Do I need a Dremel tool?

[ron ll]

On another boating forum there is a survey on favorite tools. The Dremel shows up often. I've never used one, but always kind of thought of it as a hobby tool I guess. Is it a good thing to have? Do I 'need' one? smile.gif

[pcford]

No.

In thirty years of doing this stuff, needing a Dremel has never ocurred to me

[Graham Knight]

Dremel is a great modelmaking tool, I have several at work and home, but I can't think of many applications in full-size boatbuilding.

[Katherine]

I find mine handy when doing the fine detail work and sanding tight areas, just use it carefully.

[Old Bingey]

About the only thing I use is those little stinking cutoff wheels. They'll cut a rusty hose clamp off pretty good and also sharpen drill bits and gum out the center. They will, after a while, cut high speed steel, too.

[formerlyknownasprince]

They are brilliant - but I hesitate to mention some of the uses.... :D ... like cutting off screws that have come through (joining new to old - it can and does happen).

I have also used mine with a 1" flap sanding wheel to remove 65 years of accumulated varnish on an old teak wheel, with a blade to cut trenches for 1/2" stainless wire mesh to keep ducks out of a dorade box, cutting bolts back to size - etc, engraving names into tools.

Ian

[jlapratt]

I used mine to carve the hull number into the transom and the other hidden spot. Tried to surface a 12 ft piece of mahogony, but it was just a little slow ;)

Jeff

[essaunders]

I bought one for the boat - mostly as an excuse to buy one. I've probably done as much damage as good with the d*m* thing. But, yes, sanding small areas or doing cutoffs can be done quickly (and if very carfully, without damange to surroundings).

[RodB]

The small sanding drums are nice for removing material in hard to reach places especially if you have the extension cable for your dremel and can hold it like a pencil. Besides removing material on my S&G boat in small selected areas, I can't remember using it for anything else. I cold have achieved the same results with a small file or sanding board like a nail file...but the dremel was much quicker.

I have a friend who is a gunsmith and uses one extensively just removing material methodically when inletting a stock. I kinda have used it for the same purpose like fitting hinges etc.

RB

[ 11-30-2005, 05:00 PM: Message edited by: RodB ]

[Richard Smith]

I use mine all the time.

From what I gather, if you have one you find ways to use it to do things you normally would have had to find another less convenient/efficient ways to do. If you don't have one you basically don't miss what you have never had.

Try it.

[Thorne]

Yeah, but can you pry open a paint can lid with one?

[Victor]

Be sure to wear safety glasses, so when the little grinding wheel shatters it doesn't take out your eye. And don't bear down on it or you'll burn it out. The most useless and dangerous tool I've ever tried to use. Otherwise it's fine.

[ 11-30-2005, 06:07 PM: Message edited by: Victor ]

[LLaver]

As a jeweller I used a pendant motor with a flexible drive shaft for years, they can be very useful for fine work, but just how much of that you do when boatbuilding depends on your defenition of fine.
The Dremel is a smaller less powerful version of what most jewellers use and the bits for the dremel can be very expensive by comparison. It may be worth looking in your local jewellery supplies for a pendant motor and comparing the price.

Lee

[N. Scheuer]

last year I bought a Craftsman knockoff from a used tool shop. It's nice for small woodworking, which for me is often roughing out carved birds which are finish-carved using a bench knife.

For fiberglass surgery (cutting out the old sktuff) and for roughing out large birds like ducks and owls, my 1/4" Craftsman Die Grinder (resembles a Dremel after a couple of years on Steroids) is a lot more effective.

Moby Nick

[Bob Cleek]

I have three around the house. I use my best one primarily for model making. They really don't have the muscle to do everything their ads say. If I were going to do a lot of fine work, I would definitely go for a Foredom hanging motor and dental burrs. As said, the Dremel attachments are rather overpriced and their HSS burrs are crap. Their carbides are well worth the extra bucks.

I'll add that I do have one regular use for a Dremel on boat work that hasn't been mentioned. They are excellent for cleaning out screw slots after removing bungs. I use a fine dental burr and it will clean out straight slots or phillips heads easily. It will even grind a deeper slot on stripped heads. I get used dental burrs from a dentist friend. Get the smaller collet for them, as they are about 1/16" shafts, rather than the Dremel's standard 1/8".

Still, the most use any Dremel gets around our place with ten dogs at the moment is grinding dog nails with the little drum sanders. We use a cordless model for it. This is much more controlable than a clippers, which can cut to the quick easily if you aren't really careful. The dogs seem to object less to the Dremel as well. Once they are nicked with a clippers, they remember! :eek:

[Ian McColgin]

Is it safe?

[Ken Hutchins]

The cut off discs get lots of use, good for model work and the sanding drum for the dog toenails ( my nails too :D )

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Useful tool, I burn them out polishing motor parts.

[J. Dillon]

I have one but use it reluctantly. It lacks power like Bob say's. Maybe good for models. I also find it stopping in the middle of an operation. The speed control is in the wrong place for convenient speed changes.

I had a chance to buy a Foredom once at the local flea marked. I passed it up and have been kicking myself in the $$$ ever since.

:( JD

[ssor]

Get one from Dewalt on steroids. Does every thing a Dremel does but ya can't burn it up.

[JimConlin]

For shaping stitch&glue fillets, I have a collection of sanding drums from 3/4" up. These are spun by a corded drill, generally with a 6" or 12" extension shaft. For smaller fillets, i've gotten better at getting 'em to final shape when they're laid.

[pipefitter]

The newer dremels have more guts than the older black ones. I like the drum sanders for dressing up inside radiuses.Mostly I use the air die grinders but the dremel is good when you need something a little less agressive.I use the dremel when it is too late to turn the neighbors on to the noise of the air tools.

[Tom Lathrop]

I'm on my second one since I burned out the first. One use I find in boatbuilding is in making stainless sailing hardware. Great for finishing small stuff. In making and repairing other small stuff, it's hard to beat it although I do find it a bit wimpy for most of the jobs you see it doing on TV.

One of the higher grade flex tools is certainly better for most things but when it comes as a gift, I ain't gonna whine about it. I do find myself buying extra little sanding drums.

[cedar savage]

The more I use my Craftsman knockoff, the more uses I find for it.

Polishing. Deburring. Cutting metal. Sharpening blades mounted on equipment that I don't feel like taking off to do a proper job - mower blades and chipper blades.

The guy who came out to fix the stone chip in my windshield used two - one with a diamond bit to drill a tiny hole in the center of the chip and the other to polish the uv set epoxy after it hardened.

[Donn]

I love Dremels. So much that I have my oldest one, a long-cable version with a small handpiece, hanging from the ceiling over my desk. It has a sanding drum with a 300 grit diamond in the tool all the time. I use it at least once a day, to sharpen small things like garden pruners and such. On the desk is a small case with hundreds of other bits, burrs in diamond, carbide and HSS, 3-4 different grits and size/shape stones, sanding drums and shapes galore, cut-offs, wire-brushes in SS and brass, drills, etc.. A quick change chuck and a variety of collets round out the kit.

I'm waiting for the day that it dies, and I can replace it with a Foredom, or comparable tool, with a stronger motor, and reversing direction.

If you can afford it, get one of the good tools. The motors are stronger and more controllable, and the handpieces available are much better.

Don't buy Dremel brand bits for the critter. Places like Widget Supply ("") and others are cheaper, and have a wider selection of stuff.

JD...if you need more convenient speed control, put a foot pedal controller on it.

[Mrleft8]

No. If you want a rotary tool, get a professional model like Fordham. Dremel's are the "Master mechanic" of rotary tools. Cheap plastic guaranteed to let you down when you need it most.

[abe]

Recently used a Dremel with a tapered 1/16" bit to drill holes for about a thousand trunnels required to attach cedar planking to the frames of the boat currently under construction in the shop. :rolleyes: Could not have been accomplished as quickly by any other means.

Found the tool to be useful at times for other projects, but could live without it.

abe

[capt jake]

I have one with the flexible shaft attachment. It is also variable speed. Anyway, I was using it on a home improvement project; turned it off and layed it down. At least I thought I tuned it off. :eek: Turns out I had turned it to the lowest speed; left it there all night and the next morning it was shot! I am hoping it just needs brushes, but I haven't installed them to find out. Bummer.

[maa. melee]

A rough ball burr on a dremel can really cut through rot.

[Ken Hutchins]

Dremel with a 1/8 ball cutter for cutting in the WL on TALLY HO II, it took less time to do the cutting than to attach the batten or mark the line using a rotary laser.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid195/pe2e141c723fd9b7765d72349bacf08c5/f123b4b3.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid195/pcd35506739d043e67f8f15061e4d43d7/f123b4be.jpg

[Thorne]

You folks are a BAD influence -- just emailed the link for the Craftsman Die Grinder to Santa (aka the wife).

[ 12-08-2005, 01:30 PM: Message edited by: Thorne ]

[Old Bingey]

It'll sharpen a hole saw.

[maa. melee]

That waterline is HOT.

[Ken Hutchins]

Ian, the green stuff is Cuprinol wood preservative it has copper napthelene SP? in it. From what I understand Cuprinol (Sherwin Williams) no longer makes it but another company has it, Jasco and the blue big box store stocks it.

[pipefitter]

Ken Hutchins, Just took a look at your website and that is an impressive project from the logs on up. Hell,the model is quite a project in itself.Nice work.