How Handy Is A Dremel With A Flexishaft

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toby67

Can't Leave
Sep 30, 2014
413
1
Australia
A few years ago I used to make Sterling Silver jewellery, well long story short, when I separated from my wife I lost most of my tools but fortunately not my Dremel with a 3ft Flexishaft and a few other little things that I also used with the Jewelery.
Anyway onto subject, I have been wanting to clean up the outer parts of a few pipes and today I was reaming the last few of my recently acquired "uncleaned" estate pipes. About 3-4 of these pipes were purchased from a bloke on eBay that uses this nugget like brownish stem gunk that dries uneven and tastes like dog crap mixed with vinegar to form a paste. He did this to cover oxidation from the stems rather than clean them up and buff them.
I am yet to get bowl and stem polish and with these cheap pipes I thought I would try the polish chalk I used to use for silver, it's called "Dialux". I used felt buffing pads on the Dremel. It cleaned up all oxidation from the stems and made them like new. So anyway I thought I would try it on the bowls but with much less Dialux, WOW, it buffed them up really nice and took away the years of "tarnish" and gave the bowls a like new sheen. The knocks and scratches still show but the pipes look cool.
I even polished the unsmoked 1981 Christmas Comoy and it looks brilliant.
Guess I'm on the way to fixing up estate pipes, I got myself hooked. However I will still get the proper stem and bowl polish and only use Dialux to get rid of old tarnish.
Sorry for rambling.

 

boilermakerandy

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 27, 2014
248
0
Dog shit mixed with vinegar, that's a new one. My dog Dutch and I should get into the business of selling estate pipes on Ebay, he very efficiently turns dog food into dog shit and I smoke pipes so we'll make a good team.
In all seriousness, I hope you get them cleaned up.

 

toby67

Can't Leave
Sep 30, 2014
413
1
Australia
It is White Dialux Forest

Lmao Boilermaker trust me if you use that crap this guy uses you wouldn't get return customers. I won't mention his name out of respect. The pipes were good just needed some real cleaning.

 

ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,317
11,068
Maryland
postimg.cc
Just be careful. With the smaller Dremel buffs (and speed), you are liable to get groove marks on the stem if you aren't real careful. White Dialux is just a brand name for white diamond rouge (fine polishing). I never tried it inside a bowl

 

kf4bsb

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 23, 2013
166
0
Toby,

I have actually use heatless wheels on my Foredom for ver bad oxidation and reshaping in the past.

 

johnnyreb

Lifer
Aug 21, 2014
1,961
612
I have a variable speed flex shaft grinder/shaper from Woodcrafters. I have been doing some wood, Ivory & bone carving for about 3 yrs now and I use it mostly for rough-out work so far. I'm not good enough yet to use it on delicate work. I still do that by hand.
I haven't used it for any pipe or stem polishing but I second the idea that you should use the slowest RPM speed and the biggest tool possible until you learn to control it. Otherwise it is too easy to gouge, grove or burn a finish.
Shaintiques, it is not the same thing. Google flex shaft shaper. A good one with some hp & variable speed is going to be around $150.

 

torque

Can't Leave
May 21, 2013
444
2
So does a flex shaft just hook onto a normal dremel?
If you get the dremel branded shaft it does, mounts right into the collet just like any other attachment. They also sell a little work stand for a dremel that would be a good idea if you get the flex shaft. Will keep it stable while working.

 

johnnyreb

Lifer
Aug 21, 2014
1,961
612
If you are doing anything more than polishing be sure and wear at least a particle mask. If you are grinding/shaping Ivory or bone you should wear a filtered respirator.

 

cobguy

Lifer
Oct 18, 2013
3,742
15
Very handy tool, indeed. Polishing, rusticating, re-drilling draft holes etc.
I have the Foredom Flex-Shaft TX300:
F355-2.jpg


 

toby67

Can't Leave
Sep 30, 2014
413
1
Australia
Yes I only use the slower settings, I know the dremel from the jewellery days and would not dare use the higher speeds on pipes, my intention is to make them better not worse .. lol
Also I used to have a similar Flexishaft to your foredom, it was an old dental Flexishaft but only took one sized bits, the Dremel is more versatile in my opinion, my Dremel is a Multi-Pro series with a top speed of 37,000 RPM
Edit; Also I don't use the Dremel inside a bowl, I have reaming tools for that purpose and have never so far had to open a draft hold, if I did I would practice on a old cheap pipe first. As far as polishing I use the buffs sideways in an up and down motion or circular and for bad stems I use a strip of 1400 wet and dry sandpaper wrapped around a Dremel bit and use it to take away the oxidation and then polish the stem.

 

okiescout

Lifer
Jan 27, 2013
1,530
6
I use a flex Dremel to to powder horn detail. They are a great around the shop investment for smaller type work.

 
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