The bearings on my #30 Foredom handpiece seem to have failed after
only two years of light use. The hand piece overheats after only 15
seconds of running. Can they be replaced or repaired, or do I have to
ship the hand piece to Foredom, or should I just buy a new one. I have
checked and there is no one locally that can do the repair (I live in
Calgary Canada)
Thanks
MILT Fischbein
i think if you contact foredon directly they will repair your
handpiece. i find that is the best and most reliable solution. they
are located in hamden, ct.
good luck.louise
Milt: Too much oil in the handpiece, or added to the cable and dripped
down into the #30, will do this, so check and clean it out if this is
a possibility before sending it out for repair.
HTH,
Roy
Hi Milt,
I haven’t checked the newer #30’s, but I’ve replace the bearings in
several older units. The bearings are a stock size & most bearing
supply houses will have them. Be sure to get the highest quaility
bearing they have.
Dave
Hello Milt
Yes you can replce the bearings very easly. They can be bought at any
bearing supply I have repared many . unscrew the tail end from the
body you will see a nut holding the shaft in . remove the nut and
slide the shaft out now knock out the bearings from both ends .
replace both dont want to do twice. put back together the reverse
steps taken to take apart . The beraings here run about $4.50 each
never had to do it twice to the same hand piece. I have 6 of them used
them for 18 yrs only had to fix 3. Put a piece of rod in the chuck
hold in bench vice makes it easy to take apart.
Best of luck to you John L. kamfonik (owner of the Gem factory) (gem
factory.com)
Well, I just got the foredom 30 hammer handpiece, and I hate the tip.
It leaves dreadful marks all over the bezel. I filed and sanded down
the tip a bit and the impressions got a bit better. Is this what
you’re supposed to do?
Cheers
Virginia
#30 Foredom handpieces are fairly easy to rebuild- detach flexshaft,
use an 11mm socket to remove retaining nut. drive shaft unit upwards
from housing. lower bearing remains in housing. mainshaft,chuck, and
upper bearing are still together. use a slender drift punch to drive
main- shaft off chuck; it is a tapered fit . Now upper bearing
can be easily removed. Finding bearings should not be too difficult;
many auto parts stores may carry them. I am surprised to hear
your tool wore out so quickly. Use a little common sense and most
tools are easily repaired. If you need further assistance , give me
a shot. This is my first email, hope it helps.
Virginia,
You need to grind and then smooth the edges and corners off the anvil
point on the #15 hammer handpiece. Yuse a mizzy or stone whel to
"break" or relieve that sharp egde, rounding it over and then use a
crayex wheel to smooth out the coarse grinding marks. I even alter
the face into a rectangular shape with rounded edges and corners, in
effect cutting the top and bottom off the round factory face that the
anvil point comes w/.
Good luck, Andy Cooperman
Virginia, If you use a fairly thick bezel, say around .5mm, and direct
your hammer handpiece tip to the upper edge, then lfile or sand (I use
a medium fine disc in the foredom), then polish it, it comes out fine.
Jerry in Kodiak
Virginia , I have a large cratex wheel on my buffer I use that to
shape the tip to the size I want,I round the edges slightly and buff
it to a mirror finish.This reduces marring.There is still some marring
which I clean up with a blue silicon knife edge wheel.
Regards J Morley Coyote Ridge Studio
(Where the wind is blowin and a wild turkey was sitting on our roof this
morning)
I just got my #30 handpiece so am up on reading Foredom’s
instructions. It lists the handpieces that have permanently
lubricated ballbearings which "should absolutely not be lubricated"
and Handpiece #30 is in that group.
The flexible shaft should be cleaned and lubricated every 50 hours of
use.
The motor brushes should be replaced when they are worn down to 1/4"
from their original 3/4" length.
It also says to be careful not to bend the flexible shaft too much at
either the handpiece or motor shaft connections. “Excessive heat and
wear will occur if the bend is too great.”
Hope this helps.
Karen
We have gotten numerous #30 handpieces in for repair that have had
the bearings re-lubricated – that re-lubrication did not solve the
problem for the handpiece owner, so the handpiece was sent in for
repair.
The bearings in the #30 handpiece are indeed not intended to be
lubricated… we see evidence of this where there is grease on the
outside of the bearing–not inside the bearing. These bearings are
double sealed which does not permit any real practical
re-lubricating. When they act like they need lubricating it is time
to replace them.
We’ve also seen #30 handpieces where the bearings have been replaced
by the owner and that didn’t solve the problem either–the bearings
appear to be industry standard #608zz but they are actually special
bearings with special radius on the race and special lubricant for
low drag. The industry standard 608zz bearings have too much drag
which can tend to rotate the tool housing when it is spinning and the
bearings will run hot. This is the same symptom as the original
bearings being worn out. When we repair the #30 handpiece for $36
we use only the correct special bearings.
By the way the industry standard ball bearings will work fine in most
of the ball bearing motors used for flex shaft tools. Regards, John
Cranor, The Jewelry Equipment DR www.equipmentdr.com
to Milt Fischbein
A #30 handpiece by Foredom should be warranted for some considerable
period of time. I hope that’s the case. I’ll have to paw through the
papers to find the data on mine.
And I work at a supply house.
We do carry bearings, axles, snap rings, chucks, and chuck keys,
though.
Indian Jewelers Supply co.
Dan Woodard
Greetings:
I read your advice concerning rebuilding the #30 handpick, and I am
going to try it. Could you please advise also on how to rebuild the
#44 ?
Regards,
Joe Bokor
@Joe_Bokor2
Joe, The #44 is the collet version of the popular #30 handpiece. The
ball bearings and the collet are the items that wear out–the collet
is easily replaced by unscrewing the collet nut–the ball bearings
are exactly the same as the ones used in the popular #30 handpiece
(we recommend using these special ball bearings only). Essentially
the is the same as I described for the #30 handpiece.
Thank you for your inquiry.
Regards,
John Cranor, The Jewelry Equipment DR
www.equipmentdr.com
I temporarily fixed mine with a fake pearl someone in the studio had
dropped on the floor that was the same size as the ball bearing that
fell out. That was five months ago.
Wendy Newman