Foredom questions

Most burrs are only cut for one direction, I don't know what you'd use the reversible feature for unless you were doing a lot of drilling and your dinky bit kept getting stuck. Has never happened to me and I was using my Foredom for a whole lot of small hole drilling at one time. THe chuck is a small Jacobs chuck, look closely at the size limits before buying. Mine was used for a lot of drilling, I never had too much trouble with it. The collets are closed via an end cap or nut, you need the wrenches that come with the handpiece to tighten and loosen the thing. No quick change here! If you get the collet handpiece, order the whole set of collets at the same time, they're like $5-6 each but having them on hand will let you use oddball cutters like you can scavenge from the dentist. I bought a set for my pneumatic micro-die grinders and haven't regretted it. Usually the collets have less run-out than a drill-type chuck, for fine work that's a must. They're also a lot smaller so you can get the handpiece in tight areas and it's a lot more comfortable to use for long periods. Downside to collets is that you're restricted to specific sizes, you can't use off-size drills and such. If you get a Foredom, get the special grease, too, if it doesn't come in the kit. You need to keep the shaft and sheath greased up. I've pretzeled a few myself by not watching what I was doing and getting things overheated..

These days, the Foredom mostly gathers dust, I use the pneumatics almost exclusively for grinding and cutting. A replacement Foredom shaft and sheath cost more than the die grinders.

Stan

The foredom #30 handpiece has a small drill chuck which makes it universal but not speedy.

Typical foredom tool shank diameters are 3/32", Dremel is 1/8" so I would go for the collets. All the dental bits I have are also 3/32" (or close enough).

I spent the money for a quick change handpiece, I really like it.

I picked up an older foredom at the Medina flea market for $30, desktop swivel mount (not hung from a hook) with gear reduction, but no shaft. Called Foredom and they had the shaft & sheath in stock, I'm sure it was less than $20 to replace it.

One handpiece (another flea market) I have does not require a wrench to change bits, it's older and is not the quick change bit it's knurled.

Can't tell you about power since I haven't done any carving, I've run a burr on cast pewter w/o problems and don't have the big motor.

SteveB said the following on 8/11/2005 1:45 AM:

Is that the 1/4 HP one? I have the SR and it has plenty of power for dremel size grinding stones, cratex abrasives, cutoff discs etc. I think the 1/4 HP would be appropiate for grinding out welding slag but not for things typically done with a dremel size grinding stone.

I have the SR. Reverse is very limited because the arbor will unscrew on cutoff discs etc.

The collet hand piece (44T) is definatly more useful. Grinding dust will quickly fill up the drill chuck in a #30 handpiece. I also like the 8D handpiece and use it a lot.

Most cutters and grinding stones have 1/8 inch shanks. For some reason cratex abrasives use one size smaller.

Get the H series if possible. I have had one for years and have used it for metal(mostly)and wood(some). I was carving Desert Ironwood this morning using one of those structured carbide burs that looks like a porcupine. I could have used a little more power but it did the job. I have the collet hand piece and have only 2 collets, 1/8" and 1/4' as they are the only ones I have ever needed. The hand piece runs cool and vibrationless, however the flex shaft will warm up a little especially if you keep it in a small radius bend while under power. For metal working, I usually run 1/4" shaft grinding points. A one inch dia. point is about the max size that you can run on the H series without overloading. I have often wanted a little more power, but then control is compromised.

Randy