that this power tool is called a multi-cutter is quite logical, since its equipment is very diverse and can include many different work items, with which the carpenter is able to solve even the most complex tasks associated with wood processing.
Operating rules
Any electromechanical equipment in its work requires strict adherence to safety rules, and the electric chisel is no exception. Starting the processing of blanks, first of all, you need to protect your hands and eyes, for which they use work gloves and special glasses. There is also a rule according to which the tool for wood carving is set up, and it is performed in strict sequence.
First you need to unlock the landing slot by pressing the lock button, located directly on the tool body. Further, with the edge down, the selected cutter is installed in the slot, and fixed with the same button. Its type depends on the nature of the procedures performed. When processing is completed, the cutter is removed from the socket in reverse order, after which the device must be cleaned of chips and wood dust.
The start of the electric chisel is carried out by turning on the toggle switch. Next, the required processing speed is set with the help of a regulator integrated into the body. As a rule, manufacturers provide the device with several speed modes, so the master can perform precise work at low speeds, or the carpenter speeds up the process where there is no need to pay much attention to every detail.
The working process
An electric chisel, as well as its mechanical counterpart, is in direct contact with the wood surface during operation, so the algorithm of their actions is similar. In this case, after starting, the device is applied at a slight angle to the material to be processed and, with light pressure, passes over its surface in the “away from you” direction, repeating the contours of the sketch, which can be seen in the video at the end of the article. If you apply excessive force when pressing on the wood, you can damage it, so you need to be especially careful here.
Almost all electric chisels on the market for special equipment are specifically designed for use in home workshops, so you need to avoid intense loads and long continuous work, otherwise you may encounter scraper breakage. To avoid unpleasant consequences, after each cutting cycle, the tool is allowed to cool, and only then they start working again. Also, the carpenter must ensure that the cutter is sharpened regularly, otherwise the quality of the work and the efficiency of the process will inevitably suffer.
Multifunctional manual machine It is equipped with various nozzles suitable for certain manipulations, and their choice depends on the nature of the work performed. For example, a wide spatula is suitable only for sampling soft material. In addition to processing soft woods, it can be used to scrape adhesives and sealants from wood, plastic and glass surfaces, as well as remove old paintwork materials, putty and plaster mortar. Hard surfaces are processed with wide steel cutters, which cannot be used to grind and cut wood or aluminum.
In everyday life, an electric chisel is indispensable where you need to clean the joinery from the old coating, and here a cutting element with a blade width of 35 mm is best suited. If you plan to use an electric tool at home to perform repair procedures, in no case do not use it without a protective mask to treat asbestos surfaces, the dust from which is harmful to health. It is also better not to allow the working tool to come into contact with solvents that emit toxic fumes, the harmful effect of which is greatly enhanced by heating.
To avoid injury and not damage the surface of the product, the workpiece must be securely fixed with clamping mechanisms. In rooms with high humidity, it is better to refrain from working with electrical equipment, since a universal electric chisel powered by a network can provoke a short circuit. As with any other piece of equipment, the life of your multitorch depends on how you use it and maintain it properly.
A chisel is a tool for cutting wood that has long been known to everyone, and is very widely used by carpenters. If earlier professionals used ordinary hand tool, then now there are electric chisels. They are a kind of mini-machine for cutting wood and greatly simplify the work of carpenters. Which electric chisel to choose and how to do it, this article will tell.
What is an electric chisel and where is it used
Now joiners mostly use hand chisels the old fashioned way, but devices have already appeared on the market that are designed to make woodworking easier. This is an electric chisel. It is a combination of a cutter and a small cutting machine. To some builders, an electrical device of this type is familiar as a mechanical scraper. It works according to the algorithm jackhammer and has, in addition to the main tool, a set of cutters of various shapes, which can be changed depending on the work performed. Nozzles are semicircular, straight, angled and others. The fact that the chisel is electric does not negate the constant maintenance of its incisors. They need to be corrected and sharpened as needed for proper operation.
Models of electric chisels of various sizes are offered for purchase: from the smallest to large-sized ones. It is convenient to carry out miniature work with small devices, and with large ones it is possible to cut out large-scale figures, sometimes from a whole trunk.
Important! When using large electric chisels, you need to fix them so that excess material is not removed.
Electric cutters are needed in order to work on both soft and hard woods, as well as to correct growths on the trunk.
They help to work faster and remove a significant part of the material in a short period of time. It does not require too much effort.
The use of electric chisels, along with joiners, is also recognized by carpenters, who adapted the tool for removing floors or cutting grooves, as well as for other types of woodwork.
Typically, wood carvers use an electric chisel at the initial stage to carry out rough work. Smaller and more precise details are cut with a hand tool. In addition, electric chisels can be used to work on stone, plastic or other materials, but the cutters must be appropriate for the type of material they are processing.
Due to the fact that the electric scraper, as the electric chisel is also called, has the ability to control power, you can choose the pace at which it is convenient to work with one or another material.
Criteria for choosing an electric chisel
All presented on this moment tool models work on the principle of reciprocating movements that go from the electrical base to interchangeable nozzle. Due to this movement, part of the material is cut off from the workpiece.
When choosing an electric chisel in a store, you should pay attention to the following quality characteristics of the device:
Before buying, it is best to familiarize yourself with the proposed models of electric chisels and identify the purpose for which the tool is being purchased. If a chisel is needed for permanent woodworking, and its future owner is a carver who does this professionally or just an amateur, then the device should acquire the highest quality, preferably with all the additional functions and a wide range of attachments. If the tool is used from time to time, then it is not necessary to purchase an expensive model with improved working nuances, because it is possible to make repairs once a month with a chisel without an automatic cutter replacement mechanism or without other functions that are convenient, but you can work without them .
An electric chisel in the arsenal of a home master can find worthy use. First of all, in work on the manufacture of threads, grooves, conical and sloping planes on wooden blanks. In terms of its functionality, this woodworking tool, although inferior to newfangled renovators, is practically used no less often, and the cheapness of equipment makes it affordable for many.
How to distinguish a renovator from an electric chisel?
In many practical guides, the renovator is declared an electric chisel with an extended set of functions. Thanks to various nozzles, the renovator can carry out full-fledged production and processing of grooves, scraping and a number of other technological transitions. All of this comes at a much higher price. In practice, the renovator will add a few features to the user. For example, if the household already has a portable grinder, then by purchasing additional nozzles (and they are attached to many models initially), you can also perform scraping or cutting grooves without using a renovator.
The main difference between the renovator and the electric chisel lies in the kinematics of movements that are performed by the working tool during its operation. For an electric chisel, this is mainly chiselling - a percussive operation repeated many times, while for a renovator, kinematic cutting is considered the main type of movement, with relatively small and higher frequency vibrations. Thus, the renovator processes wood using the torque developed by the engine as energy, and the electric chisel uses the reciprocating movement of the working head, which occurs with a certain force.
The practical difference between the scheme of these, very similar in purpose, power tools lies in the power of the electric motor, and - most importantly - in the number of revolutions that they develop. If a high-speed engine is installed on the product, you have a renovator in front of you, if a low-speed one, a drive chisel.
Experts believe that at a speed of 2500 per minute and above, power cutting of wood turns into kinematic. In practice, this mode starts from 1800 per minute. Therefore, the criterion for choosing an electric chisel is often the number of engine revolutions, and not its power.
The range of additional nozzles that are supplied with the compared power tools also largely determines the main purpose of the product. With the predominance of wide nozzles, slotted circles - this is a renovator, if nozzles of a relatively small cross section are included in the kit - an electric chisel.
The scheme of the electric chisel and the sequence of its work
Structurally, the electric chisel is very simple, and consists of the following components:
- An electric motor (mainly DC powered by a battery).
- Drive shaft equipped with a seat for a replaceable tool
- Cam-eccentric drive.
- return spring mechanism.
- The housing on which the control system is mounted.
The tool works as follows. When the electric motor is turned on, the drive communicates high-frequency vibrations to the working head with the blade. While pressing on the workpiece, the surface is chiselled, while the resulting chips are continuously removed from the processing zone due to constant vibrations. Many designs of electric chisels allow you to change the chiselling mode - to increase the blade stroke by reducing the frequency of reciprocating movements of the working head. This explains why electric chisels provide for the installation of DC drives: for such engines, changing the speed is much easier to solve using a conventional switch.
Some disadvantage of the electric chisel with sufficient versatility is the need to apply a long effort to complete the process of chiselling wood (with a large amount of work). Therefore, they are more often used in fine work(for example, woodcarving), which do not require significant material removal per unit of time, as well as when processing soft wood. When working for a long time, it is recommended to take breaks more often to prevent the harmful effects of vibrations on the human body. However, the vast majority of the vibrations that occur during the operation of the electric chisel are absorbed by the body of the tool, and are not transmitted to the user's hands.
The main methods of work using an electric chisel
This tool was created as an analogue of a conventional joiner's or carpenter's chisel and therefore actually repeats all of its typical movements, only their source is not human power, but an electric drive. In particular, in the manufacture of threads or other complex contours, electric chisels provide effective removal of large surfaces of wood, for which a chisel-shaped nozzle is often included in the kit. On the contrary, with a small amount of material removed in one pass, a scraper nozzle is used. This nozzle can also be used for finishing surface to make it less rough.
The undoubted advantage of the electric chisel is that, due to the small cross-section of the blade, the force is evenly distributed over the entire surface being processed. Consequently, there are no such defects as the uneven height of the removed layer of wood, as well as the presence of chips and tearing of material in certain areas. The latter often occurs when working with hardwoods such as pear, hornbeam, oak, etc. Thus, the movement of the tool along the processed area is carried out with almost constant values of speed and chiselling force.
Electric chisels are often used in the initial stages of work with a wooden workpiece, when it is necessary to remove a large layer of material, without much concern for the accuracy of the operation performed. Since the efforts when working with the considered type of power tool are much less than when using a manual chisel, the gain in time and physical effort is obvious. Naturally, care must be taken not to remove more wood than necessary. Therefore, working with an electric chisel requires certain skills. They can be obtained by practicing first on some low-value piece of wood, in order to then move on to more accurate and responsible operations.
It is advisable to use electric chisels in the following cases:
- When performing art carvings on wood or other pliable materials - plastic, artificial stone etc.;
- For cleaning the surface of wood from natural growths and surface defects;
- To obtain local chamfers and ledges in floors or interconnected wooden parts;
At the same time, at the final stages of work, especially with precise workpieces, it is better to use a manual chisel.
Safety measures when using electric chisels and selection rules
An indispensable condition for the safe operation of this power tool is the reliable fastening of the workpiece on the table or workbench. The vise clamps should be checked every time the machining process is stopped or the drive is turned off. Vibrations constantly acting in the process of chiselling wood lead to a decrease in the mechanical clamping force, as a result, the semi-finished product can, firstly, injure the worker, and, secondly, spoil the workpiece. For some compact models of electric chisels, the manufacturer also allows manual holding of the workpiece, but this is only possible for experienced home craftsmen, and with a relatively short processing time.
It should be noted that an increased level of vibrations is harmful to health. Therefore, the work of the electric chisel should be alternated with breaks. It is not allowed to work with a discharged battery, because in this case the engine speed drops sharply, which is accompanied by a deterioration in the quality and performance of chiselling.
Chiselling intensively wears out the working part of the blades, even if they are made of high-quality tool steels (U13, KhVG, etc.). Therefore, before starting work, the tool is sharpened.
The eccentric drive of the tool works under very difficult conditions, and therefore, in order to avoid jamming, it should be lubricated frequently.
The choice of a suitable electric chisel is made according to the following criteria:
- By weight: with an increase in the mass of the instrument, it is much more difficult for an unprepared master to work with it.
- From the set of proposed nozzles: there should be at least 4 ... 5 of them.
- From the material of the nozzles (if the material is not specified in the user manual, or something like “high-quality steel” is written, then it is better to refuse to purchase).
- From the declared versatility of the tool - the nozzles offered for it should provide the possibility of full-fledged processing not only of wood, but also of other materials.
- From almost felt vibration during operation (checked in the store).
The price of electric chisels in most cases is not a selection criterion, since this tool is already significantly cheaper than the same renovators. Among the most reliable manufacturers of electric chisels are the brands Proxxon and Arbortex. It should be noted that the drives installed in Arbortex products are more powerful, and, therefore, such electric chisels are more productive and functional. The price of the issue ranges from 4000 ... 5000 rubles. (products of domestic production), up to 20,000 rubles. for electric chisels from Arbortex.
