I recently commented about how impressed I was with the hand pieces that
came with the Harbor Freight flex shaft motors. No noticeable side play by
chucking up a cutter and pushing it side to side.

Hoping to step up a notch I bought a couple Foredom 44T hand pieces. I was
disappointed. The definitely have side play by the same test. I contacted
Foredom and complained. Their explanation was that the 44T and 43T hand
pieces are intended to be used as a hand held tool, and if they crank them
down to get side play down in the .0015 range (which would be acceptable for
what I want to use them for) they would generate way to much heat to be
comfortable to hold. That actually makes sense and its one of the
complaints I read in the reviews of the Harbor Freight hand piece. It gets
too hot to hold when run at max speed for very long.

Kevin at Foredom is sending me a 25 hand piece to evaluate at no cost. If I
like it I just send him my 44Ts and when I am ready, buy another 25. The
price step is quite a bit though. The 44T can be had for about $50, while
the best price I have seen on the 25 is $135. The 25 is listed as a
"continuous production" hand piece.

The heat of the HF hand piece was not that big of a deal for me since I was
using them in aluminum mounting clamps made out of 1/2 bar stock. I didn't
feel the heat, and the aluminum clamps helped to bleed off some of the heat
they generated.

My over all opinion of Foredom customer service however is very high. I did
not expect such a fantastic response from them. I will abuse the 25 as soon
as it arrives and see how it performs, and if I am happy with it I will buy
another one. The 25 is a little larger diameter than the HF or the 44T so I
either need to bore out my clamps or make new ones. I think I'll make some
new ones because building the "prototypes" for the HF hand pieces and using
them to make some parts showed me some flaws in my design. I need a
squaring brace/block directly between the two clamps if I want them to
easily be able to mount on the machine and maintain relative position
accurately.

On Aug 6, 11:46*am, "Bob La Londe" wrote:
I recently commented about how impressed I was with the hand pieces that
came with the Harbor Freight flex shaft motors. *No noticeable side play by
chucking up a cutter and pushing it side to side.

Hoping to step up a notch I bought a couple Foredom 44T hand pieces. *I was
disappointed. *The definitely have side play by the same test. *I contacted
Foredom and complained. *Their explanation was that the 44T and 43T hand
pieces are intended to be used as a hand held tool, and if they crank them
down to get side play down in the .0015 range (which would be acceptable for
what I want to use them for) they would generate way to much heat to be
comfortable to hold. *That actually makes sense and its one of the
complaints I read in the reviews of the Harbor Freight hand piece. *It gets
too hot to hold when run at max speed for very long.

Kevin at Foredom is sending me a 25 hand piece to evaluate at no cost. *If I
like it I just send him my 44Ts and when I am ready, buy another 25. *The
price step is quite a bit though. *The 44T can be had for about $50, while
the best price I have seen on the 25 is $135. *The 25 is listed as a
"continuous production" hand piece.

The heat of the HF hand piece was not that big of a deal for me since I was
using them in aluminum mounting clamps made out of 1/2 bar stock. *I didn't
feel the heat, and the aluminum clamps helped to bleed off some of the heat
they generated.

My over all opinion of Foredom customer service however is very high. *I did
not expect such a fantastic response from them. *I will abuse the 25 as soon
as it arrives and see how it performs, and if I am happy with it I will buy
another one. *The 25 is a little larger diameter than the HF or the 44T so I
either need to bore out my clamps or make new ones. *I think I'll make some
new ones because building the "prototypes" for the HF hand pieces and using
them to make some parts showed me some flaws in my design. *I need a
squaring brace/block directly between the two clamps if I want them to
easily be able to mount on the machine and maintain relative position
accurately.

I've had good luck with Foredom on parts, had a air die grinder off
the scratch-and-dent at MSC. Some joker managed to bust the vanes in
the motor, Foredom had the parts and shipped them right out. Ordered
collets and wrenches, too. Showed up in 3-4 days. Comparing the
innards with the chink units showed why they get so much for the US-
made ones. You'll probably never need replacement parts unless
somebody screws one up by taking it apart.

Stan

This is a good review that you've presented. The Foredom rep's explanation
is easy to accept, and Foredom at least, has some interest in their tools
providing good performance and value.

I suppose you may have already considered making your own high speed
spindles, which may be an option. At very high speeds, proper bearing
lubrication becomes a fairly important issue, although the load forces you
would be applying probably aren't extremely unreasonable for small bearings
in that size range.

Reliable (long life) high speed spindles with an accurate spindle chuck are
somewhat specialized items, such as tool post grinders.

--
WB
..........


"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I recently commented about how impressed I was with the hand pieces that
came with the Harbor Freight flex shaft motors. No noticeable side play by
chucking up a cutter and pushing it side to side.

Hoping to step up a notch I bought a couple Foredom 44T hand pieces. I
was disappointed. The definitely have side play by the same test. I
contacted Foredom and complained. Their explanation was that the 44T and
43T hand pieces are intended to be used as a hand held tool, and if they
crank them down to get side play down in the .0015 range (which would be
acceptable for what I want to use them for) they would generate way to
much heat to be comfortable to hold. That actually makes sense and its
one of the complaints I read in the reviews of the Harbor Freight hand
piece. It gets too hot to hold when run at max speed for very long.

Kevin at Foredom is sending me a 25 hand piece to evaluate at no cost. If
I like it I just send him my 44Ts and when I am ready, buy another 25.
The price step is quite a bit though. The 44T can be had for about $50,
while the best price I have seen on the 25 is $135. The 25 is listed as a
"continuous production" hand piece.

The heat of the HF hand piece was not that big of a deal for me since I
was using them in aluminum mounting clamps made out of 1/2 bar stock. I
didn't feel the heat, and the aluminum clamps helped to bleed off some of
the heat they generated.

My over all opinion of Foredom customer service however is very high. I
did not expect such a fantastic response from them. I will abuse the 25
as soon as it arrives and see how it performs, and if I am happy with it I
will buy another one. The 25 is a little larger diameter than the HF or
the 44T so I either need to bore out my clamps or make new ones. I think
I'll make some new ones because building the "prototypes" for the HF hand
pieces and using them to make some parts showed me some flaws in my
design. I need a squaring brace/block directly between the two clamps if
I want them to easily be able to mount on the machine and maintain
relative position accurately.

This is a good review that you've presented. The Foredom rep's explanation
is easy to accept, and Foredom at least, has some interest in their tools
providing good performance and value.

I suppose you may have already considered making your own high speed
spindles, which may be an option. At very high speeds, proper bearing
lubrication becomes a fairly important issue, although the load forces you
would be applying probably aren't extremely unreasonable for small bearings
in that size range.

Reliable (long life) high speed spindles with an accurate spindle chuck are
somewhat specialized items, such as tool post grinders.

--
WB
..........


"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I recently commented about how impressed I was with the hand pieces that
came with the Harbor Freight flex shaft motors. No noticeable side play by
chucking up a cutter and pushing it side to side.

Hoping to step up a notch I bought a couple Foredom 44T hand pieces. I
was disappointed. The definitely have side play by the same test. I
contacted Foredom and complained. Their explanation was that the 44T and
43T hand pieces are intended to be used as a hand held tool, and if they
crank them down to get side play down in the .0015 range (which would be
acceptable for what I want to use them for) they would generate way to
much heat to be comfortable to hold. That actually makes sense and its
one of the complaints I read in the reviews of the Harbor Freight hand
piece. It gets too hot to hold when run at max speed for very long.

Kevin at Foredom is sending me a 25 hand piece to evaluate at no cost. If
I like it I just send him my 44Ts and when I am ready, buy another 25.
The price step is quite a bit though. The 44T can be had for about $50,
while the best price I have seen on the 25 is $135. The 25 is listed as a
"continuous production" hand piece.

The heat of the HF hand piece was not that big of a deal for me since I
was using them in aluminum mounting clamps made out of 1/2 bar stock. I
didn't feel the heat, and the aluminum clamps helped to bleed off some of
the heat they generated.

My over all opinion of Foredom customer service however is very high. I
did not expect such a fantastic response from them. I will abuse the 25
as soon as it arrives and see how it performs, and if I am happy with it I
will buy another one. The 25 is a little larger diameter than the HF or
the 44T so I either need to bore out my clamps or make new ones. I think
I'll make some new ones because building the "prototypes" for the HF hand
pieces and using them to make some parts showed me some flaws in my
design. I need a squaring brace/block directly between the two clamps if
I want them to easily be able to mount on the machine and maintain
relative position accurately.

On Aug 6, 1:46*pm, "Bob La Londe" wrote:
I recently commented about how impressed I was with the hand pieces that
came with the Harbor Freight flex shaft motors. *No noticeable side play by
chucking up a cutter and pushing it side to side.


For some really kick-ass high speed handpieces, check out http://www.ramprodinc.com
.. These guys really know their stuff, and most of it is pretty
reasonably priced.

"rangerssuck" wrote in message
...
On Aug 6, 1:46 pm, "Bob La Londe" wrote:
I recently commented about how impressed I was with the hand pieces that
came with the Harbor Freight flex shaft motors. No noticeable side play
by
chucking up a cutter and pushing it side to side.


For some really kick-ass high speed handpieces, check out
http://www.ramprodinc.com
. These guys really know their stuff, and most of it is pretty
reasonably priced.

I looked quick, but I think I need to look in a little more depth.

On 8/8/2010 12:25 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
"rangerssuck" wrote in message
...
On Aug 6, 1:46 pm, "Bob La Londe" wrote:
I recently commented about how impressed I was with the hand pieces that
came with the Harbor Freight flex shaft motors. No noticeable side
play by
chucking up a cutter and pushing it side to side.


For some really kick-ass high speed handpieces, check out
http://www.ramprodinc.com
. These guys really know their stuff, and most of it is pretty
reasonably priced.

I looked quick, but I think I need to look in a little more depth.

Good luck. Most of the links are busted.

Well, its Friday afternoon and the promised Foredom 25 never arrived. I
guess its time to disassemble the 44Ts and see if I can crank down their
tolerance and make them into something useful. I would have done that a
week ago if Foredom had not offered to send out a 25 to try.



"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I recently commented about how impressed I was with the hand pieces that
came with the Harbor Freight flex shaft motors. No noticeable side play
by chucking up a cutter and pushing it side to side.

Hoping to step up a notch I bought a couple Foredom 44T hand pieces. I
was disappointed. The definitely have side play by the same test. I
contacted Foredom and complained. Their explanation was that the 44T and
43T hand pieces are intended to be used as a hand held tool, and if they
crank them down to get side play down in the .0015 range (which would be
acceptable for what I want to use them for) they would generate way to
much heat to be comfortable to hold. That actually makes sense and its
one of the complaints I read in the reviews of the Harbor Freight hand
piece. It gets too hot to hold when run at max speed for very long.

Kevin at Foredom is sending me a 25 hand piece to evaluate at no cost. If
I like it I just send him my 44Ts and when I am ready, buy another 25.
The price step is quite a bit though. The 44T can be had for about $50,
while the best price I have seen on the 25 is $135. The 25 is listed as a
"continuous production" hand piece.

The heat of the HF hand piece was not that big of a deal for me since I
was using them in aluminum mounting clamps made out of 1/2 bar stock. I
didn't feel the heat, and the aluminum clamps helped to bleed off some of
the heat they generated.

My over all opinion of Foredom customer service however is very high. I
did not expect such a fantastic response from them. I will abuse the 25
as soon as it arrives and see how it performs, and if I am happy with it I
will buy another one. The 25 is a little larger diameter than the HF or
the 44T so I either need to bore out my clamps or make new ones. I think
I'll make some new ones because building the "prototypes" for the HF hand
pieces and using them to make some parts showed me some flaws in my
design. I need a squaring brace/block directly between the two clamps if
I want them to easily be able to mount on the machine and maintain
relative position accurately.

Ok, I guess UPS must have come back and made a second delivery on Friday. I
found the Foredom 25 hand piece sitting in the drop box in front of my
office on Saturday evening. Not sure why I unlocked it and checked...

Now I need to make some mounts for it. The HF hand pieces are about .85
diameter. The 44T is about .95, and the 25 is about 1.026 I could just
mill out the HF clamps, but I may want to use the HF handpieces again some
time, so I guess its time to design a clamp for the Foredom 25 and see how
it performs. I want to make some improvements to my clamp design anyway.

For a baseline or comparison, the one HF handpiece has about 100 hours of
run time on it. The last 40 hours was almost continuous nonstop. It is
just now starting to develop some noticeable side play. By grabbing a bit
chucked up in it I can wiggle it slightly and feel it. I'm guessing its
under .01 according to my calibrated finger, but I can feel it. I stopped
the mill at 7.5 hours into the job to check clearance and that no steps were
being lost. Then it ran 32 hours straight. I stopped it very briefly
because the snap in connection was rattling. All I did was snap it back in
and it was good. That was probably my own fault. I had backed off the
amount of protrusion of the drive shaft to match the Foredom tool spec, and
when I went back to the HF hand piece I had not put it back the way it came.
I had just assumed the Foredom spec was generically correct for all hand
pieces.

I have to say that the HF tool is really not bad. I bought two of them as
some of you might know. I had a brush carbon up and quit working right at
about 30 hours on one motor. I swapped it for one of the new brushes that
came with the tool and all was good. The other has over 100 hours of
runtime at maximum speed continuous duty and its still working fine. The
hand piece with 100 + hours is starting to show some slop or side play. For
a very occasional user who takes care of their tools they might last their
lifetime. Very likely if they only use it as a foot pedal controlled hand
held tool. For a commercial shop I suspect downtime for service would
override cost savings, but I have not run a Foredom hand piece or motor that
hard yet. Even a jewelry shop would probably take months to put that much
hard use on their motors.

In article , Bob La Londe
wrote:

Ok, I guess UPS must have come back and made a second delivery on Friday. I
found the Foredom 25 hand piece sitting in the drop box in front of my
office on Saturday evening. Not sure why I unlocked it and checked...

Now I need to make some mounts for it. The HF hand pieces are about .85
diameter. The 44T is about .95, and the 25 is about 1.026 I could just
mill out the HF clamps, but I may want to use the HF handpieces again some
time, so I guess its time to design a clamp for the Foredom 25 and see how
it performs. I want to make some improvements to my clamp design anyway.

For a baseline or comparison, the one HF handpiece has about 100 hours of
run time on it. The last 40 hours was almost continuous nonstop. It is
just now starting to develop some noticeable side play. By grabbing a bit
chucked up in it I can wiggle it slightly and feel it. I'm guessing its
under .01 according to my calibrated finger, but I can feel it. I stopped
the mill at 7.5 hours into the job to check clearance and that no steps were
being lost. Then it ran 32 hours straight. I stopped it very briefly
because the snap in connection was rattling. All I did was snap it back in
and it was good. That was probably my own fault. I had backed off the
amount of protrusion of the drive shaft to match the Foredom tool spec, and
when I went back to the HF hand piece I had not put it back the way it came.
I had just assumed the Foredom spec was generically correct for all hand
pieces.

I have to say that the HF tool is really not bad. I bought two of them as
some of you might know. I had a brush carbon up and quit working right at
about 30 hours on one motor. I swapped it for one of the new brushes that
came with the tool and all was good. The other has over 100 hours of
runtime at maximum speed continuous duty and its still working fine. The
hand piece with 100 + hours is starting to show some slop or side play. For
a very occasional user who takes care of their tools they might last their
lifetime. Very likely if they only use it as a foot pedal controlled hand
held tool. For a commercial shop I suspect downtime for service would
override cost savings, but I have not run a Foredom hand piece or motor that
hard yet. Even a jewelry shop would probably take months to put that much
hard use on their motors.



Is this the HF item that looks like a bench grinder?

http://www.harborfreight.com/bench-grinder-with-flex-shaft-43533.html

thanks,
-j

"JoanD'arcRoast" wrote in message

I have to say that the HF tool is really not bad. I bought two of them
as
some of you might know. I had a brush carbon up and quit working right
at
about 30 hours on one motor. I swapped it for one of the new brushes
that
came with the tool and all was good. The other has over 100 hours of
runtime at maximum speed continuous duty and its still working fine. The
hand piece with 100 + hours is starting to show some slop or side play.
For
a very occasional user who takes care of their tools they might last
their
lifetime. Very likely if they only use it as a foot pedal controlled
hand
held tool. For a commercial shop I suspect downtime for service would
override cost savings, but I have not run a Foredom hand piece or motor
that
hard yet. Even a jewelry shop would probably take months to put that
much
hard use on their motors.



Is this the HF item that looks like a bench grinder?

http://www.harborfreight.com/bench-grinder-with-flex-shaft-43533.html


No. This is the one I am using. It is in a fixed mount on the side of a
mill spindle being used for milling aluminum at full motor speed (speed
control is not used).

http://www.harborfreight.com/flexibl...ver-40432.html

In article , Bob La Londe
wrote:

"JoanD'arcRoast" wrote in message

I have to say that the HF tool is really not bad. I bought two of them
as
some of you might know. I had a brush carbon up and quit working right
at
about 30 hours on one motor. I swapped it for one of the new brushes
that
came with the tool and all was good. The other has over 100 hours of
runtime at maximum speed continuous duty and its still working fine. The
hand piece with 100 + hours is starting to show some slop or side play.
For
a very occasional user who takes care of their tools they might last
their
lifetime. Very likely if they only use it as a foot pedal controlled
hand
held tool. For a commercial shop I suspect downtime for service would
override cost savings, but I have not run a Foredom hand piece or motor
that
hard yet. Even a jewelry shop would probably take months to put that
much
hard use on their motors.



Is this the HF item that looks like a bench grinder?

http://www.harborfreight.com/bench-grinder-with-flex-shaft-43533.html


No. This is the one I am using. It is in a fixed mount on the side of a
mill spindle being used for milling aluminum at full motor speed (speed
control is not used).

http://www.harborfreight.com/flexibl...ver-40432.html



Thanks for your reply. I'll have to check it out at the HF store...

-j