Mouthpiece Work / My Flex Shaft Rig
FROM: kwbradbury (kwbradbury)
SUBJECT: My Flex Shaft Rig
I had a Weller rotary tool already. I first ordered a flexible shaft for it from Micro-Mark (#14260 ~$25). Later, saw a similar item for a similar price at Home Depot (but no s/h), so shop around. I rigged up 2' pipe clamp as a bench stand to hold the tool. I put on a stone grinding tip and tried it out. Two problems. I felt a rotary burr (file-like) cutter would be better. So I ordered set #80470 from Micro-Mark ($28). Next I felt the need for variable speed and foot control. High speed would wear out the shaft bearings fast (at 20,000 RPMs, the sucker gets hot!) and being able to cut at slower speed give me more options. I decided to get a good Dremel brand foot control. I found the best price on-line at Walmart's site. I figured if "old Weller" gave out, I could upgrade it to match the foot control. But I also saw some very economical complete sets on eBay. They were tempting, and I would have tried them if I was starting from scratch. They are complete with a rotary tool, flex shaft, and foot control. However, I would not expect them to hold up to heavy usage. I uploaded some pictures of my rig in a new "Chamber Work" photo album on the MPWork site. Its not real pretty, but it works great. I used the rig to create a round nose (bullet-like) chamber in a HR diamond Beechler tenor MP I had. The high baffle in the Beechler extends all the way for the full length of the window to the bottom of the "U". It just about fell off the cork of my 10M when tuned, so it was asking to be enlarged. Cutting it out was a lot of fun. I may do more to it if the palm keys do not go sharp on me.