Axminster Heavy Duty Flexible Drive Unit

[Eric Harvey]

Just got an Axminster HDFDU(see above title)for my birthday,bit late but that`s another story,will do a review on it once I get over this bug that`s doing the rounds,have the angle drive,carving head and just waiting for the HD keyed chuck for it and will have the whole set,it looks like the motors I used to use in the Dental trade for grinding down plastic teeth and trimming dentures when they came out of the mould,gave it a quick run when I assembled it,seems powerful enough going by the kick when it started,but will have to wait and see when I do a proper run with it,it weighs quite a bit compared to the dremel types of motor,but the casing is all metal not plastic/abs reinforced glass etc,anyway enough of my rambling for now,cheers,

Eric.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Hi Eric,
          I have one of these and would not be without it. So far my only complaint is it is not fast enough for me.

[Eric Harvey]

yes,that`s the only thing,the old one I have was a B+Q special,700W motor and from 20 thousand up to 35 thousand revs,but the inner cable got broke,and the only replacement I could find is an inch to long,so the outer cable gets a bit hot,so could only use it on its minimum speed the last couple of yrs,for what I want,I think the new one will do a grand job.

[Eric Harvey]

just been trying to find more info on this product,it seems its made by WECHEER in China,they also make the smaller AMT unit to,so,now know why it arrived late,Axminster said they had trouble with the ship,I thought at the time when I was chatting online the the young lady,she meant shipment,but as their made in China,must have got caught in one of those storms they`ve been having out there,only read one bad report on a review site,all other reviews were quite good,so hopefully it will be ok,mind,won`t be any worse than the dental motors I used to use.

[MCB]

I have seen these units in catalogues:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/flexible-drive-shaft-915mm/31843

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p28938#item_detail

Both are substantially cheaper than the Axminster unit and I wondered if anybody has experience of either.

MC

[Eric Harvey]

MCB these flexi shafts are to fit on an electric drill,not a high speed motor,they are only designed to be used up to 3.000 rpm,still very useful to have around the workshop though,have had mine for around twenty yrs now,cost me the pricely sum of £5.00p at the time.

[Eric Harvey]

Just been down the workshop to test the right angle drive handpiece and the carving head,good news and bad news.
Carving head works lovely,was using the v cutter to put some grooves on a piece of unfinished I was doing with a burr,seems allot more controllable than a burr and you can smoothly ark it in whichever direction you need,so really happy with that.
the right angle drive head,looks lovely and spun up nicely till I put pressure on the burr,then it stopped,no drive under pressure,so,phoned Axminster,they were very apologetic,looked through their store,I had the last one,thought oh dear now what do I do,as I thought that the nice chap on the phone,oh its ok,I`ve found one in one of our shops and will get it sent to you,will be a couple of days,so I ask what do do with the defunct one,and he said keep it for spares,now that`s not is it,I do love Axminster`s after sales service,always spot on,cheers,

Eric.

[Eric Harvey]

just had an email from the nice man at Axminster,it seems the shop doesn`t have an angledrive after all,so they are refunding my money for the unit,must have made a big loss on these if they all went the same way as the one I had.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Eric I never had the right angled unit so cannot really comment but I agree with you about Axminster's after sales service, absolutely brilliant.

[Eric Harvey]

I had a play today,I cut a tangent shaped keyway in the long shaft the length of the portion carrying the bearing and the bevel gear,then cut a straight keyway in the bevel gear with a carbide bit,I then made a key with a dogleg on the upper edge and curved to fit the shaft on the lower side,the dogleg section of the key fits under the bearing and the taller section fits into the keyway in the bevel gear,I put it all back together and voila it works a treat,job done,I`ll have to take some pics,so if anyone else has one they can modify it the same way.

[Eric Harvey]

The heavy duty keyed chuck handpiece finaly arrived yesterday,just over two months after ordering it,can play properly now with the hd flexydrive unit.

[edbanger]

Hi Eric

Just  a point to watch out for with reviews on sellers website, a lot of company's hire people to write reviews to products as this helps them with their Google rankings.

Best to ask around in the forums to get a true picture on a product.

Ed

[Eric Harvey]

Thanks Ed,will look into that,but used to use these type of handpieces and motors in my work as a Dental Technician before I had to retire,so I know what to look for,just with the word Dental in front of things they used to charge twice the average price for the same product you could buy elsewhere at the time haha