Dremel tool, how much use?

[Mike Schuch]

I get a fair amount of use out of my Dremmels but I seldom use them for wood working. In the shop I have a Harbor Freight 1/8" shaft air powered micro die grinder. It is much smaller than an electric Dremmel and much easier to position on the work.
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In the house and other places I use the electric Dremmel where a compressed air source isn't handy.

The Dremmel is my last choice for a sawing operation but sometimes it is the only tool that will do. Grinding and polishing are where the Dremmel really shines. I am always using mine to sharpen chain saw blades.

[Kent A Bathurst]

What is your opinion? are they worth owning and how do you guys use them?

I'll be doggoned, Jerry. You just reminded me - I was given the Craftsman equivalent for Christmas 13 years ago or so. It has to be around here somewhere. If I were to go look for it [which I won't] and open the case [ditto] that would be the second time it has seen daylight.

Good enough answer?

[Jerry Olexa]

I get a fair amount of use out of my Dremmels but I seldom use them for wood working. In the shop I have a Harbor Freight 1/8" shaft air powered micro die grinder. It is much smaller than an electric Dremmel and much easier to position on the work.

Good tip!! Makes sense, Mike Thanks for your advice
image_22213.jpg

In the house and other places I use the electric Dremmel where a compressed air source isn't handy.

The Dremmel is my last choice for a sawing operation but sometimes it is the only tool that will do. Grinding and polishing are where the Dremmel really shines. I am always using mine to sharpen chain saw blades.

Good tip!! Makes sense, Mike Thanks for your advice

[Jerry Olexa]

Learning much via this thread..Many plusses but a few minuses too...Thanks

[roger wiegand]

I've found Dremels to be pretty clunky to use, too big for many of the tasks, and they get hot if you hold them very long. I use a Foredom tool with a small handpiece for many such tasks. I buy boxes of used solid carbide cutters and drills used in electronic board manufacture on FleaBay for use in the tool, they are way cheaper (less than a buck apiece) than the new cutters and much better quality, still plenty sharp for wood. One of the main things I use it for is routing recesses for inlay work, but I grab it for all kinds of tasks that involve removing very small amounts of material or drilling holes smaller than 1-2 mm. The Foredom has a foot pedal speed control which is very handy.

[Erik Loza]

I got a Proxxon after my third Dremel burned up: http://shop.prox-tech.com/c/hand-hel....1029645.0.0.0

Not much more expensive and about a thousand times nicer.

I haven't killed my dremel yet but if/when I do, I'll buy one of these. By the way, I use my dremel all the time. Trimming this or polishing that. I have a big electric cutoff wheel but the dremel seems to see all the action. I guess it's like a router vs. shaper. Yeah, the shaper is awesome but the router, you can just turn on and be done in 10 seconds.

Erik Loza
Minimax

[Cary Falk]

I don't use mine often but there are times when only it will do the job. Dremel may not be the best out there but they have a 5 year warranty and their cs is top notch. My newest one stop working just before christmas. I sent it in. It came back about 2 weeks later with a letter apologizing for the inconvenience and sent me one of their most popular accessories for my trouble.

[Judson Green]

Excellent use for a rotary-type tool btw:



I find that my blades actually cut better than the factory grind after I've gone over them using the above method.

I sharping bandsaw blades with a small stone in the rotary tool, I think it's for sharpening chainsaw blades or similar to one anyway. And I do it with the blade still mounted on the wheeled. I'm also of the opinion that it cuts better than new.

[Pat Barry]

Suitable only for very light hobby work and trimming dog nails, IMO.

LOL - I thought i was the only one to use that tool for dog nails. My dog was very afraid of the cutter tools but tolerated the dremel

[Kent A Bathurst]

LOL - I thought i was the only one to use that tool for dog nails. My dog was very afraid of the cutter tools but tolerated the dremel

Whooa !! We have a winner !!

No dog, but by the time I get around to my own toenails, a power tool would be great. Ima keep my eyes open for it.

Tangent alert!!:

Did anyone see the film The World's Fastest Indian? Great flick. Everything about it was great. Plus - the protagonist played by Anthony Hopkins always peed outside and always trimmed his toe nails with a power tool. My kinda guy.

If you haven't seen it - you will love it - a "movie-ized" re-telling of a true story - a guy from Australia that took his Indian motorcycle to the Bonneville Flats, unannounced and not pre-registered, found a way to get to run it, and set the world record for his class.

I was talking one day with the guy in charge of motorcycle restorations at the Barber Museum near Birmingham AL, and asked him if they were on the lookout for that bike. "We would be, but there are about a half-dozen with claims that are all as legit as the others, which likely means none of them are the real deal."

[Brian Henderson]

It depends on the project. It's mighty useful when having to sand small areas where a larger sander simply cannot reach, I've used it for cutting off small screws and the like and for shaping intricate decorations. Like any tool, it depends on the application, some people may use it every day, others may never pick it up.

[Keith Outten]

Keith,

Could you provide a bit more info on this process? It sounds like something I may want to do when I venture into acrylics/Corian.

John,

Sure, I use one of the small buffing wheels on my Dremel tool with white buffing compound. While the pen blanks are still on the mandrel on my wood lathe and after I have sanded the blanks the last step is to buff. I hold the buffing wheel at a 45 degree angle and polish the blanks while the lathe is running at about 1000 rpm. I use a very light touch and make just a couple passes along the length of each pen blank, the blanks shine like glass. Let me know if this doesn't make sense and I will take a couple pictures.
.

[Ole Anderson]

I have a Sears version that gets used in the shop and I keep a Dremel version in my motorhome. Mostly with a abrasive cone for getting a good starting point for a drill in a broken bolt or using the cutoff wheel. Yea the cheap cutoff wheels break, but they have some reinforced ones now that have a quick connect that are much more durable. Broke the bolts off the yoke of my Jeep's driveshaft while in FL once and used it to cut slots in the broken bolts to remove them with a screwdriver at the suggestion of a NAPA counter guy.

[Joe Craven]

Like others, I agree that there are times when the Dremel (or something identical in function) is the only tool for the job. I probably use mine 20-30 times per year but rarely in the context of woodworking, except maybe when sawing off nails on a 2x4 so that it can be repurposed. The rest of the time it's for random needs around the house like, for instance, when I needed to saw off the last part of a door knob when my 8-year-old locked an internal door (from inside the room) and we got locked out of that room...sawing away at that protective ring was the only way I could get at the backside of the threads so that I could drill out the rest of the lock. I use the cut-off wheels almost exclusively.

Also, FWIW, I don't recommend the cordless versions of this tool. I had one for years and it worked well enough, but the motor burnt out and needed to be replaced, then the lithium ion battery eventually wore out....frustrating to be in the middle of a project only to have to wait on a recharge. All that time I never found myself far enough from an outlet to have a real need for cordless.

[Tai Fu]

Air die grinders are great, if you have a giant compressor to keep up with it. It's surprising how much air the little sucker uses. If you are in a small apartment it's hardly practical. Foredom knockoffs have been very useful for me, however the huge hand piece is a little hard to control... I can't say I have liked the quality of Dremel brand tools, probably the same quality as the HF unit at 300% of the price.