flex shaft questions

[strickland4701]

Greetings all
I need some hep finding a flex shaft. I have search the net and this site and have not found a lot of speciffic information. I have reviewed the industrial one caswell sells and it looks perfect , but the price is more than I want to spend. if I was doing this for a living then there would be no question I would buy one.
I would like to get something similar that I could connect to my buffer ( 1/2 horse ), but can only really find the ones thgat attach to drills

I have also seen the ones that hook to a drill. Can anyone atest to how well the ones that hook up tp a 3/8 drill work? are they worth the effort and cash ?? I found one that was rated at 10,000 RPM and thought I could hook it up to my 1-1/2 router motor with a speed reducer and it should get all the necessary tourque and definately the speed , but I am not sure it it would hold up

anyadvice will be greatly appreciated.

thanks
charles

[baz]

smaller flex cables are cheaper and they are made to support less torque , if you apply more than they are designed to support then you are running after trouble

[mpierich]

Greetings all
I need some hep finding a flex shaft. I have search the net and this site and have not found a lot of speciffic information. I have reviewed the industrial one caswell sells and it looks perfect , but the price is more than I want to spend. if I was doing this for a living then there would be no question I would buy one.
I would like to get something similar that I could connect to my buffer ( 1/2 horse ), but can only really find the ones thgat attach to drills

I have also seen the ones that hook to a drill. Can anyone atest to how well the ones that hook up tp a 3/8 drill work? are they worth the effort and cash ?? I found one that was rated at 10,000 RPM and thought I could hook it up to my 1-1/2 router motor with a speed reducer and it should get all the necessary tourque and definately the speed , but I am not sure it it would hold up
anyadvice will be greatly appreciated.
thanks
charles

The big ones are great, the Dremel-sized ones are great...anything in between is junk. Better off buying cheap electric drills and burning them up - should be able to use a drill directly anyplace you can use a shaft.

[Brintiff]

Foredom is THE name in flexshafts, I love mine, however it greatly depends what you want to do with it. Foredom type flexshafts are high RPM but fairly low torque. Caswells flexshaft is high torque and low RPM If I need torque I'll grab one of my die grinders.

[strickland4701]

hmm I thank the guys who responded but not really the information I was looking for. I was looking for someone that has used them with success and had some specific advise. I guess I should have been a little more specific. I have looked at the THX foreman and it seems to have more torque, anybody with any experience on the new model?? I am looking for sanding and some tight area buffing with a 3 or 4 inch wheel.

[mpierich]

hmm I thank the guys who responded but not really the information I was looking for. I was looking for someone that has used them with success and had some specific advise. I guess I should have been a little more specific. I have looked at the THX foreman and it seems to have more torque, anybody with any experience on the new model?? I am looking for sanding and some tight area buffing with a 3 or 4 inch wheel.

You've received pretty specific info. With a wheel that size, a shaft smaller than the large industrial ones as sold here by Caswell's _IS_ going to twist itself into a pretzel as soon as you apply pressure to the wheel. That's a fact - it's specific advice because I have used them with no sucess - if I'd had sucess with them I'd say so. LOL...no matter how many ways you ask the question, they are still cr@p. Not sure what else you need to know.

What are you polishing that requires a shaft, that you can't do the same job with another tool such as an electric or air drill with a long mandrel?

[baz]

ok ill try to be more specific
small flexible shafts are good for small wheel low torque aplication
with 4 inch wheels you need bigger flex shaft
if you cannot afford a larger type cable then you have 2 options
either you buy a smaller cable and use smaller buffing wheels
or you buy smaller cable and still use 4 inch wheels and wait for that cable to snap


oh ,there is a third option . you use some other tool to get the job done
i have not used a flex shaft for a long time and i still get my jobs done
die grinders , drills, variable speed angle sander, + all the size and shape buffing wheels avilable from caswell you should be ok to tackle just about any jobs

[strickland4701]

ok I seem to be at fault here. when I say specific on the larger shaft I meant where the hell can I buy one !!! what name brand !!LOL

yes I fully understand that the smaller ones will be problematic, and should have been more specific in my questioning.

here is a little more information. I am polishing motorcycle forks right now, and am having issues with the mounting bosses ( the parts where the brakes and fender mount.) I would like a smaller wheel to get into the difficult areas to not have to hand sand . I could use a drill but I believe it is just as akward if not more than the bench buffer itself. I would like to get options on if there are less expensive shafts than the one offered on the caswell site. while I believe in buying quality and understand it costs $$ I would like some other brand names and offerings to reference the quality and price against.

Also when we are talking small flex shafts what brands are you speaking of ?? I have searched for flex shafts that attach to drills and found a large varity of units rated from 1/8" - 1/4" collets and from 2000 rpm to 10000 rpm suggested usage. I understand if some one is trying to polish a car orf truck wheel with a dremel it is just asking for a disaster , but just how much usage can one exect from the heavier duty modelks rated for higher HP and rpms ..

I have also sent a email directly to foredom concerning using thier heavy duty square drive shaft and hand pieces on a motor with more torque to allow more flexaity . I have not yet heard from them

I also want to polish the motor this winter and can not really imagine doing all the cylinder fins with a drill. I think a flex shaft with a samller wheel ( 3" ? ) would be much more realistic. I searched the forms and found someone using a foredom and cartridge rolls to do the initiall sanding on the fins, but I did not see much in the way of polishing after that. I have polished the front foks which are aluminium using greassless and then brown and white compounds, and it did not take that much force to do aluminum and suspect the fins could be polish with possible the newer fordome TXH model .

[mpierich]

Re: flex shafts; it's not a function of the quality of the shaft. It's purely a function of the diameter. A mid-sized shaft with a 1/4 hp motor using a 3"-4" wheel WILL, at some point, twist around itself when pressure is applied. You'll accidentally catch an edge, or bear down too hard, and all hell will break loose. You could possibly lose a couple of front teeth in the process, but you can always buy more of those.

What you're looking for is a CHEAP big flex shaft. Maybe you can find a used one like I did, but why throw your money away on a relatively expensive smaller one that won't do what you need? I have a couple of them hanging on my wall that I'll sell you, pre-twisted.

Like baz, I don't understand your fixation on the shafts (sounds like a case of tool lust, if you ask me, LOL). I have done quite a few fork lowers (and I'm sure baz has done hundreds), and never once picked up my heavy-duty shaft. I do all the boss areas up to 320 grit with the die grinder, and after that I have no problem whatsoever polishing those areas on my 8" buffer. And I have had people pay me handsomely for the way they come out. Oh, and by the way, it'll take you quite a few hours to learn to use the grinder without leaving ripples. Of course, you could send them to baz (I'm not doing any polishing right now) and save time and grief...or you could buy the e-book I wrote on how to do it. At any rate the tools are less than half the job. The hand skills are more than half. People think "anyone" can polish properly - it just ain't so.

You could easily do cylinder fins with a drill, long mandrel, and 1/4" cart rolls. Better yet, go to Harbor Freight and get a $30 electric die grinder. I do 90% of my work with just that very tool. After that it's razor wheels.

No offense, but it seems a lot of people come in here looking not for an answer to their question from experienced people, but the answer they want to hear. This makes it very difficult for some of us to remain interested in giving any answers at all, frankly. If you don't like the answers you get, then you should go ahead and buy the tools that _you_ think will work, and then spend the years gaining sad experience by trial and error the way we did.

[strickland4701]

Mpierich
you might be correct on the tool lust I am guilty of that ALOT !!!! I was working on the forks a little last night and wondering if I truly needed the flex shaft myself! My problem I am sure is from lack of experience and using lower quality tools. I only have a 1/2 HP 6" buffer and when I bear down it stalls. so I can not get the wheels into the tight spots. The buffer works great on flat surfces just a little slower than I like. I have already decided to upgrade to an 8" model pulling more amps ( or build one from mandrels)and I hope that will solve the problem. I am also looking at thiner ( mabe a razor) buffs so it will fit into the contors easier as well. as far as the shaft I was looking more toward when I do the engine and the fins it jst seems it would be easier and that could just be personal preference. I was unable to find an affordable model anywhere !! actually caswells price was probably the best price I found new. I have only seen one used one on ebay so far

When you do the initial sanding into the boss areas ( up to 320) are you using cartridge rolls or something else ?? do you use any speed control on the die grinder it seems like the 20+ K rpm would be a little overkill and probably cause more rippling than if it ran at say 5000 rpm !!

thanks for the feedback I appreciate the honesty and patience !