What Motor (Again).

[Dennis]

I was looking to save up for a Foredom but would you recommend one of these instead?? Sorry to sound like a newbie....but I always thought a flex shaft and pendant mother were supposed to be better than a handheld device as they were lighter and therefore more controllable? Also thought a Foredom pendant motor was like the holy grail of equipment?! Can someone help a newbie as I am looking to save up for something like this so I can polish small items and also start to teach myself to stone set etc. obviously this is a lot cheaper than a Foredom.

OK Silver, here is a brief resumé:
The hanging (pendant) electric motor with its flexible shaft was originally developed for use by dentist and dental technicians. It is a descendant of a foot pedal machine with flexshaft, which was in vogue prior to that.

Because of the weight and drag and the tendency to exhibit backlash, the flexshaft was eventually replaced in dental surgeries by a continuous cord strung around pullies. However this was never sufficiently durable for laboratory work.

The result is that for many years the pendant motor was the motor of choice for dental technicians and adopted by its sister profession, in jewellery.

The breakthrough came with the advent of the micro motor, where the motor was in the hand piece, connected to a control box by a lightweight electrical lead. This at a stroke improved the balance and dispensed with the drag.

As things stand, the micro motors available from the usual suppliers to dentists and jewellers are much more expensive than the flexshafts, and have not been taken up by jewellers , at least in the UK, on the grounds of cost and also because UK jewellers are rather conservative in outlook.

Micro motors are now being sold at relatively low prices by little known companies in the Far East and I hope that they will prove to be sufficiently reliable to become the tool of choice. Dennis.

[ps_bond]

The only time I use my Foredom pendant motor these days is if I have something that doesn't have a 3/32 shank on it. Otherwise I use 1 or 2 micromotors - 2 if I'm shaping round burnishers, for example. That's when dialling a speed in on the control box is handy - you don't need to operate 2 foot pedals at once.

[silver70]

Thanks Dennis! You are so knowledgable! A very full reply. So, a cheaper and better alternative then? Is the one from amazon from the Far East? Did you have to pay import tax on it? How much was it if you don't mind me asking? I see the cheaper model - you can't change the speed via the foot pedal - would you say this is a massive disadvantage?

[silver70]

Thanks for the reply Peter

[Dennis]

Thanks Dennis! You are so knowledgable! A very full reply. So, a cheaper and better alternative then? Is the one from amazon from the Far East? Did you have to pay import tax on it? How much was it if you don't mind me asking? I see the cheaper model - you can't change the speed via the foot pedal - would you say this is a massive disadvantage?

Using the dial to set the speed is quite adequate if you are on a budget and you would still have the same hand piece. You can save money by having no foot pedal at all.

There are two types of foot pedal. one is just a on/off switch, with the speed still set with the dial. The other is a foot speed control, which renders the dial non functional, but I rather like, because you can adjust the speed to suit the tool you are using in an instinctive way. Each stage of sophistication ups the price.

Please note that this is my first trial with one of these cheap versions from China and although it feels perfect at the moment, only time will tell whether it's all a flash in the pan. Dennis.

[silver70]

Thanks Dennis - keep us updated!

[medusa]

This place in the UK is selling a range of micro motors: http://www.herodental.co.uk/Marathon-Micro-Motor.html

Not sure how good they are but it's an easier return to the UK if it dies on you. I rather love my Foredom and can't imagine life without it. Now I'm left wondering if my prince is in fact a frog.

[Aurarius]

This place in the UK is selling a range of micro motors: http://www.herodental.co.uk/Marathon-Micro-Motor.html

They're not really a UK company, medusa; they have a London office address but they're a Chinese import business essentially. They also go under the name of Virgodental. How easy it would be to deal with them if your product was faulty is anyone's guess. You could say that about any genuinely UK-based company as well of course, but a genuinely UK-based company will be easier to pin down if something goes wrong than people with only a tenuous foothold on these shores.