Little mains powered rotary drill thing.

[Joek]

In one of those \'\'Ooh, I\'ve thought about buying one of those for ages\'\' moments, I bought one today. Very small and came with a nice lots of bits.

Now, seeing as I\'ve never used one of these things before, does anyone have any useful tips on using them? I can see myself acting out some bizarre hands-flailing incident, so it\'d be nice to get some decent help!

 

[Infidel Castro]

What one did you buy and how much did it cost?

 

[Joek]

Well, I only spent £30 (I suspect it won\'t do any serious heavy duty stuff...), but it\'s a RotaCraft 12v Mini ROtary tool kit one.

 

[nels0nmac]

I\'ve used a Dremel every now and again, and the only useful thing from me is don\'t use it to drill holes for pining in metal figures; unless you have a really slow speed setting. Otherwise what happens is the metal gets hot ( and relatively sticky ) and you\'ll snap the drill bit. It\'s then a real bugger getting the snapped bit out of the mini.:cussing:
You may be alright with only a 12v one as the Dremels tend to be mains powered and even the slowest speed is way too fast.

 

[Infidel Castro]

Originally posted by Joek
Well, I only spent £30 (I suspect it won\'t do any serious heavy duty stuff...), but it\'s a RotaCraft 12v Mini ROtary tool kit one.

I see Maplins do them. Tidy! Been looking for something like this....

 

[Joek]

Yeah, they come in a rather useful case which I may just convert into carrying smaller minis and stuff too!

 

[Infidel Castro]

Originally posted by Joek
Yeah, they come in a rather useful case which I may just convert into carrying smaller minis and stuff too!

This chap here?

 

[Joek]

It\'s this one here -

Gave it a quick whirl - I really picked it up to do some work on foam and polystyrene - I\'m doing a small squad display base and to spare me the extreme frustration of making \'base holes\' by hand, the little bits supplied work perfectly in gently sculpting the stuff to fit bases in! So, at least it works nicely for that.

Noisy bugger though - and I\'d certainly bung on a pair of goggles when on the higher settings!

 

[Dragonsreach]

Ok reccomendations:
1: Don\'t use high speed settings for drilling.
2: Use goggles AT ALL TIMES. (Voice of bitter experience)
3: Use a face mask AT ALL TIMES.(Pewter doesn\'t taste that good)
4: Invest in a pair of heavy duty Gardening Gloves, Stops the heat transference to delicate fingers, and might give you a fraction of protection if you slip.
5: If you use if for drilling keep drawing the drill out and clearing the swarf (drill cuttings) this will reduce the chance of drills snapping off.

 

[Amazon warrior]

Hey, that\'s almost exactly the same as the one I have! Mine has a slightly less ergonomic handle, but all the bits and bobs look the same. I use the pointy diamond-tipped thing a lot for cleaning off stubborn mold lines. It\'s quite effective, although I\'d be wary of letting it run for too long - I don\'t think it likes it. I don\'t use mine to drill with - the one and only time I did, it was a fail. But other than that, it\'s a nice, handy lil bit of kit.

 

[Jericho]

Dremel hand phaser, I mean Stylus

So damn good.

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by Jericho
Dremel hand phaser, I mean Stylus

So damn good.

yeah its great with a low setting so you can even drill plastic without melting it all

top tip - do not drill into fingers

any injuries must be photographed or they DID NOT HAPPEN

 

[Joek]

Rest assured, images of mangled fingers and lost eyes will be reported.

Possibly by someone else on my behalf, but there we go...

 

[lahatiel]

Tip #1: Get a Dremel Stylus -- they\'re seriously worth it.

Tip #2: Failing a Stylus, at least get a flexi-shaft attachment. The increased precision will make everything you do with it (on a miniatures scale, at least) so much easier.