Rotary tools - Proxxon and Dremel

[vaddoc]

Dear all

 

There do not seem to be too many information on the performance of the Proxon rotary tools and especially how they compare to the very common Dremel. I thought I d post my experience and opinion on this issue.

I got a Dremel 3000 with the flexible attachment about 4 years ago. It recently failed and I bought a Proxxon Micromot 60.

 

Now, in my opinion the reason the Dremel failed is actually a design and material fault. It has a locking pin so that the shaft will not rotate and the jaws can be unlocked. This is however very shallow, engages the shaft maybe less than 1 mm and the pin is not hardened-nor is the shaft. So it is a matter of time to get worn and then simply the jaws cannot open. Replacement is £15 in the UK. I was actually given a replacement locking pin but after installing it the whole assembly is a bit worn so it does not work very well and cannot take much pressure and even the new pin slips. Better to buy a whole new unit at £45. In regards to the flexible shaft, personally I did not find it useful at all.

 

Some pictures now.

The most common complaint is that you absolutely have to buy the Proxxon power source. I already had it so buying the Proxxon made sense. Now, the Proxxon is smaller and lighter. It only needs finger tightening whereas the Dremel needs a small wrench-this is actually important. The Dremel goes up to crazy speeds but due to lack of torque it slows down. The Proxxon seems to have a lot of torque and does not slow down-less vibration as well but only goes to 20,000 rpm or so and it is more pleasant to use.

 

This is the locking pin that commonly fails. It is tiny. I have not seen the pin on the Proxxon but it seems to have much longer travel and be more robust.

Actually, I installed the new pin and tried to unlock the chuck. I did not operate the tool but just by trying, the pin already got worn!

Another piece that got worn is the part that compresses the collets as well as the wrench. 

The collets are also different. The Proxxon ones are larger, harder and have three jaws. They look and probably are better but I have had no issue with the Dremel ones.

Overall, the Proxxon seems to be the nicer tool but is more expensive. Proxxon also makes a 220 V version that seems pretty good and more powerful.

The Dremel may be better for DIY but for modelling, this Proxxon tool is very nice.

 

Ona final note, I bought the Proxxon chuck to replace the collets but apparently it cannot be fitted on this tool-shame

 

Vaddoc

 

[Captain Slog]

I bought the same Proxxon micromot 60 and power supply as per your photo as i was never happy with the same Dremel as yours and i wanted the MB200 drill stand and agree on the benefits you mentioned.

 

I am surprised the chuck doesn't fit though. I bought the Proxxon that came with a chuck and bought the collet set separately.  There may be 2 different chucks and you got the wrong one?

 

One other advantage is the Proxxon is a lot quieter not having the high pitched 'scream' of the Dremel

[Roger Pellett]

A number of years ago I bought a Mincraft miniature pistol grip power drill.  It runs off a mincraft power supply similar to the one sold by Proxxon.  Since then I have bought a Proxxon pen sander and a Proxxon rotary engraver.  Instead of buying a Proxxon power supply I found an adapter; just a short piece of cord that the Proxxon tool plugs into.  The other end has the correct plug to connect to the Mincraft power supply.  The Proxxon tools run fine with this setup.

 

Roger

[vaddoc]

9 hours ago, Captain Slog said:

I am surprised the chuck doesn't fit though. I bought the Proxxon that came with a chuck and bought the collet set separately.  There may be 2 different chucks and you got the wrong one?

 

Apparently, the chuck can be replaced with collets but not the other way around. There are three versions of the tool, I got the one without speed control (as I have it on the power source) and the tip of the tool is different, there is no space to fit the chuck.

[grsjax]

I have never had a problem with the Dremel locking pin.  I have a couple of older model tools and perhaps they were built better than the newer ones.  I also have a Dremel cordless 7.2 volt tool that works very well.  I like the adjustable speed of the Dremel.  Mine goes from 5000 to 35000rpm giving a good working range for different uses.

[wefalck]

Not sure from memory, but I think the PROXXON tools have a fine M8x1 thread (not the standard M8x1.25). Both, the tightening nut for collets and the chucks have the same thread. The PROXXON collets indeed are hard (not quite as my watchmaking lathe collets), but rather durable - I had their pillar drill for 35 years now without issues concerning the collets. PROXXON supplies a 3.2 mm collet for imperial measure tools, not sure, whether Dremel supplies collets for metric tools.

 

I would normally use collets and not a 3-jaw-chuck - much more secure, better concentricity and less bulky.

 

For some years I had a PROXXON power supply, but at some stage I seem to have killed it - probably one of the capacitors is gone, but I don't have the knowledge and instruments to check and replace it. I then pulled out an old model railway transformer, got a variable speed-control off ebay and set up a power-supply station integrated into my work-bench. It was different types of sockets for different tools and purposes. I then cut off the PROXXON proprietary plugs from my 12 V tools and replaced them with standard low-voltage plugs, for which I had installed a socket in the power-supply. The proprietary plugs are there to forces the innocent into buying the PROXXON transformers (they use the same marketing trick on their small table-saw for instance).

 

Apart from this marketing trick I never had any issue with their tools and the only time I burnt out their bench-grinder motor, I got very quickly and at a reasonable price a replacement motor (was my fault, as I used it for too long continuous periods). I could have sent the transformer for repair, but doing this from France would have been too expensive.

 

BTW, I don't have a hand-held drill from neither of the two companies, as the very early and primitive model of this kind of drills I bought some 45 years ago still works fine. It is essentially a motor in an aluminium housing with a switch at the end. A brass-tube is screwed onto the motor shaft that is threaded for a collet-nut. A set of metric and imperial collets in steel came with it. The hexagonal steel nut doesn't show wear, but I rarely need the spanner for tightening - it seems that the Dremel-cone is rather steep, so needs a lot of force to close the collet securely, while collets for my drill and the PROXXON ones are more shallow. Surprisingly the motor and its bearings have survived continuous intensive use for almost half a century now.