monophoto
Member
I saw a YouTube
this morning in which Patrick Sullivan made a neat mobile stand for a Foredom rotary tool. I don't have a Foredom, but I do have a cheap Chinese Dremel clone that I sometimes use to add carving to things I make in the shop, and I have a flex shaft accessory that makes it easier to do longer jobs. But maneuvering this tool through the shop is a chore, so I cobbled together a rig similar to Patrick's stand to make things a bit easier.
I created a couple of brackets from scraps of construction 2x4 to attach a metal rod to the ceiling joists over my workbench. The rod was actually the metal handle from an old broom (or maybe it was a mop - don't recall what it actually came from). I drilled a hole in another scrap of 2x4 that was slightly larger in diameter than the rod so that it would slip freely over the rod. Because I'm a turner, I had to use the lathe, so I mounted up the block and tuned it to create a donut shape. Then, I added a large screw eye to hang the dremel-clone motor from. But since the ceiling height in the shop is 8', and the rotary tool motor had to be lower so that I could reach it, I put an old bungee cord between the screw eye and the motor. Not only did the cord reduce the hanging height of the motor to the required degree, it also provides isolation between the motor and the ceiling joists so that vibration from the motor doesn't cause other stuff hanging from the ceiling joists to rattle, and keeps the noise from the from being amplified through the ceiling.
Most of the time, the rotary tool hangs from a hook on the tool wall, and the bungee cord just dangles out of the way over the bench. But when I need to use it, I can transfer the tool to the bungee cord, and then slide the hanger donut along the rod until it's in a comfortable position to do the work. And since it was made entirely of junk, the out-of-pocket cost was zero.
I created a couple of brackets from scraps of construction 2x4 to attach a metal rod to the ceiling joists over my workbench. The rod was actually the metal handle from an old broom (or maybe it was a mop - don't recall what it actually came from). I drilled a hole in another scrap of 2x4 that was slightly larger in diameter than the rod so that it would slip freely over the rod. Because I'm a turner, I had to use the lathe, so I mounted up the block and tuned it to create a donut shape. Then, I added a large screw eye to hang the dremel-clone motor from. But since the ceiling height in the shop is 8', and the rotary tool motor had to be lower so that I could reach it, I put an old bungee cord between the screw eye and the motor. Not only did the cord reduce the hanging height of the motor to the required degree, it also provides isolation between the motor and the ceiling joists so that vibration from the motor doesn't cause other stuff hanging from the ceiling joists to rattle, and keeps the noise from the from being amplified through the ceiling.
Most of the time, the rotary tool hangs from a hook on the tool wall, and the bungee cord just dangles out of the way over the bench. But when I need to use it, I can transfer the tool to the bungee cord, and then slide the hanger donut along the rod until it's in a comfortable position to do the work. And since it was made entirely of junk, the out-of-pocket cost was zero.