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I still don't own one. I realised when looking at a couple of upcoming repair jobs that I might benefit from one.
It needs to be cordless as I want to be able to use it when doing boat repairs at events/sailing club. Mostly grinding/cutting type stuff in places you wouldn't want an angle grinder and the odd bit of small hole drilling (can they do that?).
Sort of jobs it'd be particularly handy for...
Cutting over length stainless bolts (typically M4-6) and occasionally seized nuts and cleaning up bolt ends after cutting
Rough profiling GRP/filler/wood repairs by sanding
Drilling the odd hole/rivet up to about 6mm or grinding out pop rivets where they have spun
Cleaning up flaky paint etc on metal work/awkward corners of wood
That's just the bits I can immediately think of.
I don't mind paying Dremel prices but if there's a good "only 3/4 of the price" option that would be better.
The proper Dremels are 12v but there seem to be a lot of pretenders at 8v I'm thinking I may regret going underpowered (and won't be looking at 3.6v stuff).
I don't think a Dremel would be suitable for the uses you are proposing, drilling a 6mm hole and grinding rivets off is popper power tool territory. Biggest drill they can take is 3.2mm
I wouldn't pick a Dremel for any of those tasks.
Cutting bolts pain in the arse and you need a face shield. And sparks are bad for fibreglass.
Just use a junior hacksaw and a file.
Cheap proper cordless sander for sanding.
Drill for drilling. Dremels are way way to fast, only hold tiny drill. And how are you planning to hold the spinning rivet while you try to drill it? Use the file again to take the head to paper then punch it through. If its Meaty material under it pop the head off with a dinky cold chisel takes a second and it's clean and tidy.
You'll put a Dremel disk through fibreglass if you slip just like and angle grinder.
Infact... If you really wanted a power tool. An oscillating multitool would be much more useful.
Infact… If you really wanted a power tool. An oscillating multitool would be much more useful.
That's what I was thinking.
If its stainless you'll need the heavy duty oscillating multi tool carbide blades. The standard metal cutting ones are only really suitable for mild, and even then they do become damaged quite quickly.
Brilliant. Love that about this place - stopped me wasting £130. Off to look at oscillator thingy.
I love my Ryobi multi tool. I'm never sure exactly what it's for but I've used it for loads of jobs which would have been impossible with anything else. I always think of a new use for it when I'm stuck on something.
I do love a good Dremel though just probably not for the jobs you have in mind.
I absolutely love my dremel (well, a wired dremel, and a cordless draper) but yep, wrong tools for this job. Still definitely worth having imo, once you've got one you start to find reasons to use it and they're generally all good. So useful for cleaning up parts with a wire wheel, or for removing stuck bolts (slotting heads), stuff like that. Mostly things you can do by hand but don't want to
If you really want a Dremel-type thing, I asked this question a few months back and got pointed at Lidl's version. It's pretty decent, much better than my old no-name corded Dremel clone, and was cheap as chips compared to a "real" Dremel.
But as said, it won't do any of the jobs you've listed, I'm afraid.
Lidl's multitool works perfectly well, too, I've found 😉
I have a cordless Dremel, it's heavy, cumbersome and the batteries don't last long. You can get higher capacity Bosch green (not Pro and the shrouds no longer let you convert them) ones that will give you some more run time but they're not great. If I was replacing it I'd probably just get a corded one a they're lighter, thinner and better for fiddly stuff. If I was going cordless I'd get the Bosch Pro one as it brings you into their 12V ecosystem which gives you a lot more options.
Not sure I'd use a dremel for those jobs. But, if you are buying one, from my experience of Dremels and cheaper copies, go for Dremel.
Cheap ones are OK as long as the RPM is low, once you wind them up to high revs only Dremels stay stable IME.
As folk say, am oscillating multi tool is probably more suited. I've been using the milwaukee m12 system multitool and dremel-like tool for a few years and been very impressed with them, particularly for the balance of weight, power and vibration damping. I've also got bosch pro 18v tools and am choosing the milwaukee over it every time and as tools die switching to milwaukee m12. Not sure 18v is needed for non - contractor/professional work anymore unless you really need brute power for a job.