Hubby and I decided to tackle taking apart the Foredom flex shaft
tonight to see what the problem is. It turned out that the wire
that’s wrapped around the inner shaft has broken and is all tangled
up inside the rubber outer shaft. I know I can get a replacement for
this from Foredom, so it’s not a big deal. We reassembled it and
started discussing repairs (and for the record, four hands makes
disassembling a Foredom flex shaft pretty easy and not so messy!).
While pondering the mess we had uncovered, I recalled that I got a
box of “miscellaneous stuff” from the owner of the shop whose
equipment we bought in 2001. I vaguely remembered being told that
there were some Foredom parts in there, so we went searching and
found the box. Inside was another footpedal, one extra outer shaft
cover with a handpiece, and one more entire Foredom motor, complete
with flex shaft and handpiece (all #30 handpieces, darn it–once I
found the first shaft cover, I was hoping to find a quick-change
handpiece in there! ).
The newly found Foredom looked newer (read: cleaner) than the one
I’ve been using, so we hooked it up and it runs beautifully. The
switch on the newly found one is different than the one I’ve had in
use—the “old” one has a metal toggle switch marked “on” and “off”,
and the “new” one has a plastic rocker switch with I/O on it. Also,
the shape of the two motor housings is slightly different. Is there
some way to determine which one is newer?
–Kathy Johnson
Feathered Gems Jewelry
http://www.featheredgems.com