Dremel Type Tools

trapezeartist

trapezeartist

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I am about to purchase a Dremel-type tool. I know Aldi/Lidl tools always get a good press on here, but unfortunately they not offering them at the moment. So....

Do I pay £14-£21 for an unbranded machine or nearly £50 for a pukka Dremel?
Should I buy a 240V with 135w or 160w motor, or a 3.6v cordless?

The tool will only be used very occasionally so no great durability is required. Just as long as it gets the job done.
 
trapezeartist said:
I am about to purchase a Dremel-type tool. I know Aldi/Lidl tools always get a good press on here, but unfortunately they not offering them at the moment. So....

Do I pay £14-£21 for an unbranded machine or nearly £50 for a pukka Dremel?
Should I buy a 240V with 135w or 160w motor, or a 3.6v cordless?

The tool will only be used very occasionally so no great durability is required. Just as long as it gets the job done.
Click to expand...
I've got 3 separate unbranded ones from the likes of B&Q etc, all work fine and I would not pay more for a Dremel, personally.

Boo2
 
For occasional use the cheaper 240v one would be fine. I do quite a lot of work on boats, usually refurbishing and two of the best tools I ever bought were a genuine Dremmel and a Bosch multitool. If you buy one get yourself a Dremmel tile cutting bit, they are brilliant for drilling and cutting GRP.
 
I had to trim some opening portlight rain diverting eyebrows after permanently gluing them in place as I neglected to notice that two of them prevented side deck lazarette locker lids from opening. I bought a variable speed cordless Dremel which proved excellent and as mentioned by someone else used a side cutting tile cutter bit for my little job, ran at low speed tp prevent melting the Lexan eyebrows. The cordless unit is very powerful and recharge fastwhen required (<1hr) I bough mine in the USA of couurse where there is no VAT only sales tax of 6% and it cost under $80 including a storage /carry case and multiple accessories. Years ago however I did have corded version bought on post Xmas sale in Woolworths in Poole. It did the few jobs asked of it well enough but the quality was not a patch on the Dremel I have now.
 
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When you buy unbranded, you get that good feeling as the machine goes on and on. By branded, and you feel robbed when it stops.

Many unbranded goods these days, actually have branded guts inside them. We sell a particular type of unbranded bathroom fan, and we also sell fans made by Dimplex. The unbranded ones are made especially for our company, but are made by..........Dimplex.
I believe there is a certain unbranded cordless drill on the market, with the guts from Makita.
 
Have tried a Dremel cabled multi tool but packed up fairly quickly so now sits unused with its bits looking pristine in grey plastic box
My advice is avoid Dremel as a waste of time and buy anything else
If anyone knows how to revive a dead Dremel any help welcome of course
 
I've been hammering the hell out of a Machine Mart/Clarke dremel copy for years now and on it goes. Would agree that Dremel accessories are better than cheap stuff though.
 
I have a Dremel Cordless 7.2V Li-Ion tool, and it's great.
I've had it several years now, still works as new.
Cordless is good for the boats, and makes using the tool easier, even when mains is to hand.
I use it a fair amount for prototyping work.
I also have a £15 mains Xenta rotary tool which has also been fine, I bought it knowing I had a relatively heavy job of grinding to do, and as it came with so many grinding tools etc etc, it seemed hard to resist.

One of the best accessories is the router attachment. For modest size work, the Dremel in the attachment is just so much easier to control than my 1000w router. But it's only plastic and won't last forever. Maybe I should look at some of the mini-routers?
Would I pay the £60 for the genuine corldless Dremel again? I don't know, it was a gift/using up tokens I'd accrued.

I am actually in the market for a cheap, high speed, precision drill press by the way, the kind of thing you can put 0.2mm holes in the right place without breaking carbide bits. Mostly for circuit board work.
 
ashtead said:
....
If anyone knows how to revive a dead Dremel any help welcome of course
Click to expand...

Assuming it's low mileage, I would just go through the obvious, fuse, brushes, switch, wiring, speed controller?
I assume the shaft goes around?
I don't know if they have a service centre? But I expect it would still be cheaper to buy a clone than to get it fixed.
 
I have a cordless 10.8v dremel. Would I buy an original again? Don't know: not had a cheap one to compare it to. Would I buy cordless again? Definitely. Although I've used it for cutting and drilling, it's seem most use in gelcoat work. Being able to just tuck it into your overalls pocket and not worry about a trailing lead when going up and down ladders sorting out little dings on the hull is well worth it.
 
So the consensus seems in favour of unbranded over Dremel. That was my own feeling already so it's nice to have it confirmed.

Corded v cordless seems less clear-cut. There is a bit of a problem in the branded/unbranded debate here too. Dremel 240v unit is 135w, just like the unbranded. But the Dremel cordless is 7.2v (or something similar) but all the unbranded ones are 3.6v. This would be enough to swing me to unbranded 240v, except that I see some advantages in cordless, especially for the boat.

At the moment I think I'll be buying an unbranded 240v unit with minimal tools (for lowest cost) and then I'll buy Dremel tools when I see what I need.
 
trapezeartist said:
So the consensus seems in favour of unbranded over Dremel. That was my own feeling already so it's nice to have it confirmed.

Corded v cordless seems less clear-cut. There is a bit of a problem in the branded/unbranded debate here too. Dremel 240v unit is 135w, just like the unbranded. But the Dremel cordless is 7.2v (or something similar) but all the unbranded ones are 3.6v. This would be enough to swing me to unbranded 240v, except that I see some advantages in cordless, especially for the boat.

At the moment I think I'll be buying an unbranded 240v unit with minimal tools (for lowest cost) and then I'll buy Dremel tools when I see what I need.
Click to expand...

Just looked and my Dremel model 8200 is 12v (max) lithium Ion battery cordless. see here

https://www.dremel.com/en-us/Tools/...PfmhW68e3E8DOLiv9GlAyNsEY_EEPZl_9YaAiuw8P8HAQ
 
Robin said:
Just looked and my Dremel model 8200 is 12v (max) lithium Ion battery cordless. see here

https://www.dremel.com/en-us/Tools/...PfmhW68e3E8DOLiv9GlAyNsEY_EEPZl_9YaAiuw8P8HAQ
Click to expand...
Mine is older. IIRc it is 7.2V
I don't often find it lacks power.
I have other toys for more power!

AFAIK, all these things are only plastic bodies, probably plain bearings too?
If you use any of them at high torque full time, I'd expect them to get sloppy.
Depends what you want it for.
I don't mind giving the cheap one a hard time, it has already paid for itself.
 
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