Bob Cleek

Before CAD, when I was a pen and paper draughtsman, proportional dividers were an essential bit of kit and I own an expensive pair.
They are little used these days, but I would not be without them.
One word of caution when using them for planking (as has been mentioned above). When measuring from the frames or bulkheads, you are measuring the chord- a straight line between two points on the circumference of a circle or arc- not the length of the arc itself= the width of the plank. In most ship model situations the error will be so small as to be irrelevant, but it is there.

Hello Henry,
Thank you for the compliment.
The fact that I try as good as I can to document what I do, is because long ago I chose the Dutch 17th century as my specialism. I know the literature on the subject and the pictorial material left, as well as archaeological finds.
The plate you show here depicts a ship from way before that age. Maybe 16th, maybe even 15th, but certainly an era of which no written sources are left, that reveal enough information for us to build a model after. I know nothing about these early ships. Everything beyond 1600 is based on guesses and interpretations. That's where the dark ages start for me. Some people on this forum (very admired by me) show us their interpretations of gathered material to make reconstructions of dromons, galleys, carracks, gallions and whatever names these vessels have. Highly interesting, but also often highly speculative. If you want to make a model after this nice, but not extremely realistic plate, you will have to start with diving into the material there is. Soon enough you will find out that there is next to nothing you can work with.
My advise: find a more recent ship type. More and more publications are becoming available about an almost infinite line of ships, both specific ships with a name, and data on ship types in general. I'm sure that will bring you more satisfaction than spending a long time of your life on a model that is based on a series of unproven ideas and assumptions.
I wish you good luck with your choice for your next model and if you really find things we, here on this forum, can learn from, I will be first to read it.
By the way, not because I want to use this as a way of advertising one of my books, but I think Cor Emke made drawings of a very early buss in '17th Century Dutch Merchant Vessels (Seawatch Books). Perhaps that is an option (although in my opinion this is one of what I call the 'too early models'.
Ab
 
 

Thanks much, Dan. I was concerned about the strength of bone in small dimensions. It also seems to vary with respect to its porosity. It seems, as well, that the balls and sockets of the knuckle joints seem to be less porous than the long bones. One of these days I'll play around with the material and see how it works. Perhaps it might serve for blocks, but I'll have to see.

Alan - in my experience, Druxey intends every one of the many puns he uses.  He is a master of understated humor.  Or was that humour.
 
Bob - Pretty much the only bone on this model, and most other POW models that I have worked on, is the planking.  Both the hull and decks are planked in thin bone veneers over a wooden core.  I think that this may be because bone will soften by immersing it in vinegar and can be bent to the shapes needed for hull planking.  I don't know if ivory will soften in the same way.  Ivory is used for all the masts and spars.  I think the grain in the bone (actually the holes from its blood supply) would weaken any long unsupported cylinders and make them prone to snapping.  Ivory is also much easier to work with for making the blocks, guns, deck fittings and, of course, any and all decorative carvings.  At the time, whaling was in full swing, so tooth ivory was plentiful, and I know that there was a lively trade in elephant ivory too, as the many Asian art objects show.  I can imagine making an entirely bone model, but only if I figured out how to solidify it for the masts, etc.  Perhaps an infusion of a stiffening liquid like the thinned epoxy that was suggested earlier might work.
 
Best of success with your work on behalf of breed preservation.
 
Dan    

If you have a moment, Dan... I know this is "business, not pleasure" for you...
 
Can you generally explain what is bone and what is ivory on this model? (I can't tell for sure from the photos.)
 
Does it make any difference what is bone and what is ivory, and if so what difference?
 
The reason I ask is because I've got a lot of bone handy and I've been musing about starting to use it for modeling. My wife breeds, trains, and shows champion basset hounds and we have a pack of anywhere from eight to a dozen living with us here at any one time. (We are AKC "Breeders of Merit" and ours is an AKC "Breed Preservation" kennel, not a for-profit commercial breeding kennel.) We buy sterilized beef bones wholesale in large quantities for the dogs. It seems to me it would be easy enough to cut some of these up to use for modeling purposes. (These bones are readily available at most pet stores, although large, straight leg bones may be a special order item in your local pet store.) With the diminishing availability of boxwood, not to mention its price, I'm thinking about alternatives.  

If you have a moment, Dan... I know this is "business, not pleasure" for you...
 
Can you generally explain what is bone and what is ivory on this model? (I can't tell for sure from the photos.)
 
Does it make any difference what is bone and what is ivory, and if so what difference?
 
The reason I ask is because I've got a lot of bone handy and I've been musing about starting to use it for modeling. My wife breeds, trains, and shows champion basset hounds and we have a pack of anywhere from eight to a dozen living with us here at any one time. (We are AKC "Breeders of Merit" and ours is an AKC "Breed Preservation" kennel, not a for-profit commercial breeding kennel.) We buy sterilized beef bones wholesale in large quantities for the dogs. It seems to me it would be easy enough to cut some of these up to use for modeling purposes. (These bones are readily available at most pet stores, although large, straight leg bones may be a special order item in your local pet store.) With the diminishing availability of boxwood, not to mention its price, I'm thinking about alternatives.  

If you have a moment, Dan... I know this is "business, not pleasure" for you...
 
Can you generally explain what is bone and what is ivory on this model? (I can't tell for sure from the photos.)
 
Does it make any difference what is bone and what is ivory, and if so what difference?
 
The reason I ask is because I've got a lot of bone handy and I've been musing about starting to use it for modeling. My wife breeds, trains, and shows champion basset hounds and we have a pack of anywhere from eight to a dozen living with us here at any one time. (We are AKC "Breeders of Merit" and ours is an AKC "Breed Preservation" kennel, not a for-profit commercial breeding kennel.) We buy sterilized beef bones wholesale in large quantities for the dogs. It seems to me it would be easy enough to cut some of these up to use for modeling purposes. (These bones are readily available at most pet stores, although large, straight leg bones may be a special order item in your local pet store.) With the diminishing availability of boxwood, not to mention its price, I'm thinking about alternatives.  

So I've heard. They are very impressive machines. I'm waiting for my big lottery win in order to afford one, though!    
 
https://www.foredom.net/product-category/micromotors/micromotor-kits/brushless-dual-port-kits/

So I've heard. They are very impressive machines. I'm waiting for my big lottery win in order to afford one, though!    
 
https://www.foredom.net/product-category/micromotors/micromotor-kits/brushless-dual-port-kits/

No problem at all! I'm happy to have been able to offer a bit of help.
 
You can email Alexey. He uses "Google translate," so language isn't much of a problem. He's a very nice fellow and always ready to answer questions and give helpful advice.

The supply bobbins have felt washers on either side of them, inside the mounting forks (frames) through which the threaded bolt runs. The plastic material of the bobbin forks is "springy." Slight pressure on the sides of the mounting forks achieved by tightening the bobbin axle knobs is sufficient to compress the forks slightly and cause the felt pads to create sufficient friction against the bobbin to keep the thread tight as it is pulled from the supply bobbin. The nuts in the bobbin axle knobs have some sort of plastic on the threads which prevents their slipping when threaded. This permits the omission of a second bolt that tightens against the first to keep it in place on the threaded rod.
 
I'm far from any sort of expert on this machine. I've only had time to play with mine a bit and it's a slightly earlier design with a separate control box and a bit different planetary gear plate arrangement. I had problems in the beginning which were attributable solely to my own inability to understand the set-up instructions. I emailed Alexey and he was most helpful. The solution for my problem was in the instructions all along. (The control box isn't just three independent rheostats that control the speeds. It's "smart" with solid state control circuits that have to be programmed by the sequential pushing of buttons which isn't "intuitive." You've got to read the instructions and I hadn't gotten them right.
 
I don't have any issues with the noise on my machine.  If the noise increases as the speed increases, it's probably a vibration problem, no?
 
I can only suggest the following possible areas to troubleshoot. Failing that, I'd strongly urge you to email Alexey and ask for help before "re-engineering" the device. It's cleverly thought out and doesn't seem to take well to being modified, as you may have noticed when you substituted the wooden bobbin axles which defeated the friction mechanism on the bobbins which maintains the thread tension at that end.
 
1.     Check to see that the large gear (the "sun" gear in the planetary mechanism) is not mounted backwards on its axle. Yours is different than mine, but I mistakenly mounted mine backwards when assembling it and, discovering my error, had to correct that. The reversal of this gear may affect the gear alignment with the motor. (My machine's motor is a rubber "tire" friction drive against the edge of the large gear, unlike yours, which is gear driven.)
 
2.     When laying up three part rope, the fourth bobbin must be mounted on the machine in order to maintain the balance of the spinning planetary mechanism. 
 
3.     Bobbin tension is adjusted by tightening and loosening the bobbin axle knobs to pinch the felt pads against the bobbin sides. "Whorls" in the laid up rope occur when the tension on the bobbins is uneven and the thread feed slips or jerks. Even tension when loading of the bobbins in important.
 
4.     When laying up four part rope, a center core (a fifth strand) of smaller diameter than the other four must be run through the middle of the four laid up strands if the resulting rope is to lay up concentrically. If the core is omitted, the four strands will not lay up equally and the rope will be "lumpy."
 
5.     The tightness of the lay can be adjusted by moving the "windpoint" created by the crossbar fairlead(s) on the threaded posts projecting from the main ("sun") gear. See Alexey's post with his instructions regarding this at 
 
6.    The twist direction of the thread, left ("S" twist) or right ("Z" twist,) is important. If you are laying up right twist thread into rope, you must start with left twist thread. If you are laying up left twist rope, you must start with right twist thread. If your thread is twisted in the wrong direction (the twist varies, but most sewing thread is right twist,) you have to twist it back in the direction you want before loading it on the bobbins for laying up.
 
I hope these thoughts are of some help. As I said, if all else fails, email Alexey!  He's a great help.
 
Thanks for sharing your struggles here. I'm watching closely and learning a lot. I haven't had a lot of time to spend playing with my machine as yet.

There is K&E Paragon proportional divider in Woodland Hills CA on facebook here.  Comes with a nice vintage Anvil set, that is missing the divider sadly.

No problem at all! I'm happy to have been able to offer a bit of help.
 
You can email Alexey. He uses "Google translate," so language isn't much of a problem. He's a very nice fellow and always ready to answer questions and give helpful advice.

I once (a long time ago) bought a small pocket calculator, unpacked it and started to type on it wildly - until I ran into a problem. Only then I reluctantly unpacked the manual and on the first page I read this: "Do you also belong to those, who unpack, start typing wildly, resign and then look for the manual ... ?"
 
So, you are not alone ...

Sorry for wrong post. I misunderstood a concept of this device and performed reckless modification. 
 
I checked all the manual and description, and found that this is a special machine. His manual is very compact, but very dense. I shouldn't have skip some sentences. I believed that this machine can do anything because of the most expensive price, and the self illusion made me to modify it to be an universal machine. I was yelling that my new motor boat is not flying, and was welding wings. 😂
 

 
I followed the instructions, and (heavily modified) Domanoff PL4-4 works pretty well in that way. Most issues I encountered above were out of manual, and some good results I considered as a beginner's luck were as instructed. Equal tension on supply bobbins is a bit frustrating, but I believe I can manage it with simple tool such as spring balance. It is inconvenience as wefalck said, but I want to stick to manual and learn skills now.
 
Thanks again for hearing my pointless complaints patiently. I won't do this next time by reading manuals carefully. 
 

 
The wood bold with R-clip is only valuable result from this project. It works with Domanoff SM4 serving rope machine idealy. I'll report it to Alexey.
 
---
 
wefalck, I thought about multiple spindle motor-computer driven device. It can count every twist and strength of tension in theory. I think it seems like 3D printer. 

Actually, in my limited experience, and from the reports of those others with greater experience with this machine, Masa's is the only report of such problems I've heard of. See: 
 
When the instructions are understood and followed, the problems described in this post don't seem to occur. Surely, cutting up the machine and undertaking to redesign it does not seem to have been a productive endeavor. Certainly, this was true with respect to both the substitution of the wooden bobbin axles which did not provide for the slight resistance necessary to keep the thread taunt as its pulled from the bobbins, nor with respect to altering the speed and coordination of the take-up spool. As for the thread tension, that only needs to be sufficient to keep the threads from becoming loose. The degree of tightness in the lay-up is a function not only of the speed of the take-up spool, which is easily adjustable by the speed control knob (and does require a bit of adjustment if the bulk of the laid-up rope fills the spool significantly,) but also of the adjustment of the "wind point" at the cross-bar. (See Alexey's explanation and diagram at post #12 in the thread linked above.) Note that the machine has been improved over time. Notably, the improvements made by the writer of the review above are now incorporated in the machines being made currently.
 
Note the procedure for operation and how the adjustment of the take-up spool speed affects the "wind point" in Domanoff's instructional video.
 
 
 

The supply bobbins have felt washers on either side of them, inside the mounting forks (frames) through which the threaded bolt runs. The plastic material of the bobbin forks is "springy." Slight pressure on the sides of the mounting forks achieved by tightening the bobbin axle knobs is sufficient to compress the forks slightly and cause the felt pads to create sufficient friction against the bobbin to keep the thread tight as it is pulled from the supply bobbin. The nuts in the bobbin axle knobs have some sort of plastic on the threads which prevents their slipping when threaded. This permits the omission of a second bolt that tightens against the first to keep it in place on the threaded rod.
 
I'm far from any sort of expert on this machine. I've only had time to play with mine a bit and it's a slightly earlier design with a separate control box and a bit different planetary gear plate arrangement. I had problems in the beginning which were attributable solely to my own inability to understand the set-up instructions. I emailed Alexey and he was most helpful. The solution for my problem was in the instructions all along. (The control box isn't just three independent rheostats that control the speeds. It's "smart" with solid state control circuits that have to be programmed by the sequential pushing of buttons which isn't "intuitive." You've got to read the instructions and I hadn't gotten them right.
 
I don't have any issues with the noise on my machine.  If the noise increases as the speed increases, it's probably a vibration problem, no?
 
I can only suggest the following possible areas to troubleshoot. Failing that, I'd strongly urge you to email Alexey and ask for help before "re-engineering" the device. It's cleverly thought out and doesn't seem to take well to being modified, as you may have noticed when you substituted the wooden bobbin axles which defeated the friction mechanism on the bobbins which maintains the thread tension at that end.
 
1.     Check to see that the large gear (the "sun" gear in the planetary mechanism) is not mounted backwards on its axle. Yours is different than mine, but I mistakenly mounted mine backwards when assembling it and, discovering my error, had to correct that. The reversal of this gear may affect the gear alignment with the motor. (My machine's motor is a rubber "tire" friction drive against the edge of the large gear, unlike yours, which is gear driven.)
 
2.     When laying up three part rope, the fourth bobbin must be mounted on the machine in order to maintain the balance of the spinning planetary mechanism. 
 
3.     Bobbin tension is adjusted by tightening and loosening the bobbin axle knobs to pinch the felt pads against the bobbin sides. "Whorls" in the laid up rope occur when the tension on the bobbins is uneven and the thread feed slips or jerks. Even tension when loading of the bobbins in important.
 
4.     When laying up four part rope, a center core (a fifth strand) of smaller diameter than the other four must be run through the middle of the four laid up strands if the resulting rope is to lay up concentrically. If the core is omitted, the four strands will not lay up equally and the rope will be "lumpy."
 
5.     The tightness of the lay can be adjusted by moving the "windpoint" created by the crossbar fairlead(s) on the threaded posts projecting from the main ("sun") gear. See Alexey's post with his instructions regarding this at 
 
6.    The twist direction of the thread, left ("S" twist) or right ("Z" twist,) is important. If you are laying up right twist thread into rope, you must start with left twist thread. If you are laying up left twist rope, you must start with right twist thread. If your thread is twisted in the wrong direction (the twist varies, but most sewing thread is right twist,) you have to twist it back in the direction you want before loading it on the bobbins for laying up.
 
I hope these thoughts are of some help. As I said, if all else fails, email Alexey!  He's a great help.
 
Thanks for sharing your struggles here. I'm watching closely and learning a lot. I haven't had a lot of time to spend playing with my machine as yet.

So I've heard. They are very impressive machines. I'm waiting for my big lottery win in order to afford one, though!    
 
https://www.foredom.net/product-category/micromotors/micromotor-kits/brushless-dual-port-kits/

As said above, there's no comparison between the Dremel MotoTool and the Foredom flex-shaft tools. I have several Dremels, which are handy for many jobs, but they can't hold a candle to the Foredom for modeling. (My wife finds the Dremel with a sanding drum mounted to be perfect for doing her show-dogs' toenails!) Dremel does have a lot of accessories for their MotoTool "platform," but, in my experience, they are pretty much junk, most lacking the rigidity to produce consistently accurate work. There are after-market providers of much better accessories which may be powered by either the Dremel MotoTool or the Foredom flex-shafts. (See: https://vanda-layindustries.com/) It's a lot easier to mount the 1" diameter Foredom flex-shaft to the tool post of your lathe for milling and grinding than it is the Dremel. ' Foredom has a large selection of hand pieces, including hand pieces for chisel carving, pencil sized ones for very fine work, and a mini-belt-sander, if one's so inclined. There's no comparison in terms of quality between Dremel and Foredom. There's no plastic anywhere on a Foredom tool, except perhaps the electric cord plug's body.
 
The Foredom products will cost more than the Dremels, but you do get what you pay for and, with the Foredom, you would be buying the "industry standard" tool for the job. The Foredom flex-shaft machines do come up on the used market. I got mine, with two hand pieces, from somebody on Craigslist, a local "flea market" website, for $75 and it's served me well for years. They seem to be a bit more on the used market currently, but you can still get a used Foredom for about what a new Dremel would run you. There are always some used Foredoms for sale on eBay. I recommend getting the clamp-on hanging stand for the Foredom motor. That keeps the flex-shaft out of the way of your workspace.
 
Keep in mind that the Dremel relies on speed for its effectiveness, while the Foredom flex-shaft tool relies on torque. Torque wins every time in that contest. The Foredom has a very convenient foot pedal speed control which, unlike the Dremels, will allow you to start slowly and work up to speed. With the Dremels, even if it has a speed control, you start it and it's instantly running at that speed until you change the speed or turn it off.
 
If you get a Foredom, be sure to get the hand piece that has the three-jawed chuck, as well as the basic collect-holding chuck (like the Dremel.) If you're moving up from a Dremel, all of your Dremel tooling will work in the Foredom without any problems.
 
If you plan to do fine carving, the control possible with the right Foredom hand piece is unequaled: 

 
 
 

So I've heard. They are very impressive machines. I'm waiting for my big lottery win in order to afford one, though!    
 
https://www.foredom.net/product-category/micromotors/micromotor-kits/brushless-dual-port-kits/

Bob,
 
The blades that I am describing look like but are not plywood blades.  They are larger versions of the Thurston blades used with the Byrnes saw but slightly hollow ground.  As far as I know, they were a proprietary  Sears product.  When sharp they do produce a beautiful satin finish.
 
I met Harold Hahn on a couple of occasions, the first in 1975 at the NRG Conference held in the very small (pop 15000) Ohio River Town of Marietta, Ohio where my wife and I were living at the time.  I read about the upcoming conference in our local newspaper and was surprised to learn that there was an organization devoted to maritime research and ship modeling.  The attendees were a roster of whose who in the ship modeling world.  I immediately joined up and this past year received my 45 year bar to go with my pin.
 
In those days you could buy 1 inch (3/4 inch actual) thick planks of true boxwood, I still have two waiting for a project, and I believe that Hahn started with full thickness lumber to build his models.
 
The problem with getting the blades sharpened is not the cost but getting the sharpener to not set the teeth!
 
At least one of the blades is supposedly new.
 
Roger

I bought a Foredom about 30 years ago. I rarely use it now, even if the shaft gives it torque, it takes away easy handling  in all directions. 
I prefer to use a Foredom brushless Micromotor, a lot of torque, light and easier to handle than a Foredom shaft.

I recall reading with some surprise that Hahn did indeed use those blades back when he built his models "in the days of wooden chips and iron men." Finish wood was a lot less dear and more widely available back then, as well, so the kerf width wasn't so much of a consideration. The depth of cut on those Craftsman blades was 1 and 1/4", which probably explains why Hahn devised a jig to cut the pieces for gluing up his frame blanks... that was as wide a sheet stock as he could get. Interestingly, on the other side of the pond in Hahn's time, Gerald Wingrove was cutting his strips on the table saw attachment on his Unimat SL. 
 
I checked those Craftsman plywood blades out on eBay. I'm not so sure about buying used circular saw blades on eBay. With the high tooth count, I expect the saw sharpening shop would charge a bit to sharpen one. I expect they didn't get a lot of "mileage" out of one cutting plywood, which can be hard on an edge. I'll have to check, but I may even have one in my stash in the shop, inherited from my father decades ago. Delta and others currently make comparable high-tooth-count, (relatively) thin-kerf plywood-cutting blades, some less expensive new than the used ones on eBay. StewMac makes a 6" "fret-slotting table saw blade" with the outer 3/8" or so  of the edge hollow ground down to .023", but its depth of cut is very limited. That puppy will set you back around $150.00. https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/saws/fret-slotting-table-saw-blade.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=2021-03-gp&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1pyCBhCtARIsAHaY_5fEdm8TK9oqsPrp2m7Lu8AeI0SXQvFi4cnuQ9byVdTiKgVLVwa3EIoaApVqEALw_wcB Freud has a 10"x80T thin kerf "Ultimate Plywood and Melamine Blade" with a 3/32" kerf for around $75.00 on sale. https://www.amazon.com/Freud-Ultimate-Plywood-Melamine-LU79R010/dp/B000GJTIIK
 
I have a 1950 Craftsman/King Seeley 8" tilting arbor table saw that was my father's. It gets little or no use these days, since I have a Delta Unisaw and a Byrnes saw, but when it was all I had, I got a lot of use out of it. I still have all my fingers, no doubt due to my Guardian Angel working overtime. I always feel using it is a bit like playing with a pet rattlesnake. (Not that I don't feel the same about the other saws, though less so with the Jim Saw.) The fence on the Craftsman is very fiddly to set up and keep set and with the relatively small table, I have to set up infeed and outfeed roller supports for stock of any length. I have a good selection of molding head cutters for it, though, and I occasionally use it for that. Someone who had the smaller Craftsman tilting table saw with a thin kerf, high tooth count, blade for it wouldn't go far wrong, if they had a fence that didn't drive them crazy. What's scary about  these "widdowmakers" is that there is the tendency for the work to slide "downhill" when sawing with the table tilted, but that can be compensated for with caution and a jig if you need it. It's just that with a 3/32" kerf, cutting 1/16" strips will cost you more in sawdust than you're getting in stripwood, which is okay for some, I suppose. Everybody's mileage differs.
 
 

Weren't the bolts for the feed bobbins meant to adjust the tension of the individual threads ? Uniform tension on all the threads is important for a smooth rope.

As said above, there's no comparison between the Dremel MotoTool and the Foredom flex-shaft tools. I have several Dremels, which are handy for many jobs, but they can't hold a candle to the Foredom for modeling. (My wife finds the Dremel with a sanding drum mounted to be perfect for doing her show-dogs' toenails!) Dremel does have a lot of accessories for their MotoTool "platform," but, in my experience, they are pretty much junk, most lacking the rigidity to produce consistently accurate work. There are after-market providers of much better accessories which may be powered by either the Dremel MotoTool or the Foredom flex-shafts. (See: https://vanda-layindustries.com/) It's a lot easier to mount the 1" diameter Foredom flex-shaft to the tool post of your lathe for milling and grinding than it is the Dremel. ' Foredom has a large selection of hand pieces, including hand pieces for chisel carving, pencil sized ones for very fine work, and a mini-belt-sander, if one's so inclined. There's no comparison in terms of quality between Dremel and Foredom. There's no plastic anywhere on a Foredom tool, except perhaps the electric cord plug's body.
 
The Foredom products will cost more than the Dremels, but you do get what you pay for and, with the Foredom, you would be buying the "industry standard" tool for the job. The Foredom flex-shaft machines do come up on the used market. I got mine, with two hand pieces, from somebody on Craigslist, a local "flea market" website, for $75 and it's served me well for years. They seem to be a bit more on the used market currently, but you can still get a used Foredom for about what a new Dremel would run you. There are always some used Foredoms for sale on eBay. I recommend getting the clamp-on hanging stand for the Foredom motor. That keeps the flex-shaft out of the way of your workspace.
 
Keep in mind that the Dremel relies on speed for its effectiveness, while the Foredom flex-shaft tool relies on torque. Torque wins every time in that contest. The Foredom has a very convenient foot pedal speed control which, unlike the Dremels, will allow you to start slowly and work up to speed. With the Dremels, even if it has a speed control, you start it and it's instantly running at that speed until you change the speed or turn it off.
 
If you get a Foredom, be sure to get the hand piece that has the three-jawed chuck, as well as the basic collect-holding chuck (like the Dremel.) If you're moving up from a Dremel, all of your Dremel tooling will work in the Foredom without any problems.
 
If you plan to do fine carving, the control possible with the right Foredom hand piece is unequaled: