Air cool the flex shaft???

[wgrigsby]

I was working on a long carve tonight (Six Hours) and the flex shaft was warming up. Not real hot but on the verge, I don't have any gear to take it's temp, just real warm to the touch. I've just replaced it and may be a little to quick on the trigger. The last one was warm one minute and melting the next. I soaked this one overnight in the chain saw lube with molly and let it dry for a day before putting it on.

I turned my air compressor's out put down to about 10 lbs and cupped my left hand behind the flex shaft and blew air across the shaft into my left hand so that it would get all around it while moving along the length. It cooled it right down and it stayed cool for ten minutes or so before it started to get on the warm side again.

I'm thinking about trying to rig up a sleeve, hose or something and run very low air pressure through it and around the shaft.

Has anyone else thought of or tried this????

[geekviking]

Before I learned to lube mine w/ Moly, I set a very cheap personal sized desk fan to blow directly on the flex shaft & it would carve for hours with no problem, but without the fan, (before I knew to lube mind you) it would run pretty hot to the touch after about 20 mins. of carve time. (about 120-130 degrees). So I agree that the air draft idea is valid, however, after I lubed mine with the Industrial chain Lube, it never gets hotter than upper 70's.

[FINGERS]

I have been using a lube called Brake Free on my flix shaft for over 2 years and never had no problems with overheating always runs just warm to the touch the lube is made for full auto machine guns this stuff works great, I have 2 flix cables I keep 1 in a 1/4" air line filled with the lube and every 50 hours or so I switch out the one from the machine and relube the other-one just have to let the flix cable hang drip for a day before replacing it.

Mike

[Rocky]

I was working on a long carve tonight (Six Hours) and the flex shaft was warming up. Not real hot but on the verge, I don't have any gear to take it's temp, just real warm to the touch. I've just replaced it and may be a little to quick on the trigger. The last one was warm one minute and melting the next. I soaked this one overnight in the chain saw lube with molly and let it dry for a day before putting it on.

I turned my air compressor's out put down to about 10 lbs and cupped my left hand behind the flex shaft and blew air across the shaft into my left hand so that it would get all around it while moving along the length. It cooled it right down and it stayed cool for ten minutes or so before it started to get on the warm side again.

I'm thinking about trying to rig up a sleeve, hose or something and run very low air pressure through it and around the shaft.

Has anyone else thought of or tried this????



I use the outdoor probe from and indoor/outdoor thermometer to monitor flex cable temp.

[roughcut]

I was working on a long carve tonight (Six Hours) and the flex shaft was warming up. Not real hot but on the verge, I don't have any gear to take it's temp, just real warm to the touch. I've just replaced it and may be a little to quick on the trigger. The last one was warm one minute and melting the next. I soaked this one overnight in the chain saw lube with molly and let it dry for a day before putting it on.

I turned my air compressor's out put down to about 10 lbs and cupped my left hand behind the flex shaft and blew air across the shaft into my left hand so that it would get all around it while moving along the length. It cooled it right down and it stayed cool for ten minutes or so before it started to get on the warm side again.

I'm thinking about trying to rig up a sleeve, hose or something and run very low air pressure through it and around the shaft.

Has anyone else thought of or tried this????

I think you would be better off to keep the shaft lubed correct just getting rid of the heat could still leave you with a damaged flex cable. the heat indicates something is amiss