We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Steve" saying
something like:

or should I just buy a Dremel?

From what I gather, the best Dremels are the older models, from when
they had the market to themselves and produced good quality stuff - at a
price, of course. I was always impressed with them, but balked at
spending the cash on something that would only see very occasional use.
Fast forward many years and I bought a cheapy Lidl dremel-a-like and
it's been in regular use. It's surprising how much service it gets
pressed in to when it's part of my tool mindset. There's the irony - if
I'd actually splashed out on a real Dremel all those years ago, I'd have
found plenty of use for it.
Anyway, so far I've found the Lidl (Powercraft) dremel to be quite good
to use and reliable. Who knows how long it will last, but for 17quid I
don't care if it blows up next week. I would say, the cheapy tool sets
are mostly crap, but they're a good starting point to find out what ones
to replace with better quality as you use them to obliteration.