I want a Dremel tool. Should I buy a standard Dremel, or the top of the line? What would you do if you had it to do over again? Do I need all the stuff that comes with the most expensive one, or it just nice to have around IN CASE I need it? (Like lots of other tools in my shop.)
STeve
You almost certainly won't need all the stuff. However, having the big case of stuff is really handy in finding which stuff you do need, and which just won't work for a given job. The two-speed model isn't that much worse than the 5-speed one, but occasionally you can want an intermediate speed.
You probably don't want a rechargable tool for your first dremel. Some bits are surprisingly useful, for example the sanding drums are great at removing quite gently layers of paint over even quite large areas.
And some are not nearly as handy as you might think.
One of the most useful of all is those tiny, fragile, cutting disks. I have done things with those that would otherwise take a torch. One frequent use is when I strip the head of a Phillips head screw. When that happens, you just cut a new slot across the head of the screw and apply a flat screwdriver. The harder the metal, the better those disks work. Thay sometimes grab badly on soft metal.
True enough. I have plenty of unused goodies in my kit.
Vaughn
For work at the bench, I use a Foredom tool with a foot switch For a portable tool, I use a run of the mill Dremel with variable speed, though fixed speed would probably work as well.
But then the best answer really depends on what applications you have for it.
Mike
The most useful setup is no longer available, so you have to compromise. The ideal Dremel is a ball-bearing FIXED speed model, and then use it with the foot pedal speed control. The foot pedal is incredibly useful, but it won't work well with the variable speed models. At this time, I don't think you can get fixed speed models with the better bearings, but I'd rather have sleeve bearings than give up on the foot pedal. I've complained to Dremel about this, but as far as I know, they haven't done anything about it.
I'd go ahead & get a full kit. You never know which bits you'll need. The router & drill press attachments are also handy, but the current drill press is a bit sloppy. It tends to wobble from side to side as you lower the tool, which is a no-no if you are drilling with tiny carbide bits.
Doug White
I would buy just the motor tool and some sanding drums and cutoff wheels. I have several, my fav is the variable speed. My least fav was a rechargable that I gave away a few months ago. I've often thought a flexible shaft machine would be better than a dremel.
For work at the bench, I use a Foredom tool with a foot switch. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's a lot more expensive and a lot better than a Dremel. I found a Proxxon on sale, which I like very much. Even on sale it costs more than a Dremel, but less than a Foredom.
The feature of Proxxon which I particularly like is the chuck. It's like a tiny Jacobs chuck, so you are not forever changing collets.
I have two Dremel tools, one variable speed and one rechargable (which I have yet to even open). My Main Dremel tool gets ALOT of use, I have purchased the flex shaft for it which makes it even better. I restore Coleman products and my Dremel is perfect for this operation. I go through about 5 wire wheels a week if I am steady working. I mainly use the wire wheels and buffing wheels. The thin cut-off disks really does a job on small welds that my larger grinder would make a mess of. My opinion would be to buy the Dremel kit with the flex shaft attachment. Like another poster said there will be bits in the kit that you will never use. I do have most all of the bits available, but then again I do have alot of hobbies!
Searcher1
A friend of mine bought one recently and was not impressed. First one blew the motor in a few days and the replacement/repair jobs have been pathetic. The current one has a large amount of run out and is basically useless for the purpose he bought it. I bought three different cheap ones (I was intending to buy the Dremel but after his experience I changed my mind) and each of them is better than the Dremel. Each of these was under $30 AU. Two of which came with the bendy drive. VERY impressed with them.
AJS
Well I was seriously short of cash so I got the really really cheap 'dremel' clone. For anyone looking for it, Its the one with the 15V dc power 'brick' with the standard dc wallwart style power plug (2.5mm centre pin I belive) on a lead attached to the tool, NOT the psu. About £15 at B&Q if they ever have any!
It did some really heavy cutting on a 4" diameter propeller hub, I was taking a 1/4" square groove out of it all the way round for clearence on the housing. Nasty grabby aluminium as a previous poster said. Steep learning curve with many shattered disks but I can now make a disk last freehand on steel till its down to a nub. *** Wear eye protection ***. Seeing as the job really should have been done on a lathe, it went amasingly well. The speed control in the handset failed wide open but as I had allready abused it beyond what I regarded as fair and reasonable, I took a look. One beefier transistor in the same series later I had speed control again. A bit of copper strip as a heatsink ard I reconed it would last a little longer. That was 3 years ago and its still going strong. A little too much runout now, probably due to cutting all the rust siezed bolts off a 40 year old boat trailer and slotting 1/4 inch steel plate but it just wont die. I am so impressed I bought another one which is waiting on the shelf for this one to croak.
It has a ball bearing in the noze of the tool, and plain bearings in the motor. Apart from a tendency for the other race of the bearing to spin in the housing (I packed it a little with aluminium tape), not too crappy. The collet set only goes to 2.5 mm but with a little work I was able to make a real Dremel 3.2 mm collet fit. (it needed a sleeve as it was under diameter for the spindle) The spindle nut and the thread on the outside of the noze of the housing are a different size to a real Dremel, so you cant use Dremel accessories that arent cutters or bits etc.
On the subject of bits:
Cutting wheels - Great, You will use lots and lots.
Glass fibre reinforced cutting wheels - Not as aggressive as the thin ones and too pricy for most stuff. Should be better for softer metal
Sanding drums - quite handy, consumables too expensive and often you cant get the angle to get a good finish on the surface if its too big an item to hand hold.
Sanding disks (rubber with stisk on pads) - Wonderfull, you *MUST* get one if it doesnt include one. I bought a couple of sheets of self adhesive sander paper all the way from 600 grit to 36 grit and punch out my own disks using a sharpened piece of thin wall steel tube and a scrap of hardwood as a backing block. A 36 grit sanding disk at 20,000 rpm (nominal but at least 10,000 under load) really chews through just about anything you want to shift :-)
Diamond engraving points - Pretty handy, I grind carbide tool tips and make holes in ferrites with them.
Mounted stones - either real Cr@p or I just dont know how to use them. Might be ok for sharpening toothpicks. Basically disposable on one job. only use if no other tool will do the job.
Unmounted stones - OK, much better than the mounted ones.
Various milling cutters - Not bad, The thinnest paralell sided one gets a lot of abuse, the others I dont use much.
Felt polishers, buffing wheels etc. - Do what they say, The dremel polishing compound may not be agressive enough for some jobs. Valve grinding paste has its uses, but I reckon pumice in a hard wax would be the most use for me for shifting areas of salt water corrosion on bronze.
YMMV :-)
Not if you have the flex shaft, which just about takes care of that issue. Most people don't have shop air, contrary to popular belief. But I agree, You will find yourself making use of air tools faster than picking up the electric ones. I have both and I do like my Dremel with the flex shaft, without that shaft I most likely would not have one. BTW, I will DAGS the Foredom, but what about this would you say is better than the Dremel. Just curious. Maybe if the Foredom looks to my likeing I may upgrade.
Searcher1
I switched over to the fiber cutoff wheels that look like full size ones. They hold up much better but are expensive. I did have a problem with them grinding down really fast when they got LPS 2 on them while I was cutting a screw slot on a frozen Philips screw that had twisted out. Karl
My Foredom has a tiny Jacobs chuck in the handpiece. Took me forever finding a chuck key, and one day I found about 200 of them in Reliable Tools for a buck a pop. I bought 4..just in case
Gunner
"I mean, when's the last time you heard of a college where the Young Republicans staged a "Sit In" to close down the Humanities building? On the flip side, how many sit in's were staged to close the ROTC building back in the '60's? Liberals stage protests, do civil disobedience, etc. Conservatives talk politely and try to work out a solution to problems through discourse until they believe that talking won't work... they they go home and open the gun cabinets. Pray things never get to the point where the conservatives decide that "civil disobedience" is the next step, because that's a very short route to "voting from the rooftops" Jeffrey Swartz, Misc.Survivalism
I missed the staff meeting but the minutes show Gunner wrote back on Sat, 04 Dec 2004 16:43:18 GMT in rec.crafts.metalworking :
One for the tool (attached to cord). One for the tool's case One for the toolbox, And one for the cat to bat around before losing interest?
Hmmm - how many cats do you have? You might want to go get a couple more.
On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 16:43:18 GMT, Gunner calmly ranted:
I bought the HF version of the Foredom for $50 when they went on sale and used it a few times. Then I moved and couldn't find the bloody chuck key. I went to Medford to the HF there and the manager said "When did you say you bought this?" I told him "Just about a year ago." "Six months, you say? Here, no charge for warranty losses." he said, as he handed a bag with the new teensy chuck key (and a pair of brushes) to me.
Happiness is a warm bag. (Now what does that remind me of...?
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Lots of posts, but I will add a little.
Stores do not seem to carry the top of the line Dremel, which has electronic speed control, and holds it's speed under load.
The mini (1/8 inch chuck) air tools (Dremel equivalent) often turn
50,000 RPM or so, higher than any Dremel. Most of the grinding wheels, cutoff wheels, etc, are probably not rated for 50,000 RPM, and might explode.My favorite bits on a Dremel or a die grinder are carbide burrs, remove even steel quickly.
I use the 1/4 inch chuck die grinders very often, they are very impressive, much more powerful than a Dremel. I have a Makita electric that I love, like an oversized dremel.
Richard
SteveB wrote:
Im running a Christmas Special on cats. All visitors must take at least one cat home with them.
I figure only real good friends or the unwary will be visiting this year
Ive also got 5 pups that need homes as well as two half grown dogs needing love. They are gonna be good ones.
Gunner
Gunner
"I mean, when's the last time you heard of a college where the Young Republicans staged a "Sit In" to close down the Humanities building? On the flip side, how many sit in's were staged to close the ROTC building back in the '60's? Liberals stage protests, do civil disobedience, etc. Conservatives talk politely and try to work out a solution to problems through discourse until they believe that talking won't work... they they go home and open the gun cabinets. Pray things never get to the point where the conservatives decide that "civil disobedience" is the next step, because that's a very short route to "voting from the rooftops" Jeffrey Swartz, Misc.Survivalism
In my service truck, I keep the Ryobi version of the Dremel. 5 speeds. Ive been using it weekly for about 4 yrs now and still runs like a champ.
Gunner
"I mean, when's the last time you heard of a college where the Young Republicans staged a "Sit In" to close down the Humanities building? On the flip side, how many sit in's were staged to close the ROTC building back in the '60's? Liberals stage protests, do civil disobedience, etc. Conservatives talk politely and try to work out a solution to problems through discourse until they believe that talking won't work... they they go home and open the gun cabinets. Pray things never get to the point where the conservatives decide that "civil disobedience" is the next step, because that's a very short route to "voting from the rooftops" Jeffrey Swartz, Misc.Survivalism
My non-ESC dremel does not hold it's speed. There's no resistance on the lever and with the right vibration it will overspeed. You can feel flex throughout the system with the dremel over a die grinder.
I've the battery powered Black&Decker Wizard (2 speed) which uses the versipack batteries. It's got a decent run time for emergencies at the launch site. It's handy for around the house type of things and if the battery is dead, I swap it out with the flashlight or vac which are always on charge. It flexes quite a bit more than the dremel, but is easier to get into tight places. Don't know if they're still available, but saw one last at Kmart.
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