Dremel or equivalent

I have had a dremel for years.
My old man called it 'the best tool he never bought' as he was the one using it when I got my hands on better gear, like grinders, drill press with flex drive, cordless drills etc.

It has its place in the home workshop of the lay-man, but if you were going to buy it for one purpose with the mind to use it for anything other than light duty use... just get the appropriate tool.
Air die grinders can be had for $50. 240V units by the big brand names can be had for a couple of hundred- cheaper if used.
Angle grinders are <$40 for a cheapie, and thin wheels had for <$1 a round in many cases.
A flex drive for a drill can run a multitude of small wheels and buffers on a mini chuck, and holds up to way more abuse.

My Dremel is about 15 years old but I don’t give it a huge workout, it’s a ‘now and then’ tool for me, so will probably last another 15. Not much help really am I... 😇

I bought a rockwell from supercrap, works well but also doesn't get used a lot.

I have an Ozito 1/8" die grinder which is years old and has worked its little heart out. Good value for $20. I also have a large 1/4" chuck electric die grinder which is great for all sorts of work now I have a speed control on it. Particularly good for heavy cuts with carbide burrs like fettling iron castings. I have a 1/4" pneumatic die grinder and two 1/8" pneumatic die grinders. One of these has a flex shaft. I prefer the pneumatic grinders but you do need a good compressor to keep air up to them without frequent "catch up" breaks waiting for the air reservoir to refill. I always considered a Dremel grinder to be a hobby tool. Model makers, jewellers, etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PhilipA

Just buy a cheapie , but buy genuine Dremel cutting wheels and grinding burrs, even though they are expensive.
I had an old Dremel but it fused.
I mainly used it for detail work on RV8 ports and it is great for that especially with the flex drive, but I find the cheapie does just as good a job as long as you use good quality tools.

Regards Philip A

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What he said. ^^^

I have an Ozito that's probably about 10 years old, and I've used it maybe 20 different times on light jobs. If the motor ever burns out, I'll probably go the Dremel for its replaceable brushes. Or even the battery model for the odd off-grid work. But that's another topic.

Today I was cutting the aluminium strip on my D4 to fit some short roof rails. The Ozito cutting disc wore down to about 5mm radius before I got thru the whole cut.
Next strip, I used the Dremel cutting disc. Barely worn!