[Jewelry making - Article 00073] - Re: [Orchid] Drill press advice

[Ben Steiger]

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    I have a Proxxon Bench Press, and I do run it using a variable foot
    pedal control. However, the motor of the Proxxon is tiny compared to
    that of a flex-shaft machine, and therefore there is very little
    torque at low speeds. It doesn't take much for the spindle to bog
    down and stop rotating when running it slow. This is not much of a
    problem for milling wax, which is my primary use, and it should be OK
    for starting a hole when drilling into materials that are not to hard
    (softer metals, not steel), and then running it fast to get the work
    done. 

    Another drawback to the Proxxon is that it operates like a
    traditional bench press. There is a depth control screw for setting
    the maximum depth of plunge when you pull the handle, but no way to
    set the spindle at that depth. So if you wanted to mill a block of
    wax at a fixed height you can't just lower the handle to that depth
    and lock it in. Your choices instead are; set the depth screw and
    hold the handle down manually as you mill, or lower the whole
    drilling head to the proper height, lock that in with the two thumb
    screws in back, and then mill with the spindle in its highest
    position. The later is what I always use, it works well but it can be
    a pain when you are trying to set the milling height precisely, as
    the weight of the drill head can be akward. I think the foredom does
    alow the spindle height to be locked in place. This would not be an
    issue if hole drilling is your main goal. 

    I don't have the Foredom press, so I don't know if the side-lash
    issue has been resolved. If you were to get it, you might want to
    also get one of those cheap flex-shaft machines for under 75 bucks
    but still use a foredom #30 handpeice. That way you could have a
    dedicated machine and not have to swap between handpeices all the
    time. I have a setup with a little selector switch mounted under the
    bench, with position 1 being my main flex-shaft, position 2 being the
    hammer setting machine, and position 3 goes to a little outlet also
    mounted under the bench for plugging in the Proxxon. All are then
    controlled by the same foot pedal, and keeps me from getting
    confused. 

Ben
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