SteveB wrote:

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


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 :-)

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk [at]=@, [dash]=- &
[dot]=.
*Warning* SPAM TRAP set in header, Use email address in sig. if you must.