Is there a halfway decent flax shaft tool out there? What kinda price
range.

I recently used my flex tools to turn some broken tungsten bits into conical
drag engraving bits. I noticed my Sears Crapsmen was a lot better than the
Dremel either direct or with flex shaft, but it still made a visibly off
center point.

I'm not looking for .0001 or anything, but I have some combined tool ideas
that would benefit from something in the .01 to .005 range.

I guess I should stop by the local jewelers and ask them what they are
using.

On Dec 30, 11:21*am, "Bob La Londe" wrote:
Is there a halfway decent flax shaft tool out there? *What kinda price
range.

I recently used my flex tools to turn some broken tungsten bits into conical
drag engraving bits. *I noticed my Sears Crapsmen was a lot better than the
Dremel either direct or with flex shaft, but it still made a visibly off
center point.

I'm not looking for .0001 or anything, but I have some combined tool ideas
that would benefit from something in the .01 to .005 range.

I guess I should stop by the local jewelers and ask them what they are
using.

Foredom is THE standard for flex shafts. Lots more spendy than
Dremels or Sears, but if you want it working 30 years later, it'll be
the one. Motor brushes, shaft sleeves, shaft cores and lube are all
readily available. I've got one, the handpiece uses a standard Jacobs
chuck. You can get handpieces that use collets that are a lot smaller
and lighter, collets aren't cheap, though. Some can use the special
dental mandrels. I managed to find one on sale at a local hardware
store decades back, they normally never are on sale. Get the one with
the highest horsepower, you'll need it. There's a lot of loss in that
shaft.

That said, I use mini-die grinders a lot more, the ones I have use
Foredom collets and run a whole lot faster. Air cools the handpiece
down, the Foredom just heats up the more it's used. Can be had from
HF for as little as $9 on sale. So I just have a bunch with whatever
tooling I need chucked up and swap tools as needed. You can do that
with the Foredoms, too, but a spare handpiece will run you a whole lot
more than a bunch of mini-grinders.

Stan

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
Is there a halfway decent flax shaft tool out there? What kinda price
range.

I recently used my flex tools to turn some broken tungsten bits into
conical drag engraving bits. I noticed my Sears Crapsmen was a lot better
than the Dremel either direct or with flex shaft, but it still made a
visibly off center point.

I'm not looking for .0001 or anything, but I have some combined tool ideas
that would benefit from something in the .01 to .005 range.

I guess I should stop by the local jewelers and ask them what they are
using.

I have a Foredom and like it.

Steve

On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:15:01 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Dec 30, 11:21*am, "Bob La Londe" wrote:
Is there a halfway decent flax shaft tool out there? *What kinda price
range.

I recently used my flex tools to turn some broken tungsten bits into conical
drag engraving bits. *I noticed my Sears Crapsmen was a lot better than the
Dremel either direct or with flex shaft, but it still made a visibly off
center point.

I'm not looking for .0001 or anything, but I have some combined tool ideas
that would benefit from something in the .01 to .005 range.

I guess I should stop by the local jewelers and ask them what they are
using.

Foredom is THE standard for flex shafts. Lots more spendy than
Dremels or Sears, but if you want it working 30 years later, it'll be
the one. Motor brushes, shaft sleeves, shaft cores and lube are all
readily available. I've got one, the handpiece uses a standard Jacobs
chuck. You can get handpieces that use collets that are a lot smaller
and lighter, collets aren't cheap, though. Some can use the special
dental mandrels. I managed to find one on sale at a local hardware
store decades back, they normally never are on sale. Get the one with
the highest horsepower, you'll need it. There's a lot of loss in that
shaft.

That said, I use mini-die grinders a lot more, the ones I have use
Foredom collets and run a whole lot faster. Air cools the handpiece
down, the Foredom just heats up the more it's used. Can be had from
HF for as little as $9 on sale. So I just have a bunch with whatever
tooling I need chucked up and swap tools as needed. You can do that
with the Foredoms, too, but a spare handpiece will run you a whole lot
more than a bunch of mini-grinders.

Stan


Spare Foredom handpieces are about $40 on Ebay for new ones with a 5/16
chuck.

Gunner

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the
means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not
making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of
it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different
countries, that the more public provisions were made for the
poor the less they provided for themselves, and of course became
poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the
more they did for themselves, and became richer." -- Benjamin
Franklin, /The Encouragement of Idleness/, 1766