Anyone here use a dental drill for removing broken taps and stuff?

[Shadowdog500]

I've had multiple tight situations over the years where I thought that a dental drill would be perfect to drill something out. Today one of the guys at work said he broke the ball of a swiveling Allen head wrench in the head of a hidden Allen bolt on his custom chopper. It is wedged in tight and he said he couldn't easily get to it to remove it. When I looked at the photo of where the bolt head was on the bike, it was another case where the tiny head of a dental drill would get right on easily.

Im ready to buy an inexpensive one from E-bay with some high speed carbide dental burrs. But I thought I would ask if anyone here tried this before before I checked out.

The 400,000 rpm dental drill with the air/water hose and 10 carbide ball end dental burrs is only $45 with free shipping. The water injection is to cool the tooth while drilling/ I'm wondering if it could also keep the carbide tip cool while drilling metal.

Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

This would not be my first piece of medical equipment in the shop . I use a $50 otoscope that I bought off amazon to look in my dogs ears to inspect blind holes in my shop. It works great in the shop.

 

[JimDawson]

For $45 it would be worth a try, the burrs are worth the price. I can't see why it wouldn't work for a lot of applications. The water cooling can only help I would think.

 

[Shadowdog500]

For $45 it would be worth a try, the burrs are worth the price. I can't see why it wouldn't work for a lot of applications. The water cooling can only help I would think.

That's a good way to look at it. For $45 I'll find some use for the thing if it don't work to drill out taps and bolts. Just bought it.

If nothing else I can do some woodcarving. Woodcarvers seem to like these things.
Chris

 

[Shadowdog500]

Holy cow did this ship quickly! I just got a shipping notification with a tracking number about 20 minutes after I placed my order. Must be a slow day in China. . Last thing I ordered from a Chinese seller on ebay showed up in less than a week with free shipping. How do they do it?

Chris

 

[drs23]

Holy cow did this ship quickly! I just got a shipping notification with a tracking number about 20 minutes after I placed my order. Must be a slow day in China. . Last thing I ordered from a Chinese seller on ebay showed up in less than a week with free shipping. How do they do it?

Chris

'Cause they own the place?...

Edit: I wasn't talking about the mfg. facility, per say. Inferring something entirely different. No politics from me. :whiteflag:

 

[hman]

Might be a grand idea, or somewhat of a bust. Hard to predict. Teeth are a lot more brittle than steel ... especially the good stuff that taps are made of. )

But the low price sure makes it look like a great way to have some fun, and maybe make a breakthrough discovery. PLEASE be sure to let us all know how it works out!!!

 

[Andre]

Anything dental creeps me out, I'd prefer to use a non dental rotary tool. I have a dremel 4000 and $30 HF air pencil die grinder. I use the air grinder more than the dremel now, but the dremel is better if you don't have air available or don't fell like pumping up the compressor. Mine is a 60 gallon, so it takes a long time.

I just find other ways to remove the tap, first off don't break it )

I haven't tried to remove one, never needed to. When I am doing sensitive work, I make a "break away tap" that has a deep notch that is meant to break before the threaded portion. If it breaks, I gram the exposed end with pliers and wiggle it free. I made one once, and it never broke though so I didn't get to test it. In theory it should work most of the time. Presuming there are no microscopic cracks or stress fractures in the rest of the tap that would go before the modified potion. I'll do a writeup on it.

 

[chuckorlando]

You wont find a small tool of most any kind thats as well built as a dental tool. Chairs, lights, air/water lines, connections, to the guns switches and regulators. Most our air lines at work are dental line. I need to look and see if we got any drills laying around as we scrap most that stuff when restoring equipment.

None of that means they will work. But will be a well built failure if not ahahaha

 

[Rick Leslie]

Years ago I hit my dentist up for his used burs. Still using them in my Dremel with a collet sleeve to make up the difference in shank diameters. They work great for me.

 

[davidh]

i too have hit up my dental assistant for throw-aways. like you, i made some collet adapters and they do work pretty well. but they are tiny and pretty "tender", one fast move and "snap".
on another note, your friends stuck allen end, try vibrating it out with a engraving tool. it does work quite often, even to remove a broken bolt or such. . .