Is there any reason besides cost and size in a bag to get a Dremel style, low wattage rotary tool over a Foredom style flex shaft grinder? And then is there any reason to get one of those over a die grinder type tool with a flex shaft added? It seems you can the light, dexterous precision tool with more power and flexibility going this way, but what am I missing?
>>2951632always felt that those should be an accessory to my drill press. even if i know the speeds are not the same, it is just an absurd feelinghow about using a wood router?
>>2951632Dremels are super low quality tools with ball bearings sitting directly in a wobbly plastic housing, designed to fail quickly.These industrial flex shaft things are indestructable, i've seen 60 year old ones working just fine with zero maintenance.>>2951777>drill pressno>wood routeryes
>>2951778as i said is an absurd feelingany recomendations on what to buy to use the router as the main power?
>>2951632Die grinders are really fucking powerful. Dremels are for light work, where thanks to the low power, you can get away with otherwise not so safe operations, ie. grinding right next to your fingers or near loose items that can get caught up. Dremel-likes also easily come in cordless variants, though so do die grinders, but again, for very light work, dremel is fine. If you're either a very lightweight /diy/er or already have every other tool in the world, the dremel-likes (just buy a cheaper brand) can be a good helper for various odd jobs. If you do a lot of dremel-tier work while stationary, the flex shafts are very solid. I don't think I'd want to use a die grinder with a flex shaft, unless it has adjustable speed or I had a very specific application, definitely not /diy/. Die grinders are dangerous tools and you need to have a very solid grip on both the grinder and the part you're using it on.
>>2951802Most die grinders are variable speed, right?
>>2951632get a real hand held die grinder and add a flex shaft for the small stuff. Got a hitachi magic wand grinder dirt cheap and it's awesome
>>2951632Portability
>>2951839Most die grinders are not variable speed. Even the one in the OP isn't, despite costing an arm and a leg. You can variable speed them with a triac if you really want to.
>>2952009Pretty sure it's this, and all the die grinders Metabo offers in the US are variable speed looking at the site?https://www.metabo.com/us/enus/tools/cutting-sanding-milling/metal-processing/die-grinder/ge-710-compact-600615420-die-grinder.html
>>2951632Portability storage A lot of people use dremels on 3d prints or warhammer toys or electronics
>>2951632Why not just get an angle grinder? Does the same thing for a third of the price
>>2952020What angle grinder does over 12,000rpm?
>>2951632>blocks your dremels path>nuthin personal kiddo
>>2952070You've somehow managed to make a Dremel but worse and be proud of this.
>>2951632You get a Dremel if you want a shitty underpowered tool that you are going to use 5 minutes at most out of the year.
I have a die grinder with flex shaft in my garage but I also have a small battery powered Dremel clone that I use for small plastic or wood shit that I can just have in drawer somewhere when I need it.
>>2952558>I have a die grinder with flex shaft in my garageHow well does it work? Have you encountered any issues?
>>2952010>Vario-Constamatic (VC)-Full wave electronics for working at customized speeds to suit the application materials, and speeds that remain almost constant even under loadYeah, I was wrong, this and the OP one are variable speed.
>>2951794>any recomendations on what to buy to use the router as the main power?no one knows which shaft can be bought for a router?
>>2951632>costi just want to shamelessly brag about this old school dremel i snagged at a yard sale today for $1
>>2956300NoiceOld/new doesent matter, its a spinny
>>2952009That's a standard Foredom SR used by 1000's of goldsmiths/jewelers everyday. They have variable speed controlled by a foot pedal. They are about $350 new, but I see them on CL all the time for about $200. I got mine for $100.
Good timing for this to be back at the top. Got an old harbor freight flex shaft grinder (similar style to a foredom) that I used for porting heads and doing some other random shit years and years ago. Handpiece is kinda shit and fell apart, so it's got a hoseclamp on it holding it together at the moment. Needed to engrave some ear tags for some heifers we are having bangs vaccinated tomorrow. It got the job done, but would be nicer if it had certain features. It has a variable speed foot pedal, but really I would have just been standing on it the whole time, so I just plugged it straight into the outlet and bypassed the pedal. This made it run full speed the entire time it was plugged in, so #1 thing that would have made it nicer would to have an on-off switch on the motor like a real foredom grinder does. A switch on the handpiece would be even better. I know some of the dremel style flexible shaft grinders do have this feature, but haven't seen any of the foredom brand grinders with this feature. Another thing I would like is instead of a little keyed chuck I would actually prefer something with a 1/4' collet. Would be smaller and lighter in the hand, and really I only use 1/4" shank bits anyways... So I put a bid in on a real foredom grinder on e-bay. It has the collet style handpiece and the switch on the motor, so two out of 3 things I wanted. Hopefully the legit Foredom grinder handpiece and cable will fit on the Harbor Freight one, and then I can buy another handpiece for it and have two useful flexible shaft grinders. I don't own a dremel and probably never will. I've used air powered die grinders for years. Have a cordless Milwaukee M12 90 degree die grinder and a corded Milwaukee electric die grinder as well. The M12 die grinder only gets used for some real tight area weld blending with roloc sanding disks and flap disks and sometimes with a surface conditioning disk to clean up gasket surfaces for water pumps and whatnot.
