[TotemWood Tommy]

Hello,

I suppose I stand in the minority. I prefer the dial speed control.

For literally years I have tried my best to do as my peers have suggested [over time] and tried to add controlling my foot to what I already do with my hands & arms. -Good for those who have the resources to do it. Afraid I am in a bit different position or have been for "all these years." <shrug>

With my RamPower for example however? I have found the glory of setting an appropriate speed first. Then it is simply flipping a switch and away I go.

This works well with sanding as well which of course should be done at a slower speed than max.

With "dangerous" burrs? I try to use them only at the beginning of a carving session, and try to keep in mind, "swing my power carving arm OUT FIRST." I also try to ensure that I wear my VERY sturdy LEATHER APRON at least in those times-even during hot summer daze.

I continue to look at Harbor Freight and their "dial router speed control." Eventually the cheapskate in me may go that route.
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Instead of adjusting speed? I adjust "pressure and strokes" with my tool.
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Some of us may find our seating is not readily adaptable to foot pedals, or there may be some other limitation which restricts usage of their legs/feet for speed control "in an artistic manner." -No matter how many of our peers say "this is the only way if one only WORKS HARDER." Hehehhhh! <grin>
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Another solution/work-around I have come up with in my case is that I have TWO Ram45's. On the off chance I do need to shift speeds constantly? I simply put the same burr in both hand pieces, set one speed on one machine and another in the other. Then simply switch. <grin> <shrug> But what do I know eh?
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What do YOU KNOW, and how do YOU feel about things? What has been YOUR experience? If you like foot pedals, what great advantage do they give you?

-Tommy...

[susieq]

Hi Tommy,
Everything I have EXCEPT the micromotors, is on foot controls...the dust collector, the Foredom, the big Dremel and both small Dremels are on foot pedals. The 4 flex shaft units hang from an old IV hanger to the right of my chair (as I am right handed) and their electric cords are wrapped in duct tape to hold them to the pole on the IV hanger, out of my way. I have a piece of sheet metal over the whole thing right about the height of where the bits hang when not in use because I have a habit of letting them go to grab the next one and I don't want to nick the electric cords.

The dust collector and one of the small Dremels are on an on/off foot pedals but the other 3 units are on variable speed pedals . I love the foot pedals but I do hit the wrong one some times (hence the need for the metal shield around the power cords) and for that reason I would never put my micromotors on the foot pedal.

When I am using those machines, I want to be focused on everything I do as they can be screwed up good if you accidently turn one on while the collet is open, etc.... I also like to turn them on while set on low and then bring up the speed. The manual on my old Foredom micromotor warned against going from 0 to full speed all at once like that so I just got in the habit of starting on low and turning it up, then turning it down before turning it off. Yeah...I am slightly obsessive...

[TotemWood Tommy]

Susieq,

I was curious about what you thought in particular. You bring up some interesting ideas along with the main point thank you.

The idea of taping yer cords in conjunction with some light metal shielding. Especially in my case and my foredome clone, this seems like a good idea.

In the case of power/rotary? <looking over my glasses> I doubt that "slightly obsessive" is a bad idea at all... <wink> sorta necessary in the end I think-at least in some cases certainly.

You have more rotaries than I have-how do you keep from getting the foot pedals from being confused?

When you speak of micromotors, you do mean rotaries that speed 35,000 rpm+ correct? Are they all electric? Forgive me for being nosey... I assume that my Ram's are what you consider to be "micromotors?" With my Dremel not being one, and my foredome clone "very ancient" given to me by a jeweler friend, being a "flex shaft unit?"

Best,

-Tommy...

[susieq]

I think your Ram is probably a micromotor, do they make a flex shaft unit? I don't know. The micromotor is a handpiece with the motor in it, giving you a lot more freedom of movement while you work. You don't have to worry about bending the shaft too much and ruining it, because there isn't one.

But micromotors are best used for fine detailing. I hear a lot of the folks on here use their units much harder than I would...putting 1/8 inch collets in them for instance. I paid a lot of money for my first one and would hate to tear it up, but you can buy them cheaper now and they have improved a lot too....more torque, etc. My old one runs 45,000 and the newer one is supposed to run at 50,000 but I can't really see that it runs faster. I don't think you can believe everything you are told with some of this stuff.

But the small flex shaft Dremel runs over 30,000 rpms and if I need to use a 1/8 bit I will use the Dremel. Roughing work is done with the flexshaft units and I have a different collet size in each one because I hate taking time out to change a collet...and because except for one of those units, (the shaft units) I found most of them used which is why I have so many. How could I pass it up????? The taping of the electric cords was just to hold them out of the way. Had some scrap sheet copper and folded it around the area where the bits hang Did you ever watch Red Green on PBS? Duct tape is the handy man's secret weapon. Believe it. If I had known the gulf of Mexico was coming up in March 1993, I could have kept it out of the house with some well placed duct tape.....but that's another story....

[TotemWood Tommy]

Okay, yes my Ram is a micromotor-just wanted to ensure I was speaking the same language here. I luv 'em!

I have 1/8in collets for them but do not use them, agree-too much hassle! <frown> When it comes to 1/8in burs I go with my variable speed Dremel with drill chuck thing a mabob. For traveling, I use that as I was told I was not guaranteed I would be allowed to bring my RAM aboard plane, and I did not trust it in baggage.

[like I'm gonna do something with my Ram right? Sheesh! <frown>] But some idiot might steal the thing and THAT would be way to costly.

The speeds above 35k, and at least in Ram's case, excellent construction, make for so much better CONTROL. -At least for me.

I agree-getting rid of the flexshaft also really helps and in some cases since my flexshaft goes only in one direction and my Ram will go in either? Again, though pricey, I decided the what for me is a significant investment, was/is worth it.

Ahhhhhh Red Green... Born in Michigan, and having lived there again before I moved to the U.S. Pacific Northwest? He's my Hero! <grin>

I had just not really considered making the final decision to tape things down for example, nor come up with a shield of some sort. I usually give things a lot of thought before I do things for my own reasons.

What happened in March of '93?

Best to you,

-Tommy...

[Thomp]

Originally Posted by TotemWood Tommy

Hello,

I suppose I stand in the minority. I prefer the dial speed control.

--snip--
I continue to look at Harbor Freight and their "dial router speed control." Eventually the cheapskate in me may go that route.
-----
Instead of adjusting speed? I adjust "pressure and strokes" with my tool.
-----

-Tommy...

tommy,

i bought the Harbor Freight "dial router speed control."
I didnt find it very usefull with my fordom like cheap imitation flex tool as it came with a foot control which i like most for using the flex shaft. if god forbid i drop the shaft or get into trouble my first instinct is to flee the area which means the foot leaves the control and the but stopps turning,

the dial router speed control. i found best on my router table, i dont like the tool running at max so i turn it down some to make initial cuts then speed it up to really hog off wood,
i use my router table as a drumb sander on occasion when i have a lot of shaping to do on knife handles or such, while my drill press holds the sand o flex for final contour sanding... the dial router speed control. comes in here as an irreplaceable part of my shop tools..

i have several foot controls from old sewing machienes, which work well on dremels but dont use them barefoot, i burned my foot pretty good on the one i have used on the past, being dibetic, how did i know, until the next day in the bath... 4 months healing....later i bought the harbor freight central electric fordom knock off.

[susieq]

Yes, the Dremels / Foredoms shaft tools are not picky about the foot controls....just about any one will do. The main choice is whether you want a variable speed pedal or an on/off switch pedal. Both have their applications...

Tommy, back in March of 1993 the famous "No Name" storm hit the country from the Gulf. My husband hadn't retired yet so he was on duty at the firehouse that night. Friday the 12th was a beautiful day with no sign of trouble. That night on the evening news at dinner time, our local weather man who never gets too excited about anything, was obviously upset....that was when I knew we were in the path of a bad storm. The weather man said that this was a VERY DANGEROUS storm and to be alert and take precautions.

Up to that time our house, which sits 3/4 of a mile from the coast line, had never had water in it during storms. In fact when the firehouse was located just a block away from our house, during bad storms the men would park the equipment in our yard to avoid the flooding that usually occured on main st. So it never entered my mind that we might flood. But the satillite image of that storm filled the gulf of Mexico, it was a huge storm.

I laid awake all night and listened to the winds screaming (I later learned we had 90 mph) At one point our security light post (which is about twenty feet tall) blew over on to our car in the driveway. Not long after that, about 5am, my husband called from a payphone. He and his crew were out with Engine 10, on a call and he was checking in to see "where the water is" ????? Huh? Water? He said the water was coming up and to look out the window and see if it was coming up our street yet. I quick looked out the window and sure enough, in the dark was an even darker shadow moving up our road. aaack!

I yelled for our oldest daughter, who was still living at home) to get up and get dressed. I pulled on jeans under my night gown, got socks and shoes on, grabbed the dog and my purse. Our daughter grabbed her purse and we headed out the front door to the cars in the driveway. We stepped off our threshold into ankle deep water, it came up that fast and was still coming.

She got into her car, I got the dog and myself into our car and we headed out to the main road. There was a low spot on our little side road and the water was already very deep there. I had to keep a foot on the brake and a foot on the gas, reving the motor to keep water from going up the exhaust pipe...which was under water at this point. I couldn't go too fast or risk flooding out the motor. We were blowing bubbles our our tail pipes until we got to the other end of the road and could get on the main road, then up onto the highway and across to the shopping center parking lot across the highway where we both parked facing back the way we had come. Our daughter got into my car and we just sat there in silence, not saying anything for quite a while. We listened to the howling wind and watched as transformer blew up all over town. You would see sudden collumns of flames shooting into the sky as a transformer blew.......

It was starting to get light but still extremely windy when I decided to dig out a quarter and go to the payphone up by the shopping center. I called my sister in law who lived a ways up the road and on high ground. She sounded frantic and said they had been trying to call us and to come up and get dried off. We were both soaked to the skin like drowned rats.

So Sherrie got back into her car and we headed up the road to my sister in laws place. They were kind enough to make my big boxer welcome also. This was my husband's brother and he was in the fire service back then too, though not on duty that night. He was however, back in Hudson trying to rescue his sister and mother from their flooded homes. In some areas of town the water got 8 to 10 feet deep and people barely got out of their homes in those lower areas. Luckily, most of our family lived on higher ground and had minimal flooding but a foot of water in your house is no picnic. We were even more fortunate, even thought the water line left behind on our home was 18" deep at the front door, we only got about an inch inside the house.....it came in through the dryer vent. It would have been worse but the water came up fast and went down just as fast so it didn't have time to trickle in for very long.....now when we have a hurricane watch, I duct tape the dryer vent first. We lost carpet and my wedding pictures because the album was laying on the closet floor...coulda been much worse.

This storm was also the same one that dumped unbelievable amounts of snow in the smokies....where my mom lives. The next day as we were trying to clean up, we were running the shop vac trying to suck the water out of the carpets just to lighten them so we could carry them out of the house. My mom called to complain that they had been snowed in with no power (they do have a wood stove for heat). I just told her that I would trade places with her as we were vacuuming the Gulf of Mexico out of our carpets.
We did get things cleaned up, new carpets, dried the place out and back to normal. Had to get work done on the cars right away due to the salt water getting into places it shouldn't when we drove out through it.

We haven't had water on our property since, not even during hurricanes. That storm was far worse than the few hurricanes I have ridden out......
But when they say evacuate.....we go. I can't wait to get to Tenn. so we don't have to live like this anymore.....