Foredom No. 50 Reciprocating Handpiece

[jwander]

I am interested in hearing reviews of this tool. Both good and bad. I am thinking about buying one because I have arthritis in my thumbs and holding a regular chisel when doing heavy carving is sometimes very uncomfortable. Please include comments about the chisels that come with it. I am planning to use the handpiece for carving in the round. I know I will need to use regular chisels for fine tuning a carving. Also if anyone has experience with a better system I would like to hear from you.

Thanks

[pinefeathers]

The Foredom No. 50 handpiece is a good quality tool. There are, however, some necessary limitations. The operating rpm's should not exceed 10,000. High rpm's cause the handpiece to heat up from friction. The foot control is difficult to maintain a constant speed, so you should invest in a manual speed controller.
The blades available from Foredom are very good and maintain an edge. Flexcut blades can be used with the proper adapter.
One important rule - never run your motor in reverse mode with the No. 50 handpiece. The internal mechanism will uncouple in less than a second.
Happy carving

[jfmonod]

Hi,
I am also interested in knowing how this handpiece handles prolonged continuous operation (about 20 -30 minutes at a time). If speed is maintained at a constant 5000 rpm for example, is there a point where heat will become an issue ?

JF

[pinefeathers]

I ran evaluation tests on the No. 50 about two years ago. For me, the handpiece performed best between three and five thousand rpm's without abnormal heat build up. Above 10,000 rpm the tool became too hot to hold after about 20 minutes.
Foredom's bench top speed control is a must. The foot switch/control is not constant enough for good results. If you are the purist that has to do only blade carving, the #50 is a good choice.

[Bill102M]

I use a flex shaft power carver all the time for fine work on small projects. I find the Flex Cut blades work the best. If you have arthritis, you may want to try one out at a carving show first. There is quite a bit of of high frequency vibration in the hand piece. You might find this aggrevating to your condition. I would suggest that you try one out first, a friend, carving club, or the like may give you the opportunity to test fly one, before you lay out alot of cash.