DREMEL OR FORDHAM? THAT IS THE ?

If you can afford it, I'd go with the Fordham. The motor will long outlast a Dremel.

I have the same set up for the fordom and love it

dremel flex shaft are very buzzy and hard on the hand. I can only carve for about an hour or so with my dremel set up which I use for soft stone and bone carving

Hahaha! That's funny Stu!

The 1/6 hp model also has the advantage of being able to go into reverse on the fly.

Hi Stu
Ok now, I hope that your wife is not holding me responsible for this. At my age and state of mind I can not take any punishment no matter how small it is. lol It looks like you are hooked my friend. I think that you need to consider the fact that a large percentage of the people that start carving loose interest after a while. And a lot of people (me included) figure out that they will never be a great carver and give it up. For a small investment you can get a dremel and spend some time figuring out if it is something that you want to do a lot of. Both machines will accomplish the same thing and for the investment the dremel will gather the same amount of dust on the shelf if interest is lost. Then again if you buy the expensive unit and loose interest you can sell it to me as used for a greatly reduced price. This is just my opinion but you can throw a huge pile of money at a stone and it will still not be a piece of art. If I was going to get serious about carving again I would scout real hard for a used fordham. There should be a lot of them out there that were bought by people that thought they would love carving and found out that it is very tedious and one little slip can be a really big slip when you are using a power tool. I was laughed at in China because I carved by hand but I never had a slip that ruined my piece.

Please have your wife read this so she fully understands that "I am not responsible". lol
Hi Wife
Later Stu
Jim

Stu... definitely the Foredom. I love my Dremel and am used to it, but.... I've went through 2 in 2 years. They don't hold up too well.....

BTW Jadecarver has SIC sticks that you can shave to fit in your dremel/foredom or use by hand. Super cool stuff, just dip in water and grind away. They are soft and mold to the work piece that you are doing. They are primarily used for jade carving but I used to use them all the time when doing dremel cabs. He makes them in almost every grit. Here's a pic:


You can ask him questions at jadecarver@jadecarver.com David Clayton's a great guy!

You can buy a keyless chuck for the Dremel. I think mine came with the flex shaft. Still not a Foredom.

I have a lithium ion cordless dremel and it works pretty good for rock carving and is so versatile that i use it for tons of other projects too. I got it on sale for around 100 a couple years ago and since it is battery powered it can go anywhere with me when i need it. Very handy for cutting off seized and rustly locks and rusted bolts on the truck or other projects. The lithium ion batteries are light and last for a surprisingly long time.

I guess like the others mentioned i am suggesting the dremel may be more usefull in other ways if you aren't a hardcore carver where as the foredom is pretty much ties to the plug in and more dedicated to serious carving. If i had tons of cash or found one on a great deal i would sure like to have one for the times when i want to do a more serious carving session but so far my dremel has worked sufficeintly for my uses.

Sampson

I actually bought an inexpensive flex shaft that looks like the same motor as in a Foredom with very similar specs for $70 from a small company Johnson Brothers... While I haven't taxed it with carving, it has 1/4 hp motor with 22,000 rpm and variable speed footpedal. I figured that for the price I would be able to use it until it wore out then decide on spending bigger $$ after that... (Same chuck as the Foredom as well)