I just got a Dremel and am wondering what all you can use it for. Most common I hear is cutting rail, however I hae also heard that is tends to be too fast for drilling the plastics used on most models. What do you use it for?
There has to be a million and one uses.
They only go too fast if you have a model that doesn’t have speed control beyond off/on.
I would not cut rail with it.
To cut rail with the dremel you must have the flex shaft attachment or you can not make square cuts.
The Dremel is useful anytime you are cutting, grinding, sanding, shaping, polishing, drilling, etc. I use mine all over the house and in the garage as well as in the layout room.
A variable speed model is a must have in my opinion. [2c]
I have the flex shaft, but do not use it to cut rail. I DO use the larger reinforced discs to cut rail!! Years ago I had one of the standard cut-off wheels shatter, and although I had safety glasses on, I had about 8 or 10 nasty little cuts on my face!! Using various attachments, I’ve cut the center rail, truck side frames, and various other parts to allow a couple of my Walthers passenger cars to negotiate the 22" radius curves on my plywood central!! My kit came with the lawnmower sharpening attachment, but it’s not worth a XXX, but I’ve used the reinforced cut-off discs to sharpen the blade (electric mower - too lazy to remove the blade so I just turn it over!). I’m on my 2nd Dremel - the first one only laster 25 or 30 years!! The new one is variable speed & included a bunch of accesories like the flex shaft, circle jig, blade sharpeneer, etc. Read the book that comes with the tool - it lists a cazillion things it will do!![:D]
I use mine for grinding and polishing. In particular, I find it handy for “grinding” styrene and other plastics when I’m kitbashing. I tried it once with a toothed cutter (on brass) and the cutter walked all over the place. Never again. Drilling would be OK with a speed control, I guess; but I’ve always used a pin vise or a micro drill press. To cut rail, I use the special end-nippers.
For a grinding tool, I use what are called “mizzy” wheels. They’re grinding disks about 1/8 inch thick that you mount on the Dremel mandrel. They’re designed to wear out–you just put another one on. I mist have gone through hundreds over the past many years. Most of them were used grinding welds on a motorcycle frame–there are probably better tools for the purpose, but that’s what I had at the time. The mizzy wheels can be found at jewelry tool suppliers.
Ed
I use my Dremel for just about everything from cutting rail to drilling holes for 2-56 screws for Athearn BB coupler boxes.I have cut plastic,wood,sanded,buff-you name any modeling task short of soldiering.
I use cheap thin cut-off wheels for cutting plastic. Mostly, this is done where it doesn’t show much, like cutting off old odd-sized coupler pockets before replacing the whole mess with Kadee equipment. For out-in-the-open cuts which need to be clean, I’ll use a knife to get good clean results.
I do a lot of stone wall castings in Hydrocal. The Dremel is a good tool for getting accurate cuts to shape the walls to the terrain. It’s a white, dusty job, but somebody’s got to do it. I wait until it’s a nice day, usually, and go outside so I don’t get dust all over my clean (ha-ha) workroom.
When I’m removing the couplers from old Talgo trucks, I cut the metal bracket with the Dremel. Usually, I use the cheap thin wheels for that, too. Sure, I break them. That’s why I use the cheap ones. Cheaper than buying whole new trucks, anyway.
I have a bit which works pretty well when machining down engine chassis and weights to make room for sound decoders and speakers.
For cutting rail, I’ve got a pair of Xuron rail nippers. And those are used only for cutting rail - no cheating and using them for wire cutters.
I use mine for grinding and drilling. Although I use rail-nipers for most rail cutting jobs, I will use the Dremel and a cut-off disk for cutting rail or track when it is already installed, and for cutting gaps in rail / track where needed for blocks etc.
A guy in NY got busted a while back for practicing dentistry without a licence with his.[:D]
I use mine for grinding the stubs off of DPM kits, and cutting off the tabs that come with the kits. Grinding/cutting brass, routing out parts on custom detailing cars, drilling out holes on the layout, cars, engines, stuctures. Goes so much faster than a pinvice.
If your Dremel is single speed and you want variable speed look for a sewing machine foot treadle. Its kinda like a gas peddle type thing, I use one to have both hands free to control my dremel. It also lets me turn it on and off with my foot while giving variable speed control.
I used mine to cut a piece of 1/4" drill rod that was so hard a hacksaw just glided over it. A steel cutter lowered the height of IHC passenger car interiors to allow for ceiling light bars. Any time you need to make something smaller, or cut to fit, the Dremel will chaw it down to size. The steel cutters will handle wood and plastic, the abrasive heads will go thru any kind of metal. It is my favorite tool for cutting electrical gaps in track after it has been laid. The abrasive cutoff disks slice thru the nickel silver without tearing the rail up from the ties the way a hand saw will. I fill the resulting gap with a bit of sheet styrene super glued in place to make sure the gap stays open. The Dremel is good for grinding off mold parting marks on metal castings.
The Dremel is not my favorite drilling machine, at least not hand held with #60 and smaller drill bits. The tiny bits break very easily under power. I use a pin vice, or my regular drill press when ever I can. There is a way cool Dremel drill press fixture that I don’t have, and wish I did. With the fixture we could drill printed circuit boards and cut etch with ease.
The Dremel was intended for light cutting at great speed. The tools cut best with a light touch that keeps the speed up. If you bear down too hard the Dremel slows down and then gets hot.
I use mine a lot. Primarily for sanding and grinding/carving wood. For me speed control is critical and I rarely use it at top speed. I use one of these with a single speed tool:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10760&filter=speed%20control
It provides really good control. You can also set the speed, shut off the tool, and when you turn it back on you have the same speed.
One other thing. The first thing that wears out are the bearings. When your Dremel starts to wear out (gets noisy), open it up and go to your local bearing dealer and get new bearings for it. You can make it good as new for about $10. The bearings are standard off-the-shelf items, so they’ll probably have them in stock.
Also, I have three Dremel tools. That way I don’t have to keep swapping out bits - at least, not as often.
Do they still make the flexible shaft? I found my mototool in storage but the bits and shaft have disappeared to parts unknown. I was looking around various places and no one seems to have the shaft.
Please, somebody, give him the shaft! [:D]
If you have a flex shaft, how is the moto tool held in place while the shaft is connected?
Anywhere in Canada to get one?
I hang the tool up by it’s hook when at the work bench - which is under the layout so it’s easy. I think Dremel has a clip on pole for a table/desktop. On the layout I just lay it down with the flex shaft straight out - it has enough heft to stay put.
Enjoy
Paul
Check Canadian Tire, Bruce. The newly-renovated outlet in our area has an awful lot of motor tool accessories. That one across the street from you just might too.
Back in “early times” I had the drill press accessory for the Dremel. Mine was way too sloppy/wobbly to use. I would recommend getting a real drill press, either a teeny benchtop model, or one of the ones from Micro-Mark. I did the latter and got the somewhat more expensive one of theirs. It is indeed a very nice LITTLE drill press. It’s got variable speed and an electronic depth gage.
Ed
Don’t forget dentistry.