Variable speed dremels

[Laggard]

Do any dremels have a 0-36K rpm variable speed?  Variable speed drills seem to have three or four speed settings.  

I need something that can turn at 300 rpm if needed.  
 

Thanks

[Jaager]

I don't even know what I don't know about motors and electronics,  but I am of the thought that most Dremel machines are designed to work in the 5,000 - 30,000 RPM range.  I have an old single speed tool of early 1970's vintage and I bought a Dremel solid state speed control to use with it,  but I do not think that 300 RPM would be possible - not enough power to do any work.  I think that the whole series is designed around flash rather than actually doing any real work at whatever speed is selected.

 

The chuck that fits 1/8" shafts may be a problem, but a DC motor - there are many sizes and most are low cost  - a bench top DC power supply that is 3 -4.5 -6 -7.5 -9 -12 Volts @ 2000mA is <$20 if a lot of torque is not needed and 300 RPM may be possible there.

 

I now have a Foredom TX  and it has a range of 500 - 15,000 - it is a much superior tool for rotary work.  It is supposed to provide full power at the low speed as well as the high speed.   

 

If it is just ship modeling that you will be doing,  It will be difficult to find enough work for any rotary tool to justify a major capital outlay,

[Laggard]

Thanks.  Using a pin vice to pre drill holes for dozens of lill pins seems tedious.  

[Wintergreen]

Proxxon rotary tools usually have a somewhat lower RPM ratio than Dremel. 

Proxxon 5000-20000 while Dremel 10000-30000.

If it is the problem of making an entry in to the wood at several thousands of RPM, something I struggle with as well, use an fine awl to break the surface so to speak. Then the drillbit will find its way in to the wood.

Another thing, that Jaager above mentions is the power or torque these multitools provide in the lower range RPM is not very good. I tend to stay around the 10-15k mark when drilling.

 

[vaddoc]

2 hours ago, Laggard said:

Using a pin vice to pre drill holes for dozens of lill pins seems tedious.  

My models tend to need thousand of holes each. Hand drilling is not only tedious, it can also lead to problems. It is easy to brake a drill which gets stuck in the hole and then cannot be removed. Using a rotary drill and flexible steel drills, this risk is minimised. 300 rpm I think is too slow to drill wood.

I switched from Dremel to the DC Proxxon, which I find much better overall and with more torque. Drilling wood, it is always in the highest rpm setting. 

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

9 hours ago, Laggard said:

Do any dremels have a 0-36K rpm variable speed?

 

Do any Foredom have a 0-50K rpm variable speed? yes

[harlequin]

have a look at minicraft on ebay.......no longer produced new but always available......i have several and they are superb.....variable speed transformers mean you can slow down or speed up using one power adjustment...

Edited December 13, 2021 by harlequin

[Roger Pellett]

I second the Minicraft tools if you can find them.  I have the green power supply in the picture above as well as one of their drills.  Works great; true variable speed.  The Minicraft power supply that I have does not interchange with Proxxon; two prongs vs three.  I have been able to buy adaptors that let me use Proxxon tools with my Minicraft power supply.

 

If you can find a Minicraft drill and an adaptor it should work with a Proxxon power supply.

[harlequin]

9 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

I second the Minicraft tools if you can find them.  I have the green power supply in the picture above as well as one of their drills.  Works great; true variable speed.  The Minicraft power supply that I have does not interchange with Proxxon; two prongs vs three.  I have been able to buy adaptors that let me use Proxxon tools with my Minicraft power supply.

 

If you can find a Minicraft drill and an adaptor it should work with a Proxxon power supply.

the green one is a sander and i took the end of a drill i no longer used and swapped it with the proxon....works fine...

Edited December 13, 2021 by harlequin

[Roger Pellett]

I wasn’t referring to the Proxxon sander, I meant the green power supply. I have a Proxxon sander just like that and a Proxxon engraver too.  Both run off of my Minicraft power supply via an adaptor cord.

[Dave_E]

I have a Dremel model 395 type 5, 5000 - 30,000 RPM. The variable speed is real, not simply 5 different speeds.

[Patrick Matthews]

A couple related topics: Corded vs. cordless, handheld vs. flex shaft.

I appreciate the merits of a Foredom, and the lower cost of corded units vs. cordless... but unlike a jeweler and to a lesser extent a display ship modeler, I'm a free-range modeler... have to be, when models are 5 and 6 feet long! I'm up and down the bench, working from above and below, and I'd be lost without my cordless rotary.

 

My trusty Dremel 800 cordless just died after some 15 years service, so I just popped for Dremel's new top of the line unit, the 8260. 12v, and brushless for better efficiency/longer battery life, yay. Do I need the Bluetooth communication capability so I can use my smart phone to check on the battery condition?

Uh, no. 
And did I choke just a bit on the price, knowing that throw-away rotaries can be had for one Andy Jackson? 

Uh, yep.

But then I thought about how important this tool is to me. Even made me remember one day as a kid trying to get started in serious model railroading, when I was hanging out in the local model train shop, having a bull session with the owner and another regular customer. "What's the most useful tool to own?" I asked. The regular said he'd be lost without his Dremel!

And then I looked at how much I paid for a decent airbrush... the new Dremel is on par with that. So the trigger got pulled and I'm just waiting on the package to arrive. Desperately waiting, because in the meantime I'm spending scores of minutes whacking on things by hand when the rotary would take care of the job in seconds!
In the picture below, my defunct cordless Dremel is highlighted while I pose with the latest big project.

 

 

[Laggard]

11 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I second the Minicraft tools if you can find them.  I have the green power supply in the picture above as well as one of their drills.  Works great; true variable speed.  The Minicraft power supply that I have does not interchange with Proxxon; two prongs vs three.  I have been able to buy adaptors that let me use Proxxon tools with my Minicraft power supply.

 

If you can find a Minicraft drill and an adaptor it should work with a Proxxon power supply.

Tough to find.  I’ll keep looking.  Thanks. 
 

So far all these solutions are out of my price range.  Can someone suggest an affordable push pull drill?  I bought a really cheap one but it’s not much better than useless.  

Edited December 14, 2021 by Laggard

[Jaager]

MPJA.com  sells a DC selectable power supply   $20

AliExpress has a wide selection of small DC motors  some with Jacobs chucks and probably some with collet chucks  for $20 or less

 

Even the old loss leader small DC drill that Harbor Freight used to sell - that was hopeless with the supplied DC transformer - actually does some work with the selectable power supply.

 

Worse comes to worse, even a General pin vise with the heel swivel and 4 sizes of collets (2 double ended) would probably be better than any small pus pull drill.  We has a long round table discussion about pin vises here, not that long ago.  It may be work a read.

[Roger Pellett]

By push pull drill you could mean either of two different things.  First there is the Yankee Screwdriver type.  When you push the handle down, a threaded shaft turns the chuck.  This will not work for our purposes.  Unrestrained pushing to actuate the drill will cause small drills to buckle and break.

 

The other is called an Archimedes screw drill.  Better quality ones are sold to jewelers and watchmakers.  IMHO, these are very useful.  Armed with one of these, I drilled all of the holes for a POF model before owning the electric Minicraft Drill.  I still use it.  Google Archimedes screw drill and buy from a supplier that sells tools to professionals.

 

Roger

[Laggard]

Roger:   Like these?

 

https://garrettwade.com/product/archimedes-screw-drills

[Roger Pellett]

That’s it.  Mine doesn’t have the return spring.  You manually work the slider up  and down.

 

 

[MaxC]

On 12/14/2021 at 4:23 AM, Patrick Matthews said:

A couple related topics: Corded vs. cordless, handheld vs. flex shaft.

I appreciate the merits of a Foredom, and the lower cost of corded units vs. cordless... but unlike a jeweler and to a lesser extent a display ship modeler, I'm a free-range modeler... have to be, when models are 5 and 6 feet long! I'm up and down the bench, working from above and below, and I'd be lost without my cordless rotary.

 

My trusty Dremel 800 cordless just died after some 15 years service, so I just popped for Dremel's new top of the line unit, the 8260. 12v, and brushless for better efficiency/longer battery life, yay. Do I need the Bluetooth communication capability so I can use my smart phone to check on the battery condition?

Uh, no. 
And did I choke just a bit on the price, knowing that throw-away rotaries can be had for one Andy Jackson? 

Uh, yep.

But then I thought about how important this tool is to me. Even made me remember one day as a kid trying to get started in serious model railroading, when I was hanging out in the local model train shop, having a bull session with the owner and another regular customer. "What's the most useful tool to own?" I asked. The regular said he'd be lost without his Dremel!

And then I looked at how much I paid for a decent airbrush... the new Dremel is on par with that. So the trigger got pulled and I'm just waiting on the package to arrive. Desperately waiting, because in the meantime I'm spending scores of minutes whacking on things by hand when the rotary would take care of the job in seconds!
In the picture below, my defunct cordless Dremel is highlighted while I pose with the latest big project.

 

 

Hi Pat

Im curious to know in what way your 800 died? I have one of these. 
Max