'Flexi-shaft' drill extension..?

RainbowsInTheSpray

Has anyone any experience with these things which are meant, as I understand it, to get rotary power from a power tool into inaccessible places? This is a typical example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ1vYW9BOhw

My nephew is into crafting and the power tool of choice is apparently called a 'Dremel'... but he says this will do fine instead, as he has all the necessary 'bits'. Is there no loss of power or are there any implications for longer term reliability?

daivid

Got one, a cheap one admittedly, it has been used for a few one off jobs but is poor really: lots of power loss and can only cope with a very gradual curve. If the use is going to be regular (or even sporadic heavyish use) get the right tool not the 'it will do at a pinch' alternative.

Ectophile

A full size electric drill will be massively over-powered for the sort of delicate crafting things you would do with a Dremel.  So a bit of loss in the flexi shaft wouldn't really matter.  What would be more awkward is that the trigger for the drill may be nowhere near the thing you're working on.

A Dremel is a small hand-held version of a drill, into which you can fit a variety of different tools.  Cheap knock-offs are available.  I have an old Woolworths one.

FreeBear

 have used heavy duty flexi drives with a drill, a ceiling hung motor with flexi shaft plush foot peddle, and a small Dremel type tool with a lightweight flexi shaft.

The Dremel type is OK for small delicate work. The ceiling hung version had plenty of power (for what I was doing), and the foot switch was invaluable for on/off control. I'll not go in to exactly what I was doing with the heavy duty flexi shaft, but it would try to twist its self in to knots if the business end needed a lot of power.

At the end of the day, it really depends on what you are using the drive for - For small delicate work, they are good, but they need to be rated for the appropriate speed (very small grinding wheels & cutters need high speed (10,000 to 30,000 RPM).

RainbowsInTheSpray

FreeBear said:

At the end of the day, it really depends on what you are using the drive for - For small delicate work, they are good, but they need to be rated for the appropriate speed (very small grinding wheels & cutters need high speed (10,000 to 30,000 RPM).

My highlights. I'm not sure what material he's dealing with generally. All I can get out of him is that it has broadly the same characteristics as your fingernail in terms of thickness and strength - and he needs to shape and bore through it.. I'm guessing it has to be a plastic of some kind. Would one of these flexi shafts, accessing a standard DIY power drill, do the job? He seems to think it would but I'm not sure he's researched it properly.

grumbler

Controlled? - Only if you have an antique drill with this sort of control.

FreeBear

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

FreeBear said:

At the end of the day, it really depends on what you are using the drive for - For small delicate work, they are good, but they need to be rated for the appropriate speed (very small grinding wheels & cutters need high speed (10,000 to 30,000 RPM).

My highlights. I'm not sure what material he's dealing with generally. All I can get out of him is that it has broadly the same characteristics as your fingernail in terms of thickness and strength - and he needs to shape and bore through it.. I'm guessing it has to be a plastic of some kind. Would one of these flexi shafts, accessing a standard DIY power drill, do the job? He seems to think it would but I'm not sure he's researched it properly.

Your typical corded drill is only going to go up to around 3000 rpm. When using small cutters, you need to spin them a lot faster. A Dremel type tool would be better, and I see you can get flexible shafts form them too.

https://www.dremel.com/gb/en/p/dremel-flexible-shaft-26150225ja - If he has already got a Dremel, get him the flexi shaft.

RainbowsInTheSpray

The guy in the video seems to be managing pretty well for general purpose crafting, no?