The question I have is… this thing eats through plastic like a warm knife through butter, lol. I mean… wow its powerful. I use it on the lowest setting, and it still eats them up. I have tried using a cutting disc, sanding drum thingey… the little round one, and a few sanding discs…
What do you recommend tool wise to use for intricate work on plastic pieces?
O.K. I see I am not the only one thats done this.While this big vaiable speed dremmel is good for some things plastic is not one of them unless you get the voltage reducer for it (I am not exactly called).What I have done is get a dremmel mini mite.all the collets fit both tools and the mini is small,light weight ,battery powered and has two speeds.One is super slow so it will not melt plastic.The other is high enough to bore through most things when it comes to modeling.It can be picked up for around $25.00 and trust me it is worth it.dont get rid of your big dremmel though.You will find uses for it but I think if you are like me then you will use the mini mite alot more.their is anouther battery powered dremmel that has 5 different speed settings but I haven’t used that one…good luck…
P.S. If you get the mini mite let us know what you think…[:D]
I agree with James - I have both the Mini-mite and the Dremel Multi-pro variable speed. Both have their uses. If you use the big Dremel, it takes a light touch, quick applications (before the plastic heats up too much) and practice.
You can also use a variable speed foot pedal… put your Dremel on it’s lowest speed,then use the foot pedal… it takes a little practice with your foot, but it works great…
If you have a variable speed unit, DO NOT use a speed control, it will burn out the unit! Buy the single speed unit and use it with the speed control!
Lee
I have not had any trouble with using the variable speed… My older Dremel has many hundreds of hours of use, and mostly at lower speed. But other may have had different experiences.
Ron, I found the same thing when I got my Dremel. It is very fast and will melt the plastic very quickly. If you still want a ‘daily use’ tool for sanding, etc I’d really suggest looking at some of the battery powered units. I still use my Dremel, but only for major reconstruction operations where I’m planning on cutting or removing larger amounts of plastic. I’ve never tried a ‘foot’ control.
It’s still a really good tool to have. There’s a few projects on my ‘to-do’ list that I know I’ll need the dremel for.
A Dremel is good for many things, but you might want to try this: Get a cordless screw driver. You can buy a chuck that fits it at MicroMark. You can then use almost any Dremel tool, but very slowly…
