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It Ain't Just a Drill: Getting the Most Out Of Your Flex Shaft
So, you're a jeweler or metalsmith about to be stranded on a desert island. You can bring only one tool. (Oh yeah, the island has electricity). What tool do you bring? If you were Andy Cooperman you’d most likely bring your Flexible Shaft machine. It may be the most versatile tool at the bench. And yet for many makers it’s also the most underutilized and least understood. Here’s your chance to gain a deeper understanding of this marvelous tool and expand your vocabulary of flexible shaft techniques and applications.
It Ain’t Just A Drill is a mix of demonstration and real-time experience, so expect to get your hands dirty exploring some of the techniques and tools addressed --and some eye-opening innovative tricks as well. This two-day workshop will cover the basic machine itself--from the motor, down the shaft to the speed control and handpiece-- and will discuss the use of burrs, bits, grinding, shaping, finishing and polishing aids: the stuff they didn’t teach you in school. Please note: While students will try many of the tools and techniques discussed, this is not a project class.
Meet the instructor
Since 1984, metalsmith Andy Cooperman has lived and worked in Seattle where he builds jewelry and small objects for museum exhibitions, galleries and private clients.
His work has been featured in many publications, including Penland Book of Jewelry and the new book Humor in Craft and is held in private and public collections that include the Victoria and Albert Museum, Central College in Pella Iowa and the Tacoma Art Museum.
Andy teaches and lectures nationally and taught in the metals program at the University of Washington 2006 - 2008. His work has been shown recently in Esoterica: Through the Looking Glass, a Tributaries solo exhibition at The National Ornamental Metals Museum in Memphis and in Radical Alchemy in the Courthouse Galleries, Portsmouth, Virginia. Andy was honored to be selected as the 2011-2012 Eric Yake Kenagy Visiting Artist at Goshen College, Goshen Indiana which included an exhibition of his work, Disparate Elements at the Goshen College Hershberger Art Gallery.
Materials & Tools
There is a $60 materials fee for this course, which is payable upon registration. The kit will include metal, bits, burs, wheels mandrels, widgets for each participant to go home with, and various supplies for these processes.
A Note from Andy Cooperman:
Dear It Ain’t Just A Drill students,
This 2-day workshop is an extension of the one-day demo-only flex shaft class that I have been teaching for several years and I am excited to add a hands-on component. What I have in mind is a series of “sample” making exercises that will give you some real-time feel for some of these tools. I put the word sample in quotes because the actual sample will be the experience, rather than a finished object. I’m not sure how much experience you all have with the machine, but from early user to advanced, there is always something to learn. My aim in teaching this class is for students to walk away with a more comprehensive knowledge of what the flex shaft is capable of and a more intimate experience of some of the tools themselves.
That being said, it would be great if students brought their own flex shafts so that they can understand their specific machine. This is not critical. But it can help break down some of the barriers. Perhaps most important for this class is for students to bring any attachments or “extensions” (my term) that they have that they are in some way mystified or confounded by or are unsure of how to use. These might be: bits; burs; grinders; sanders; polishers; wheels, etc., hand pieces, foot pedals, etc.
The following are supplies you must bring with you:
- Tapered punch a like centerpunch (round cross section)
- 2” coil of UNCUT jumprings, 18-22ga copper, brass or silver
- Sharpie pen : fine or medium
- Small flat blade (standard) screw driver.
- Any item, project or sample that they are having trouble with that they feel the flex shaft might help with
- Also, please prepare a simple “T” seam from copper or brass sheet, any thickness that you have from 22-18ga. The base could be say 1” x 3” and the perpendicular element could be a strip of maybe ½” X the length of the bottom. Please don’t clean it up! Pickle is fine. And do NOT worry about how good the seam is…
Students may bring the following items if they have them, but Metalwerx has these to use inthe workshop, but students should know that they might have to share:
- Safety glasses
- Magnifiers
- Dust mask
- Saw frame
- Flat or half round file
- Round- nose pliers (non-serated)
- Curved or straight burnisher
- Some copper or brass scrap
- Lubricant for drills, etc. like Bur-life/Bur-lube/bee’s wax
Bring what you can, please don’t freak out if you are missing anything…