What to make a flexible shaft from. Flexible shaft for drill: design features

This interesting device, as a flexible shaft for a drill is designed to drill holes in hard to reach places. Hard to reach places are such areas when access to them is limited due to large sizes power tools. To make working with power tools easier, tool manufacturers have invented a device such as a flexible shaft for drills and screwdrivers, which can be easily purchased on the Internet or at any tool store. It is a flexible attachment device that transmits torque to a tool that is not coaxial for the electric motor.

Why do you need a flexible shaft for a drill?

The design of the product in question is quite simple, but despite this, the device is multifunctional. The flexible drive consists of two elements: a cable with an armored base and a soft body. On one part of such a nozzle there is a special tip, with which the shaft is secured in the chuck of a screwdriver or drill.

The second part, in which the bits are fixed, is equipped with a cartridge or a special retainer for replaceable bits. The presence of a chuck on a flexible shaft for drills allows drills and other types of attachments to be secured in the structure of the device. Such equipment is used in medicine, or more precisely, in the field of dentistry. With the help of the products in question, the functioning of drilling machines is ensured, with which holes are drilled in teeth for installing fillings. There is a factory-made flexible shaft for sale for a mini drill engraver, which is used by craftsmen who repair electronics, watches and other small devices.

A flexible shaft for a drill is rarely used in construction, but without it, sometimes it is simply impossible to get to the fastening element in order to tighten or unscrew it. Cases where a flexible shaft on a power tool is indispensable include times when there is no direct access to carry out work with a drill or screwdriver. The nozzle in question allows different kinds works:

• Drilling holes in wood, concrete and metal
• Grinding and cleaning of parts
• Screwing in and out of various screws and self-tapping screws

Using a nozzle (also called a “flexible spiral” or “guta-percha extension”) to drill holes in concrete or metal is not entirely convenient, since this will require a reliable stop, which cannot be provided useful device due to its design features.

This is interesting!An attachment called a flexible shaft can be used not only on drills or screwdrivers, but also on grinder angle grinder. However, you need to be extremely careful and attentive with this tool. After all, the spindle rotation speed reaches 11,000 rpm, so you need to work with the use of personal protective equipment.

Flexible shaft design for drills and screwdrivers

The flexible shafts considered for drills differ depending on the manufacturer and the cost of the product. The basis of any device under consideration is a steel cable inside an armored base. It is with the help of such a cable that torque is transmitted from the drill chuck or screwdriver to the attachment lock at the end. Let's delve into the design of the device.

The base is made of armored wire in the shape of a spiral. To protect the internal structure of the device and prevent lubricant leakage, the outside of the spiral wire is coated with various soft materials. Often rubber is used for this, but other materials can also be used, such as silicone. Lubricant is poured into the power tool attachment to reduce friction and increase protection of the internal cable from abrasion.

Important role Bearings play a role in the design of the device. After all, it is to them that the cable is attached, which rotates during operation and transmits torque from the tool chuck to the working attachment. Cheap models are not equipped with bearings, but have a low service life. The price of the device in question is low, which makes the device affordable. If you are just going to buy a flexible shaft for a drill so as not to make it yourself, then you can do this at any construction center or online store.

Make your own flexible shaft for a drill

The cost of a high-quality device is high, especially considering the fact that if the product needs to be used, it will be in a one-time quantity. To avoid having to buy one, you can easily make a flexible shaft for your drill yourself.

To make flexible shafts for drills with your own hands, you will need to take any braided wire. It can also be purchased, which will cost ten times less than buying a ready-made nozzle. If you plan to wind a spiral wire around the cable yourself, then you need to understand that it is impossible to do this at home. After all, armor steel is used as a spiral base. When such a device operates, the steel cable rotates inside the shell, and the armor in the form of a spiral wire bends in any position, but does not move. During operation, the device is held by hand by the spiral wire.

Finally, a shank is made for the flexible shaft, which is installed in the drill chuck. To do this, use the tail part of a damaged drill. The cable is connected to the shank by welding (other connection methods are unacceptable). A collet chuck is attached to the other end of the wire, which can be taken from another power tool.
There are quite a lot of advantages to a homemade flexible shaft for screwdrivers and drills, but the most important thing is its low cost. Having used such a nozzle once for work, you can find out what its main advantage is and why manufacturers came up with this device. The ease of making an attachment in the form of a flexible shaft for a drill yourself makes it more interesting to make it yourself than to buy it on the Internet or a tool store.

When operating the vehicle, the following operations should be performed periodically. 1. Check that the nuts connecting the flexible shaft to the speedometer and gearbox are securely tightened. The nuts must be tightened by hand until they are tight, and the slack in the fastening of the ends of the flexible shaft shell should not be felt when rocking them by hand.

Check that the flexible shaft is installed correctly. The flexible speedometer shaft on a car is mounted with smooth bends with a radius of at least 150 mm. It should be taken into account, especially when changing a flexible shaft, that the presence of sharp bends leads to a reduction in the service life of the shaft and, in addition, can cause fluctuations in the speedometer needle and knocking. Therefore, when inspecting the car, you should check that the shaft is installed correctly. The shaft must be secured with brackets and must not have sharp bends (with a radius of less than 150 mm), especially near its ends, as a result of excessive tension on the shaft.

The speedometer drive shaft is lubricated at the factory with petroleum jelly, which is used to impregnate a wick placed in a hole on the shank of the device. This hole is closed at the top with a stamped plug. The supply of oil added during assembly will be enough for a mileage of about 25 thousand km. After this mileage, the speedometer must be removed from the car, the plug on the shank removed, the wick removed from the hole and again soaked in Vaseline oil MVPGOST 1805-51. If the plug covering the hole is damaged during removal, it should be replaced with a new one machined from brass.

At the factory, when assembling flexible shafts, a special thick lubricant is placed inside their shell, which is designed to operate at both low (up to -50°C) and high temperatures (up to +60°C). Under these conditions, the specified lubricant does not harden and does not flow out of the shell.

Lubricant is applied in an amount sufficient for the vehicle's mileage of 15-20 thousand km.

After the specified period has expired, and sometimes earlier, for example, if the car is systematically operated in hot weather or if, when assembling a flexible shaft, less than the established norm of lubricant is put into the shell, it becomes necessary to add lubricant inside the shell. This is detected because the speedometer needle fluctuates when the car moves and the flexible shaft begins to knock.

To lubricate, remove the flexible shaft from the car and disassemble it, that is, pull the flexible cable out of the sheath, thoroughly rinse the cable and sheath in kerosene and then dry it.

After drying, apply a thin layer of grease NK;30 GOST 3275-46 or GOI-54 GOST 3276-54 to the cable and carefully insert it into the sheath.

When installing the flexible shaft in place, you must strictly follow the route along which it was laid. After installation, the shaft union nuts must be sealed.

Speedometer and flex shaft malfunctions

The most common speedometer malfunction is a stuck mechanism. If such a malfunction occurs, the speedometer should be replaced or sent to a workshop for repair.

In operation, cases of breakage of the flexible shaft cable are often observed. When replacing such a shaft, it is necessary to check the speedometer and shaft for jamming. To do this, you need to mount the flexible shaft on the car (the bending radii of the shaft must be at least 150 mm) and before connecting, turn the cable several times to make sure that there is no jamming. The cable should rotate freely by hand, and the speedometer needle should move away from zero.

However, as a flexible shaft for the engraver, it is possible to use the drive shaft from a drill or the shaft for the speedometer of a car or motorcycle. We use this option for our homemade product.

Due to the flexible shaft, the device has an advantage. There is no unnecessary strain on your hands during operation of the device. This is due to the fact that the shaft head is several times lighter than a power tool with a built-in drive.

Making a working attachment

The body of the working attachment, in the clamping mechanism of which it will be fixed cutting tool, you can also use it from a drill or make it yourself. In our case, it is made of steel (we used the services of a turner - a neighbor in the garage). This option has its advantages - strength and accuracy, but also disadvantages - more weight. Due to small loads, it is possible to make a case from non-ferrous metal (for example, lighter aluminum alloys) or from a PCB block, drilling a stepped hole for bearings in its inner part and processing the outer contour of the case to fit your hand for comfortable holding.

The threaded part of the housing is designed to connect it to the used flexible speedometer shaft and corresponds to it in thread. In our case, it is M18x1.5 with a length of 10 mm. The 70 mm long body is bored out for two ball bearings with a diameter of 22 x 8 mm.
As a drive shaft with collet clamp, which will be installed in the case, we use a double-sided hand tool with replaceable collets, sometimes used for drilling holes in boards. It's time to mechanize this tool.

The outer diameter of the tube (handle) of the tool body is 8 mm, slightly increased when performing the knurling operation. The thread of the collets screwed into the tool is M6. We disassemble the tool and complete the assembly with two ball bearings.

For the width of the bearing, to ensure a tight fit, we clean the corrugations from the edges of the tube. We press the bearing on one side. To fix the shaft when clamping a cutting tool in a collet, select a sleeve of suitable dimensions, install it in the middle of the tube and secure it with a pin. We drill a 3.5 mm through hole through the installed bushing, in diameter, to install a stopper when clamping.

Screw a piece into the threaded hole of the tool tube, on one side (instead of a collet). copper tube with a diameter of 6 mm. To do this, we first cut an M6 thread at one end, and carefully compress the other end until the square fits tightly at the output end of the flexible speedometer shaft. As a result, the total length of the drive shaft must match the length of the housing.

We measure the distance from the front end of the tube to the hole for the stopper. We install the assembled shaft into the housing, all the way to the rear wall. Mark the location of the locking hole on the body. We remove the drive shaft and drill a locking hole in the housing. After lubricating the bearings, we assemble the working attachment. Check the alignment of the holes for the stopper. If the bearings are unprotected, cut out and install, on the collet side, a protective washer made of plastic or felt.

After the working nozzle body is completely assembled, the open end of the drive shaft should coincide with the end of the body, and the crimped end of the copper tube should be flush with the threaded end.

Install the collet of the required size.

We attach the flexible shaft to the body.

To secure the cutting tool

We use a drift as a stopper.

Tool
The following tools are used to transform a compact engraving device into a multifunctional processing device:
- drills, with the help of which the engraver turns into a mini-drill;
- cutters various designs allowing processing of flat and shaped surfaces, as well as holes, grooves and recesses of various configurations;
- disk tools used to perform cutting operations on materials of small thickness;
- metal brushes, which are used to clean the treated surfaces from traces of corrosion and other contaminants;
- abrasive tools with working heads of round, semicircular, oval and cylindrical shapes, used for grinding and polishing surfaces;
- tools with a conical working head for applying inscriptions and patterns to the surface of the workpiece;
- tools, the working head of which is made of felt, for performing polishing operations.

Sufficiently high-quality cutters for engraving machines can be made from broken drills, if you give their working part the required configuration using a regular sharpening machine.

Device drive
Drive electric motor, which can be any motor powered by electric current voltage 220 volts. It could be the engine from washing machine or another one you do not use household appliances.

The optimal choice for a homemade engraver is an electric motor from sewing machine, since it is possible there to regulate the shaft rotation speed within fairly wide limits. Such motors, as a rule, are capable of shaft rotation speeds of up to 6 thousand rpm, which is quite enough for a household engraver. It is better to work with soft materials at slow speeds, since a high rotation speed will lead to overheating of the tool or melting of the edges of the workpiece. It is recommended to work with metal at medium speed. It is best to process hard natural stone at maximum speed.

As a drive for the engraver, you can use an angle grinder with a “flying” gearbox, a drill or a screwdriver.
This temporary use option is also possible.

Good day everyone. I’ve been meaning to talk about this instrument for a long time, but I only got around to it now.

And so I present to your attention a HAND ENGRAVER or a hand router. I found many uses for such a thing, from drawings on glass to sharpening in hard-to-reach places.

In front of you appearance devices. It consists of a box for the electric drive, a cable (I took a speedometer cable from a car), a holder and a cutting part.

And so on in order.

Inside the box there is a motor from a reel-to-reel tape recorder. More engine power is not needed. Using a transition coupling, the motor shaft is connected to the drive cable.

The cable sheath is rigidly connected to the body.

Also, the outer shell of the cable is rigidly connected to the handle holder. The handle was machined from fiberglass. A stepped hole is drilled inside in such a way that the cable sheath is firmly held, the rotating cable passes freely to the working element, and at the end of the holder a tube is inserted inside which the chuck drive rotates.

The chuck consists of two halves fastened with a screw. A cutting tool with a diameter of 2 to 5 mm can be clamped into such a chuck. The main thing is not to forget about balancing the cartridge and full compatibility of the cartridge drive square and the windows of the cartridge itself.

Since my hands are busy when working with such a tool, and it shouldn’t rotate constantly, I made a pedal for it. Simple design.

I used a regular push button as a switching device.

Flexible shafts are used in a variety of industries, wherever it is necessary to transmit torque at arbitrary angles. It is used as a transmission in drills and engravers, drills, as well as for transmitting rotation in measuring instruments, such as a car speedometer.

Why do you need a flexible shaft and where is it used?

The flexible drive for the drill consists of two main parts: a flexible cable with armored braiding and a soft shell. On the one hand, it is equipped with a connection unit for an engine or a manual drive, on the other, it has a chuck for attaching a tool.

Using a flexible shaft is very convenient when you need to tighten or unscrew fasteners in narrow places with difficult access, where you cannot insert a screwdriver in the working position

Flexible shafts are also used for drive hand tools for thin and precision work. Placing a heavy, high-speed electric motor in the tool itself would lead to rapid operator fatigue and loss of precision in operations. An example is a dentist's or engraver's drill.

As a result, the user gets the opportunity to work for a long time with a comfortable, light and small-sized device, and the level of vibration from the electric motor transmitted to the hand is reduced.

A feature of the use of a flexible shaft is the limitation of the maximum torque that it is capable of transmitting. If this limit is exceeded, the cable becomes twisted and the shaft fails.

Design Features

The main design feature and at the same time the main advantage in application is the ability to bend it anywhere in any direction. This is achieved by using the following components:

• flexible and durable steel braided cable that transmits torque;
• armor braid or spiral-wound spring wire that acts as a flexible drive housing.

The outside of the wire is covered with a corrugated plastic sheath, inside of which there is a grease. It reduces friction, prevents abrasion of the core cable and protects it from moisture and dust.

The design of the flexible drill drive also includes bearings to which the cable is attached. They keep it spinning. At one end the cable is fixed in a socket, at the other it is provided with a mount for a tool.

Such a drive is intended for light and delicate work; you should not count on using it to unscrew a soured bolt or screw in a 130 mm self-tapping screw at full speed; you must remember that the torque transmitted by the flexible shaft is limited.

How to make it yourself

Those who like to make tools with their own hands can easily make a flexible drive for a drill on their own.

Important! You won’t be able to make armor braiding yourself; this requires industrial equipment. It is also important to understand that a homemade flexible shaft for a drill will be inferior to a factory one, first of all, in terms of working life. And it’s better to use it occasionally - then it won’t let you down crucial moment. For professional work in large volumes It's better to invest in a commercial extension cord.

You will have to buy a braided cable in a store and ask them to cut it to the length you need. All that remains for Samodelkin is to cut the ends and mount external protection, filling it with lubricants. The shank from a broken drill of a suitable diameter will work as a blank for the mounting unit in the chuck.

As an option, you can take a cable from a car speedometer, as well as a motorcycle gas or clutch control drive as a starting material.

One end of the armored braided wire will need to be welded to the shank of the broken drill using a nut of suitable diameter and welding machine. A drill chuck or a hex adapter is welded to the second end of the cable for quick tool change. Remember that when operating such a drive, you need to hold it not by the rotating cartridge, but by the stationary braid. Such a do-it-yourself device will not only save money, but also make the drive exactly the length you require. Most factory drives are 25cm or 50cm long.

Flexible shaft for engraver

The engraver, or drill, develops high speeds - up to 30 thousand rpm. The device is small-sized and fits comfortably in the hand and is used for operations:

• polishing;
• milling;
• drilling holes of small diameter;
• grinding, etc.

Working as an engraver requires high precision of the master's movements. The effort involved is small, compared to, say, tightening self-tapping screws. The torque is also low. Such devices are used by jewelers and masters of artistic creativity, who create works that are not inferior to the best examples of wood, stone, and embossing carvers. Engraving is performed on materials such as:

• metal;
• tree;
• stone;
• glass;
• plastics.

The flexible shaft for the engraver allows the user's manual efforts to be reduced to a minimum, turning many hours of work into an exciting activity.

Shafts for lawn mowers

Mechanical scythes with electric and gasoline drives use both flexible and rigid shafts.

Powerful brush cutters, capable of cutting tall, hard and dense grass and even small bushes, use all-metal rigid drives. Such devices are designed for long-term operation and have high torque. They are also large in size and weight and are worn on shoulder straps. The working tool is thick, rigid fishing line or powerful steel knives - two, three or four - bladed.

The flexible drive is used in lightweight, low-power and small-sized trimmers designed for mowing corners after a lawn mower or trimming grass on small lawns. These trimmers are held with one hand, and the flexible shaft is used to mow in the most comfortable position. The cutting element of such devices is a fishing line of small or medium thickness or a lightweight two-bladed knife. If the device is overloaded, the flexible shaft may become twisted. In this case, the rupture usually occurs near the shaft-to-engine attachment point. If you cannot buy a “original shaft”, then you need to select a suitable length from drives in the direction of the braid. Such drives can only rotate in one direction.

Before the beginning seasonal work and after changing the drive, remove any remaining old lubricant, rinse with gasoline or other solvent, and fill the cavity in the handle with new lubricant. The type of lubricant is specified in the user manual.

Speedometer flexible shaft

The flexible shaft transmits torque from the transmission of a car or motorcycle to magnetic sensor speedometer. If the speedometer needle is moving at constant speed starts to twitch or goes to the extreme position - this means the cable is faulty. You can replace it yourself. The flexible shaft is selected according to the parts catalog for your car brand. It must match in terms of attachment points and length. If the cable is too long or too short, there is a risk of bending it at too small a radius. This leads to extraneous noise (similar to howling), increased wear and premature failure of the unit.