johnre
Well-known member
Most people dismiss imported hand-held rotary tools as cheap, underpowered toys that are hard to control and produce useful work.
There's one company left in the USA that is seriously into this business, Foredom, and they do it right. These are serious machines, highly configurable with a separate power head, flex shaft, handpiece, and speed control. They make many of the components themselves, so they always have good product knowledge, support, and replacement parts available.
I have this K5400 kit at my bench for woodcarving and similar, and it's a beast. It uses the Tx motor series, rated 1/3 HP at 15,000 rpm, and the H44 handpiece can take up to a 1/4" collet, meaning it can mount some pretty serious tools. Yet it's still pretty lightweight, the handpiece is half the diameter of a hand-held motor, and it has no gyroscoping effect to make it difficult to control.
There are hundreds of tools available for it that enable it to go well beyond the capability of small rotary tools; cutting, buffing, sanding, polishing, etc. I'm always discovering new things I can do with mine.
There is more information here about their products.
There's one company left in the USA that is seriously into this business, Foredom, and they do it right. These are serious machines, highly configurable with a separate power head, flex shaft, handpiece, and speed control. They make many of the components themselves, so they always have good product knowledge, support, and replacement parts available.
I have this K5400 kit at my bench for woodcarving and similar, and it's a beast. It uses the Tx motor series, rated 1/3 HP at 15,000 rpm, and the H44 handpiece can take up to a 1/4" collet, meaning it can mount some pretty serious tools. Yet it's still pretty lightweight, the handpiece is half the diameter of a hand-held motor, and it has no gyroscoping effect to make it difficult to control.
There are hundreds of tools available for it that enable it to go well beyond the capability of small rotary tools; cutting, buffing, sanding, polishing, etc. I'm always discovering new things I can do with mine.
There is more information here about their products.
Last edited: