Monday, January 18, 2010

Big girls love power tools!

It’s just been my birthday and my family and boyfriend took pity in me and together bought me a Foredom flex shaft instead of my Dremel. “What’s wrong with your Dremel?” you may ask, eyeing your own version. Well, mine had a minimum speed of 10.000, which meant that it was WAY too fast to remove any metal with for instance a setting burr or any drill. It just went dull :-( AND I missed a foot pedal –so much more convenient!

Due to it’s fast action, it was also almost impossible to control and even when concentrating real hard, I could never write something nicely with it –it just slipped away. It was decent, but I wasn’t satisfied. This pendant for instance:


It can be argued that it’s a coarse style – I know it’s not prettier because I was unable with my current tool, which is just so not satisfying. So I caved in and decided to buy another machine (girls can’t have too many power tools ;-) After discussing the topic on my favorite forum with my fellow metal smith Etsyians (thank you CG), I decided to go for a Foredom –the Volvo of flex shafts.

Last Friday, the day arrived, when we went to my favorite dealer “Ravstedhus” in Southern Jutland (paradise to ppl like me) and shopped:

1 Foredom SR Flex shaft
1 Hand piece with interchangeable cuffs
1 Tube cutter
1 Besel block for round bezels
Plus a few materials, now I was there.

Happy happy me!
And here is the box of goodies this morning, ready to be installed in my workshop:



Pretty soon I had exchanged the Dremel with the Foredom



And did a testrun:



Compare to the talisman, if you please –it’s a huge difference for a first try!

And so I immediately set out to cut some amber, which I haven’t done for ages. Am planning on a quite weird ring themed “octopus”. Let’s see how it turns out, but I tell you: Working with the Foredom is bliss! Wish I had done that ages ago…


2 comments:

  1. Aren't they the best machines ever! I got mine as soon as I could afford one...I already had the dremel for other reasons, but knew it wouldn't be good for jewelry making. Have fun with it! Makes the fiddly jobs sooo much easier! :)

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  2. I also wanted to ask that question to you. I know that dremels are perfect for working with small items, so I initially thought that’s already good enough for you. But foredoms have more power, which helps you take on larger projects. Either of the two, for me, is already enough to help you with your crafts. And on light of that, what was your experience using the foredom? :)

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