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I have a Firebrand or similar cheapy rotary tool and found it fantastic for the wire brushes available, whether they were the ones with the kit, 4 pieces from an otherwise useless 77 piece accessory kit for $14 or the brushes from HK on ebay - best value so far. Bought one Dremel brand wire brush @ Bunnings $14 lasted no better than the 10 for $6 from HK !

My Firetool and ebay brushes are my secret to as new looking engine blocks, when a donk comes out, so to the engine stand, degreaserr, scrapers, wax and grease remover...then the wire brushes get every bit of crud out of every nook and cranny. The EA81 got a near lifetime of crud removed at 370,000km and still comes up sweet at 500,000km

The cheapy acc kits other bits WTF ? A little tub of dried up buffing compound ? Coloured and shaped grinding stones that would self destruct on impact with anything while spinning, funny sanding disc and maybe there was cutting discs ??

Buffing pad look a likes that ripped apart with very little accomplishment - I think i was in the kiddies toy section at the cheapy store when I got those accessories - paid toy prices

Silverbullet was asked if he cut his rust repair bits with a Dremel - my mouth nearly dropped, REALLY?? A Dremel and its brand of cutting discs will cut through our panels? Yeah ?

What are you people doing with Dremels and other brand rotary tools, what accessories are rubbish and where do you get the good bits?

I have a little rust repair project that looks like I now need little stones to grind, little sanding discs and maybe do some sheet cutting.

Pics may save a few thousand keystrokes

Of course! The Dremel was my most valuable tool in rust repair unil it broke Even the non re-enforced wheels easily cut our panels just don't push to hard or they break. The re-enforced ones do an even better job and don't break and are good for cutting out little bits more accurately than with an angle grinder. The red/orange grinding stones are great too for grinding back welds slowly in tight spaces. It's easy to take too much off with an angle grinder but the Dremel is just right. Yes eventually the stones break but not before you get a good life out of them.

Fed up with paying $30 for 15 cutting wheels I bought 100 for $10 on ebay. Then for a laugh I bought a set of 20 small carbide burrs, really cheap ones from china. And they do an admirable job for their cost, proper ones can be about $60 each! Just like the expensive ones they carve wood, plastic and yes even metal. They chew through weld metal amazingly well and don't chip which I found surprising.

steptoe wrote:I have a Firebrand or similar cheapy rotary tool and found it fantastic for the wire brushes available, whether they were the ones with the kit, 4 pieces from an otherwise useless 77 piece accessory kit for $14 or the brushes from HK on ebay - best value so far. Bought one Dremel brand wire brush @ Bunnings $14 lasted no better than the 10 for $6 from HK!

I have a Dremel 4000 - I assume they use the same bits. Each type of wheel has a specific purpose and only should be used for that purpose. Those stone rotaries are extremely good working with plastic for instance. The wire brushes I get in packs of 20 from the site I'll mention below. Cheap as when you buy in bulk. All dremel toys are cheapest if you buy them in packs!

steptoe wrote: My Firetool and ebay brushes are my secret to as new looking engine blocks, when a donk comes out, so to the engine stand, degreaserr, scrapers, wax and grease remover...then the wire brushes get every bit of crud out of every nook and cranny. The EA81 got a near lifetime of crud removed at 370,000km and still comes up sweet at 500,000km

The cheapy acc kits other bits WTF ? A little tub of dried up buffing compound ? Coloured and shaped grinding stones that would self destruct on impact with anything while spinning, funny sanding disc and maybe there was cutting discs ??

The compound is laughably useless on all but the smallest polish jobs (knives, jewelry, precious stones) the sanding disks I never use but I do use their flapper-wheel attachments all the time, they last for AGES if you don't have the Dremel 4000 wound out more than 20,000-22,000rpm. The cutting disks are fantastic. The trick with dremels is the high rotation speed but low, low torque. A grinder might do 10,000rpm or thereabouts but has much higher torque, where as a dremel can do 30,000-35,000 depending on the model you've got. When it's wound up to 35k you can cut through hardened, shiny lock steel easily. I've used them a lot from anything from sign-making to modifying knife blanks before I do a final grind on them.

steptoe wrote:
Buffing pad look a likes that ripped apart with very little accomplishment - I think i was in the kiddies toy section at the cheapy store when I got those accessories - paid toy prices

Silverbullet was asked if he cut his rust repair bits with a Dremel - my mouth nearly dropped, REALLY?? A Dremel and its brand of cutting discs will cut through our panels? Yeah ?

What are you people doing with Dremels and other brand rotary tools, what accessories are rubbish and where do you get the good bits?

I have a little rust repair project that looks like I now need little stones to grind, little sanding discs and maybe do some sheet cutting.

Pics may save a few thousand keystrokes

Now to get to your Q.
I mainly do small woodworking with it as well as cutting steel. I've made a few take-down re-curve bows now with my Dremel, as well as engraving (wood and steel), marking all my tools and cutting places where you simply can't put a grinder, or where a grinder would cause too much heat/damage.

Recurve bow made with a Jarrah Riser and snow skis for the Limbs, dremel was my main tool:


My favourite accessories are bendy-snake extensions, the previously mentioned flapper wheels and the the "Wood" cutting disks that chew through plastic/wood like it's not there. Even white-gum is cut well by these.
Much more fun/accurate than chiseling out small details!

Where I get my parts: I look out for specials at funnings or trade supply stores. You might not think of them as trade supplies but watchmakers/cobblers/toymakers/hobby-radio enthusiasts/remote control cars and boat makers and those in the jewellery trade both hobby and pro are full on about these toys.

Where I get my stuff online:
http://www.widgetsupply.com/category/dremel.html

Buy 'en bulk and see those savings come! Some items aren't authentic Dremel but they make them to work as good just save you the cost.

Silverbullet wrote:Of course! The Dremel was my most valuable tool in rust repair unil it broke Even the non re-enforced wheels easily cut our panels just don't push to hard or they break. The re-enforced ones do an even better job and don't break and are good for cutting out little bits more accurately than with an angle grinder. The red/orange grinding stones are great too for grinding back welds slowly in tight spaces. It's easy to take too much off with an angle grinder but the Dremel is just right. Yes eventually the stones break but not before you get a good life out of them.

Fed up with paying $30 for 15 cutting wheels I bought 100 for $10 on ebay. Then for a laugh I bought a set of 20 small carbide burrs, really cheap ones from china. And they do an admirable job for their cost, proper ones can be about $60 each! Just like the expensive ones they carve wood, plastic and yes even metal. They chew through weld metal amazingly well and don't chip which I found surprising.

Agreed on all points there. Bummer the Dremel died. On the site above they used to supply new inner kits (brushes) for Dremels and still might, and if yours was within warranty you can call the Dremel people direct and they'll send you a new one if you send them the dead one.

Thankfully a good plug in one comes new at $160 at Funnings with a full kit of toys.

The cutting wheels it must be emphasized need to be used with GOOD eye protection and one must let them "fall" through the material rather than pushing it like you might with a grinder. when those little wheels fail they do so spectacularly and hurt like a M#therf#cker when they hit skin. If used with patience those little wheels can go nearly a meter cutting through 2mm steel. The bigger wheels last even longer!

Also, I just stepped into the shed so I figured I'd put up some piccies since every thread is better with piccies.

$10 Aluminium "Toolcase" from Bunnings - soft plastic lined and came with its own dividers, not extremely organized but I prefer it to the proper Dremel case it came with.
Full of the contents of the Dremel accessories I've been buying. I forgot to talk about those sanding wheels before but they kick ass too.


Dremel with box:


Close up of flexishaft with flapper disk:


Close up of carbide tipped wood/plastic cutting disk:

How much power does that flexi-shaft sap out of the machine? I know when I connected the 90 degree angle to ours it sapped a huge amount out of it and vibrated alot...must be those plastic bevel gears inside.

Still haven't found a use for that plaster board cutting cone, chainsaw sharpening set or the thousands of sanding discs that come with every set of tool bits. I guess I use ours for metal mostly and those sanders don't do much against metal except polish it.

Silverbullet wrote:How much power does that flexi-shaft sap out of the machine? I know when I connected the 90 degree angle to ours it sapped a huge amount out of it and vibrated alot...must be those plastic bevel gears inside.

Still haven't found a use for that plaster board cutting cone, chainsaw sharpening set or the thousands of sanding discs that come with every set of tool bits. I guess I use ours for metal mostly and those sanders don't do much against metal except polish it.

None really it seems, though after 5-10 minutes of heavy use it will get HOT as hell on the chuck. They have very strict protocol on how much you're meant to bend it, but if you do break the flex shaft they're about $20 for a new one so it's not the end of the world. The flex shaft I tend to use in line with the machine most of the time anyways, it's just much easier to hold sometimes when doing really detailed work like engraving.


I haven't used the 90 degree angle or any of the router attachments as of yet. I used the chainsaw one to a degree until I was gifted a chainsaw sharpener...

If I were cutting panels all the time I might invest in a more higher quality cutting system $500-Skys the limit $ but the Dremel seems to get by pretty good.

The battery powered Dremel's are terribly underpowered (after using the 4000 anyway) so I'd only buy one of those as a second to the mains powered Dremel, for quick jobs and things.

Those sanding disks must be great for something... Just not sure what yet.

Nice ! Thanks guys - might have to try ebay for some metal cutting discs to suit. That sort of flapper disc ! Was picturing in mind the layered type for grinders.....

Shoulda said flapper wheel**

Woopsies.