Re: Norbauer's Notebook - adventures in recreational Star Trek (mostly) prop replicat
Today I learned that Foredom Flex Shaft tools are wonderful, wonderful things. Would that my hand had withered ere I had ever touched a Dremel.
Thanks to a sale at Ottofrei.com, I ordered a Foredom LX flex shaft motor, which arrived yesterday.
I intentionally chose the somewhat rare LX model because it is high torque but low speed, perfect for working with plastics (Foredom flex shafts are more commonly used for polishing among jewelers). The control with the foot pedal is fantastically granular, and the minimum speed on the LX motor is truly a crawl--much, much slower than the lowest setting on even the most expensive variable-speed Dremel tool I've used. I had always avoided fine-work power tools Dremels because they tend to melt plastic and skip all over the place, creating errant paths of destruction that then have to be puttied and sanded over.
I used this today to carve and shape some resin on one of my Kurlan Naiskoses where the mold deformed a bit and gave me a wavy casting. I can't describe to you how great it felt to use the tool for this and how precise the control was compared to any power tool I've used in the past. Hand sanding would have given slightly more control but would have taken forever by comparison.
I also did some vacuum form cutting for my VOY desktop viewer, a task I was previously dreading. Some hand-sanding cleanup work will be required, but it came out surprisingly well, using a plastics cut-off wheel and the Foredom.
Also, I thought of a cool trick today. I was scoring lines for cutting in the white vacuum formed plastic (it's either styrene or PETG), but they were very hard to see. I decided to try wiping some acrylic paint over the surface and it made my scribing lines very distinct.
I also finished and shipped off my small run of TMP medical scanners that I've been making for friends from the TrekPropZone (not for sale).