Candle stick holder out of waste wood by Kevin Inkster: Watch the step by step tutorial

Right from the beginning, Arbortech tools have been designed with salvaged wood, recycled wood and waste wood in mind.

The very first tool I developed was what I now consider to be a crude form of the Woodcarver blade. As rough as it was, it removed wood incredibly fast so I took it to a piece of Sheoak and freehand carved a bowl which I still have and love.

Sheoak bowl

I refined the blade for better control and then looked for larger projects. My specialty as a woodworker was in making chairs. To supplement my income in those days, I drove a country school bus. I had noticed a fallen Marri tree on my run so I took a chainsaw along one day, and got the school kids to help me drag a section of the trunk onto the bus. My intention was to carve a whole chair directly from the tree trunk using the new tool that I had developed. Not a particularly practical chair but it did have some charm. I noticed that when carving smooth free form shapes into the wood, that the grain and features of the wood would reveal beautiful patterns that would not be apparent in normal milled timber.

Chair carved from a Marri tree trunk

The result was that it won a major prize at a local Wood Festival and kicked off the beginning of Arbortech.

Since then, almost all of Arbortech wood working tools have been developed with either salvage or waste wood in mind. The TURBO range of products are ideal for machining wood in the round such as tree branches, roots or stumps. Of course they can be used with milled timber and I have done a lot of work by blocking up milled or dressed timber, but I always made a point of using waste or reject wood. Below are some examples of furniture that I made using a whole truck load of paneling wood called Scribe. Each piece is an off-cut that has been rejected because of a flaw such as a sap pocket. As it happens, such flaws become features when sculpted and do not affect the strength of the finished article because of the blocking up process.

Chair made from scribe

For our annual Arbortech staff competition, we encourage the use of salvaged or waste wood. We collect interesting wood from street verge throw outs and use every thing from small branches to wooden pallets.

Stylish coffee table by Kevin Inkster Watch the tutorial

‘The contemplation bench’ by Sven Blicks

Beach house sign by Kevin Inkster Watch the tutorial here

‘Stretch giraffe’ by Steve Marsh

Buddha face by Kevin Inkster

Are your Sticky Sanders flying off of your Contour Sander mid use? If you are a user of the adhesive disc method then you are probably well aware that the adhesive discs perform best at finishing sanding. We recommend heavy sanding with the heavy duty discs followed by the adhesive discs to remove any scratches left from the flange of the Heavy Duty Discs.

The trick to stopping the Adhesive Discs from coming off of your Contour Sander is to keep the backing pad clean. We have provided past methods of cleaning your Arbortech Contour Sander pads with acetone, cleaning spirits etc. Here is a quick and easy way to clean your Contour Sander’s backing pad using a rubber eraser or if you are short an eraser – your thumb! If you would prefer to watch the video on how to do this, click here: How To Clean Your Arbortech Contour Sander Pads 

As you know, the Contour Sander is ideal for sanding internal curves and contours by utilizing adhesive backed sanding discs. We have received many questions as to why we opted for this method. The reason is simply because the Sticky Sanders allow you to follow profiles nicely, and this also eliminates the problems experienced with the hook and loop method.

Adhesive residue on the rubber pads

When you are continually changing the adhesive/ sticky sanding discs, a certain amount of adhesive tends to build ups on the rubber backing pad. Where there is a combination of adhesive and dust accumulation on the backing pads it can prevent adhesive discs from sticking properly, so your discs will tend to come off too easily.

Previously Kevin recommended you simply wipe down the rubber pad using acetone or paint thinners but not everyone has these materials on hand. Since then Kevin has found it is much more convenient to simply rub the adhesive disc with your thumb; which works particularly well if it is warm from use.

Rub the pad with your thumb

You can actually roll the adhesive off the backing pad with your finger. This is a convenient method unless there is too much adhesive build up. Then best option for this scenario is using a standard soft pencil rubber eraser.

Use a normal soft rubber eraser

Mount the eraser in the vice and run the Contour Sander over the eraser

Super clean rubber pad!