Where to buy Dremel?

henrebotha

My folks want to buy me a Dremel. I'm not fighting it. ?

Where is a good place to buy? I'd prefer CT (City bowl or Southern suburbs), Somerset West or Stellenbosch.

I'm primarily interested in using it as a guitar router and as a finishing tool for circuits and enclosures. 200 series looks good. What attachment do I need for routing my Strat?

Thanks guys ?

Alex-B-Broadway

You should be able to find it at most hardware stores, I think. It's a pretty useful tool to have.

Gearhead

You're not going to rout around a body with a Dremel - the routers for that kind of task are 1kW and upwards. Not really necessary to rout around a body anyway, personally I think an amateur build goes much more reliably with a drum sander.

henrebotha

I don't want to route guitar bodies out of blanks. I'm more talking small holes for electronics, that sort of thing.

Manfred-Klose

builders warehouse

Gearhead

henrebotha wrote I don't want to route guitar bodies out of blanks. I'm more talking small holes for electronics, that sort of thing.

Same thing. The key is that the low torque / high revs of the dremel does not allow for more than a few square millimeter off per pass, which makes it impossible to plunge and cut out a sizeable part of the body.

guidothepimmp

+1 on builders..

Also +1 on the use of a dremel. I mainly use for small sanding, carving etc.. For the heav stuff, belt sanders, orbital sanders, routers and drills..
Aaaarghh all this talk of powertools has me all hot n bothered

Jayhell

I bought mine from Builders Warehouse, thinking that I'm going to do some major routing and cutting. I bought the 3000 series with a case and some parts and stuff and it's really cool for small stuff. Making small holes, grinding of an edge of something, sanding tricky bits etc. But when it comes to the bigger stuff, like cutting a hole in a piece of wood, it is not strong enough. Also I tried cutting out a thin piece of wood with the cutting fitting and it ate the whole thing up. It was in a way to aggressive. because its hand held its hard to be precise with some stuff. I wouldn't try routing a hole in any of my guitars with it. A fun thing to have but it's not a magic tool that's going to do everything.

slyd

Got mine from Builders Express.
Go for one with variable speed, as the one (200i) with the 2-speed is limiting, and the speed switch conks out after a short while.

A GREAT tool! I adapted mine to be able to rout binding channels, I grind tools with it, cut plastic sheeting, rout out smaller body cavities, probably could even use it to make smoothies ! ?

VERSATILE ?

Loove my Dremel 8)

AlanRatcliffe

I love my Dremels (I'm on #4), but I have to side with Gearhead - for any serious routing, including pickup and control cavities, a proper router is far preferable. The Dremel does the small, precise stuff well, but doesn't cope with medium to heavy routing work. Which is part of the reason I've been through so many - because in my early days I was using them for stuff where a router was more suitable and was wearing the poor things out.

I always used to use Cape Watchmakers and Jeweller's Supplies for my Dremel stuff, but all the better hardware places seem to have them now.

Ray

All sorts of stuff you can do with the Dremel but anyway, take a look at the Ryobi hobby tools which seem to be OK and like half the price. And then there is a Tork Craft tool which doesnt look so great hey. Maybe look here as well.

http://www.boman.co.za/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=98&Itemid=100

slyd

Ray wrote All sorts of stuff you can do with the Dremel but anyway, take a look at the Ryobi hobby tools which seem to be OK and like half the price. And then there is a Tork Craft tool which doesnt look so great hey. Maybe look here as well.

Also, you'll find Tork Craft, Fragram, Ryobi, etc. accessories at cheaper prices than the Dremel equivalent. Sometimes quality, ?, sometimes not, . . . . but many accessories do score high, and others not.
Have a look, and choose. . .
:-[

henrebotha

I ignored all of you and went ahead and got one. ? Boman had best price I could find. Will be a useful tool anyway, even if I can't route a hole for my arcade switch.

slyd

Cool! Which model . . . ?

henrebotha

300-30, as well as a router bit.

slyd

ooooo . . . . nice ?

guidothepimmp

Pics?
>☹ >☹

MattAttack

Dremel's are great tools. if you can't afford to pay a grand for one, Ryobi make the same thing with an accessory kit for under R400, in my experience Ryobi is great for what you paying.
I bought a Torque Craft cheapie for R130, and stangely enough it works great.
I initially intended to use it for a CNC router I've designed, but it's just so useful to use that I'll buy another one for the CNC machine.

All pencil grinders do the same thing, some just last longer. My cheapie should last at least 2yrs as I use it moderately.

I couldn't ever bring myself to pay a grand (+ extra for accessories) for a Dremel, I'm rather putting the money saved towards a guitar rather =D