You can get a Router Speed Control from Harbor Freight for ~$13 on sale pretty often.
"ROUTER SPEED CONTROL
Get better results and longer bit life when routing tough woods, plastics, even aluminum. Plug your router into the control unit and you instantly have a variable-speed tool. Works with any universal AC/DC brush type motor, 15 amps and under. Will not work with soft- or slow-start motors.
ITEM 43060-1VGA"
See:
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I have one and it works okay with my die grinder, drill, table saw (cheapo, has universal motor), 4 inch angle grinder...
Your going to have a hard time building one cheaper than this and have it look and work as well.
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Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
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But that's the point, those things have really high speed to do the work, and you shouldn't be using much pressure.
Try sawing through a bolt. You'd have to use the hacksaw and lots of pressure. Put a cutoff wheel in the "rotary tool", and you barely need to apply any pressure. The first time I tried a cutoff wheel in one of those things was the day I realized how wonderful they were.
Now, your cheap one may have other problems. But a light touch is what's required with "rotary tools" anyway.
Built mine about 15 or more years ago in a $2 surplus project box, using the cord from an old iron and the receptacle from an old stove-top with a dimmer I picked up in a box of stuff at an auction. I think total cast was $5 or less and it STILL looks and works just fine.
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Plus the collets are brass and wear out in no time. Good for a one or two time use project, no substitute for a pneumatic die grinder. Bearings suck on them, too. Whadda ya want for $6 anyway? Spend a couple of bucks more and get the mini-pneumatic die grinder. Some of the ones I have accept Foredom collets, too.
Well you need an air compressor for one of those, a tool relatively few people own. I use a pneumatic die grinder occasionally, but it's louder than my Dremel and it spews out a bit of oil in use.
Sorry not to reply to this directly, I don't seem to have the original.
If you're interested in making PCBs have you looked at the mailing list "homebrew snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com" and their archives?
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Stuart Winsor
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Well that would defeat the purpose of the oil in the first place, which is squirted into the tool to lubricate the air motor. Perhaps you're referring to the high speed air turbine tools? Either way unless you already have the compressor as I did, an electric tool is far cheaper and is not tethered to a big heavy noisy piece of equipment.
Of those, the third (rec.crafts.metalworking) is likely to have a very
*high* percentage of readers who own an air compressor. The reply suggesting a pneumatic die grinder probably came from someone in RCM who did not notice the other newsgroups in the cross-posting, so it was reasonable to expect that an air compressor would be present.
I forget what the application was for the Dremel (somewhere upthread) so I don't know whether the oil is a problem or not. If working on metal, I would suggest that the oil is probably a benefit, not a problem.
If oil is a problem, I would second the suggestion for a Foredom. Note that not only does it have a fairly hefty flexible shaft, but for smaller tools (e;g. what a Dremel would be comfortable driving) there is a handpiece with a short very flexible shaft just before it which makes precise hand control a lot easier. I use an ancient Foredom with the extra flexible handpiece for tuning English concertina reeds, with a Dremel foot pedal for speed control, from a near total stop (needed on the tiny reeds at the upper end of the collection in a typical concertina) to near full speed (for the lowest pitch reeds).
Enjoy, DoN.
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The big and heavy I would agree with for any compressor adequate to drive a die grinder, but *noisy*? It may be that you have the wrong air compressor. The oilless ones tend to be *very* noisy, but the oil wetted ones, with a belt drive from the motor to the compressor tends to be very quiet in comparison. Yes, there are bursts of chugging from time to time, but no problem from my point of view at least. I would not have one of the oilless ones in my shop.
As for heavy -- I just installed a reel fed hose on the ceiling to allow me to reach any place in the shop where I am likely to need air. Someday, I will probably plumb it for drops near each likely place of use.
Enjoy, DoN.
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Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
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