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Flex-shaft tool advice, too!
First, thank you to Peter and everyone who gave their thoughts about
soldering equipment. I think that I will take the advice of having a "Y" connector and both full size and a little torch handpieces. Still haven't decided on gas, yet, although I am leaning toward acetylene and oxygen. Being new to jewelry making, I need to purchase everything - and there are so many things, ultimately, needed. I hope to buy the soldering equipment in the next week or so and will plan a flex-shaft tool for next month. Everyone seems to recommend the Foredom models. I was wondering, though, about the Foredom flex-shafts that come off of the Foredom bench grinder. Would this be a better use of resourses - kind of like two for one, or should they be separate units? Other equipment I am planning over time (not including little things like files, hammers, saws, etc) would be a shearer and a rolling mill. Please tell me what you think are the most important tools to have and what your favorite brands are. What equipment couldn't you live without? Thanks all for being so generous with your knowledge. Best, Raane |
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#2
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I think that I will take the advice of having a
"Y" connector and both full size and a little torch handpieces. Another option is female quick-disconnectors on the hoses coming off the tanks and male connectors on each of the torches. That way you can swap torches in seconds without always having to struggle with tangled hoses etc. I was wondering, though, about the Foredom flex- shafts that come off of the Foredom bench grinder. Would this be a better use of resourses - kind of like two for one, or should they be separate units? Personally I've found that the speed ranges of the flexshaft to be a pretty significant issue and in the end that's what's guided my purchases. Cleanliness is another factor. Grinding/polishing is usually a relatively low speed operation, in the 1500 to 3500 rpm range. Some wheels and mops become a safety risk if they're run faster than this. Grinding/Polishing is also a pretty dirty job and it's highly advisable to do it away from your smithing bench. Weather permitting I take my grinder outside, that's how much of a mess it can be. Also consider that you can get an acceptable stand-alone bench grinder for US$50 or less. It ain't fancy --fixed speed, non-reversible-- but it does the job. Hammer (and engraver) handpieces also require low speeds, though they need speed variability unlike the typical grinding/polishing process. My hammer handpiece for instance is rated at a max of 5000 rpm. Running it faster could permanently damage it. Drilling is also often best done all lower speeds. All of this means that having a good, low-speed, variable-speed motor can be a significant benefit. On the other hand there are many flexshaft bits that benefit from high speeds, up to 18,000 rpm or more. Running these at lower speeds will often result in inferior operation or even damage to the bit. Reversability can also be a good feature to have. I frequently make my own small, specialized tools which means I do a lot of detailed grinding and cutting. Having a reverse on your flexshaft can be a distinct advantage in cases like this. So what does all this boil down to? Every person's needs and preferences are different, of course, but my solution has been to have a cheap bench grinder for grinding/polishing; a low-speed Series L Foredom for drilling, special polishing needs and my hammer handpiece; and a Series SR Foredom for high-speed and reversability. No doubt we're talking a non-trivial investment in motors here but once you've purchased a number of handpieces, scads of drills and bits, and grinding/polishing wheels you'll see that the motor costs are quickly dwarfed by your investment in accessories. My process was to use inexpensive Dremel tools for years --I went through at least 4 of these-- until I upgraded to the (vastly more appropriate) Foredom SR. Almost all of the Dremel accessories I'd bought over the years were usable on the SR. I added the bench grinder soon after and then popped for the Series L when my budget permitted. I hope some of this is useful to you. Cheers, Trevor F. |
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Not to take too firm a stand here...but I am
Um. here again, Trevor is sometimes right. We are all sometimes right Too slow a speed won't overheat a cutter, to be sure. but Carbide, in particular, is brittle. To fast a cut will chip the teeth. Sorry wrong, you have mixed up cause and effect here. High rpm will do no harm, it is the chatter, the vibration that breaks the teeth. Running small carbide bits slowly is a great way to wear them out prematurely. No..slow rpm will not cause faster wear, too high a chip load will chip teeth. If you are removing the same abount of material, in the same time span at a lower rpm chip load has gone up. run at high speed, each tooth is taking only a very tiny cut per pass through the metal, and they last a lot longer. Plus, at high speeds, burs don't grab and catch the way they can at low speeds. As with the rubber wheels, it depends a lot on what type of bur or cutter you're talking about, and what it's made of. The high speed steel ones tolerate high rpms very well, though some of the larger ones can be more dangerous this way if they get out of hand somehow. The smaller, dental type, busch burs work well at high rpms IF, and only if, one takes very light cuts. If you bear down on it at all, you overheat it and destroy it. But a tiny busch bur at 30,000 rpm, used gently so as not to overheat it, is often just fine, and more easily controlled than at lower speeds. As with abrasive wheels, these are generally marked with a max rpm, and one should pay attention to those specs. Peter FYI carbide can run very hot and not lose strength, like up to 1000 deg F. There is no danger of over heating carbide, only chiping it. It is impossible to over heat carbide on jewerly. I dont think anyone has seen there bit glowing. In a nut shell carbide wont wear out any time soon, but it is easy to chip, same result only faster! If you steel bit is blue it got too hot, but I bet you knew that. If you have chatter when using burs, try a slower speed, or a heaver cut. Holding tool with both hands can help dampen vibration. Steel bits are going to be much less prone to chiping from chatter, but are softer so they wear faster and can be over heated. And use lubercation(sp) if you can to keep from loading up the bit. Coolant can be messy to use but it is the cutters friend. Les |
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Thanks Peter, you caught the intent of my post where I perhaps wasn't
being quite specific enough. I was offering general advice in response to what I read as a very general question. From the nature of Raane's question I thought that that's what would be useful. Since Raane had mentioned "bench grinder" in the original post I figured that that's the sort of applications they had in mind. And that's where I had some hard-knocks experience, in particular, so I thought it would be worth sharing. And yes, I was cautioning against running grinding wheels --such as bench grinder wheels or the cheapo grinding wheels on 1/4" shafts-- at too high a speed. As indicated there are of course a myriad of cutting/grinding/polishing wheels that are rated much higher than typical bench grinder speeds. Cheers, Trevor F. |
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