Want to buy a dremel, any suggestions?

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 2:25 pm

I would prefer for it to be cheap because I won't be using it too much. Maybe $50. or so, thanks.

TedMC · Post by **TedMC** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:27 pm

I've bought tools from this place before. Good shipping/service

http://www.toolup.com/productinfo.asp?p ... 34468A4CC}

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:59 pm

This has a more powerful motor than the Dremel, and is cheaper. They also carry a couple of very cheap accessory assortments for this model.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:14 pm

Hello,

I like this one from Black & Decker:

http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGu ... uctID=7767

It is ~$35 and does come with a decent kit, including some strong spring clamps. And, it is fairly quiet as these things go...

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:33 am

NeilBlanchard wrote:It is ~$35 and does come with a decent kit, including some strong spring clamps.

Neil, when I look for a price on this model, the cheapest I can find anywhere is $50 with almost no accessories at all. There's no price on the URL you provided, and when I decided to "buy online" (to determine the price without actually buying) I could not access that page. B&D doesn't want you to know the price - always a bad thing for a budget-minded would-be customer.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:51 am

Felger Carbon wrote:
NeilBlanchard wrote:It is ~$35 and does come with a decent kit, including some strong spring clamps.
Neil, when I look for a price on this model, the cheapest I can find anywhere is $50 with almost no accessories at all. There's no price on the URL you provided, and when I decided to "buy online" (to determine the price without actually buying) I could not access that page. B&D doesn't want you to know the price - always a bad thing for a budget-minded would-be customer.

Believe it or not, Amazon is a good place to find this sort of stuff cheap. Here's that Black and Decker for $29.99.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:18 pm

Hello,

There is a "Buy Online" button on the page, which links to three places to buy it: Amazon, Target, and Home Depot. Amazon ships theirs from Target (Tarzshay?) and both are $30, while Home Depot sells it for $35, and they also sell it in their stores for about the same price.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:54 pm

NeilBlanchard wrote:There is a "Buy Online" button on the page.

Neil, I tried that button (several times) and got a "page not available" message. It's true that I (puposefully) do not have Flash installed, which sometimes causes problems. But I get to skip an enormous number of pop-up ads...

res0r9lm · Post by **res0r9lm** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 10:09 pm

I have this one http://www.oneplustools.com/rotary/p530

cordless and you can use dremel or rotozip bits. very powerful

floffe · Post by **floffe** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 10:31 pm

Here it the page. There's no flash in either of the pages, from what I can tell. Could you have disabled some aspect of Javascript too?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:35 am

floffe wrote:Here it the page. There's no flash in either of the pages, from what I can tell. Could you have disabled some aspect of Javascript too?

First thanks!

Second, there's still no price listed!!

Third, yes, I have some aspects of Javascript disabled for security reasons.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:54 am

I found out that they sell black and decker and a few other brands at wal-mart, so I think ill buy one and return it a couple days later once im done with it. As I dont think ill ever use it again, at least not in the next 2-3 years.

floffe · Post by **floffe** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:04 am

OK, Felger, I'll link you all the way to the three sites that page links to: Home Depot, Amazon and Target.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 12:10 pm

floffe wrote:OK, Felger, I'll link you all the way to the three sites that page links to: Home Depot, Amazon and Target.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I now have one on order ($34.98 including shipping). My Harbor Freight is powerful, very useful, but alas not small. This RTX looks as though it will fit inside the case, simplifying removal of internal 3.5" HDD racks to make room for suspension. I may have to mod the way the power cord comes out the back to make it as short as possible. In which event, I'll be using one dremel-alike to mod another dremel-alike. Do I get an award for that?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 12:21 pm

No matter which dremel tool you prefer, you might want to check this $25 249-piece accessory kit instead of the ones from Dremel or Black&Decker. HF also has a 150-piece kit for $20 and a 105-piece kit for $8. I prefer the HF kits not only for their value, but also because the stuff in the kits works best on steel PC cases, while the Dremel and B&D kits seem oriented toward shaping and polishing softer materials, which is not my interest. Just FYI.

legendarith · Post by **legendarith** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:57 pm

Just pick the 60k rpm Dremel at Walmart. I have it and I make use of it a lot from computer to hardware to car work. I've had mine for 2 years now, and I just picked up a bit set for about 20 bucks (which will be plenty of bits for years and years to come).

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:02 pm

legendarith wrote:Just pick the 60k rpm Dremel at Walmart. I have it and I make use of it a lot from computer to hardware to car work. I've had mine for 2 years now, and I just picked up a bit set for about 20 bucks (which will be plenty of bits for years and years to come).

Model numbers for both?

Sylph-DS · Post by **Sylph-DS** » Tue May 01, 2007 2:11 am

Felger Carbon wrote:No matter which dremel tool you prefer, you might want to check this $25 249-piece accessory kit instead of the ones from Dremel or Black&Decker. HF also has a 150-piece kit for $20 and a 105-piece kit for $8. I prefer the HF kits not only for their value, but also because the stuff in the kits works best on steel PC cases, while the Dremel and B&D kits seem oriented toward shaping and polishing softer materials, which is not my interest. Just FYI.

Schweet, thanks for the tip. A kit like that will live long enough to eventually end up at my grand children

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Tue May 01, 2007 5:19 am

Sorry Felger, but I have to do this...

NEVER buy any power tools from Harbor Freight. Their stuff is the cheapest of the cheap. I had that exact dremel and it lasted exactly 1 use before burning up. I was using to trim some aluminum 5.25" bay covers to stealth my optical drives on my old case. I've had sanders that break after about 1-2 months of light use. Lastly I've bought a reciprocating saw and hammer drill that the case split open on one and the chuck actually fell off the other.

My brother has bought a few items from there and had a little better luck, and he's pretty rough on his stuff. But overall, buying hand tools from Harbor Freight is fine, never power tools (kind of like how Craftsman used to be).

I also agree with Neil on the Black and Decker rotary tools. They are much cheaper than Dremels and very high quality and can use all the same attachments. I have a variable speed model that cost $35 a few years ago, and have never had a problem with it. I've used it to shave off some extra length off some of my Scythe fans...

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:21 pm

jhhoffma wrote:Sorry Felger, but I have to do this...

NEVER buy any power tools from Harbor Freight. Their stuff is the cheapest of the cheap. I had that exact dremel and it lasted exactly 1 use before burning up.

I accept that your unit failed after 1 use. But I bought the same unit, have used it heavily (modded a lot of cases) for over a year, and it hasn't even hiccuped. Some disks fail early (infant mortality), most don't. Disks are also rotating machinery. You ran into a case of infant mortality, which is bad luck for you but luck happens.

res0r9lm · Post by **res0r9lm** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:39 pm

jhhoffma wrote:Sorry Felger, but I have to do this...

NEVER buy any power tools from Harbor Freight. Their stuff is the cheapest of the cheap. I had that exact dremel and it lasted exactly 1 use before burning up. I was using to trim some aluminum 5.25" bay covers to stealth my optical drives on my old case. I've had sanders that break after about 1-2 months of light use. Lastly I've bought a reciprocating saw and hammer drill that the case split open on one and the chuck actually fell off the other.

My brother has bought a few items from there and had a little better luck, and he's pretty rough on his stuff. But overall, buying hand tools from Harbor Freight is fine, never power tools (kind of like how Craftsman used to be).

I also agree with Neil on the Black and Decker rotary tools. They are much cheaper than Dremels and very high quality and can use all the same attachments. I have a variable speed model that cost $35 a few years ago, and have never had a problem with it. I've used it to shave off some extra length off some of my Scythe fans...

ryobi makes pretty good power tools for the home user. I have some ryobi tools I use at home and for work I use ridgid.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Tue May 01, 2007 3:30 pm

Felger Carbon wrote:
jhhoffma wrote:Sorry Felger, but I have to do this...

NEVER buy any power tools from Harbor Freight. Their stuff is the cheapest of the cheap. I had that exact dremel and it lasted exactly 1 use before burning up.
I accept that your unit failed after 1 use. But I bought the same unit, have used it heavily (modded a lot of cases) for over a year, and it hasn't even hiccuped. Some disks fail early (infant mortality), most don't. Disks are also rotating machinery. You ran into a case of infant mortality, which is bad luck for you but luck happens.

I should have clarified my statement, all those tools I bought that failed on me were Harbor Freight (Chicago Tool?) branded stuff. If it were just the rotary tool, I would chalk it up to a bad sample (hell, I had a Sony DVD player conk out on my 2 weeks after warranty) so I'll forgive a brand for one failure (especially if it's cheap), maybe two. But I've learned my lesson for power tools, buy the brands that work.

Over the years, I've been told to buy several different brands of power tools, (first it was Dewalt, then Makita, then Rigid, etc) and within a couple years people will sour and say they're crap and recommend a new brand. To be honest, of all my tools, my Black and Deckers hold up the longest. Maybe, I just take good care of them (though I think I'm pretty rough with them) because I know most people would say they're cheap crap.

For me though, I'll go to Harbor Frieght for cheap hand tools (hell, I just bought an In-Lb torque wrench the other week that I'll maybe use twice) that I don't need to last a long time. However, now that have free lifetime replacement on all hand-tools just like Craftsman, so even if they do break there's some recourse. However, I won't buy anything with a motor in it from them. I guess I'll end with a big YMMV!!

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:24 am

GamingGod wrote:I found out that they sell black and decker and a few other brands at wal-mart, so I think ill buy one and return it a couple days later once im done with it. As I dont think ill ever use it again, at least not in the next 2-3 years.

Isn't that kind of unethical?

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:29 am

Felger Carbon wrote:This has a more powerful motor than the Dremel, and is cheaper. They also carry a couple of very cheap accessory assortments for this model.

Great, do I want my money to go to China (B&D) or Mexico (Dremel).

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Thu May 10, 2007 3:25 pm

I live in a shed in the back of a drunks house. And have two torn discs in my back which has driven me out my crappy minimum wage job. So no, I do not think it is unethical. Some people have it better, plain and simple.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat May 12, 2007 4:03 pm

I got the B&D RTX, and used it for the first time today. It came with 20 cutting wheels, which are very much thicker than the ones from Harbor Freight that I've been using. B&Ds are 1.11mm thick, nearly twice the .66mm of the HFs. More iron dust, more heat, slower cutting. As soon as the cutting wheel broke, I substituted my normal HF cutting wheel (disk?), and it was much better.

It is shorter than the HF model, but (alas) not short enough for the specific use I had in mind. So I cut at an angle, just like before.

I reported earlier that I've been using the HF rotary tool hard for over a year with not so much as a hiccup. That's changed! A couple of days ago, I got several rotary "hiccups", almost exactly like a human hiccup. I swear, it's the first time that's happened! As I said, I've used that tool hard for over a year. If it goes, I got my money's worth.

I suggest, for B&D fans, that you find thinner cutting wheels. Really!

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Mon May 14, 2007 6:39 pm

res0r9lm wrote:I have this one http://www.oneplustools.com/rotary/p530

cordless and you can use dremel or rotozip bits. very powerful

I saw this one at Home Depot. It's about $50, also made in China, and the battery pack and charger are separate.

If I'm going with a Chinese one I may as well get B&D, I don't need it to be cordless. Hell even my phone still has a cord.

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:08 pm

What's the consensus on the actual Dremel brand tools? Are they better quality or do you just pay more for the name?