[magkelly]

Yes, that was a vaguely salacious joke, lol, but seriously this thing rocks! I've already used it to fix half a dozen little things, to carve out a doll's foot to fit more shoes and to polish a pair of candlesticks that are a PITA to polish by hand. I'm curious what else can you do with one of these? I see cutting disks that look like little saws. There are tons of brushes, polishers, carvers, sanding discs et all. What all do you handy guys use a rotary tool for? I'm curious. I like the flex shaft thing a lot too. It came with that and with a thing to hang it on. Way cool. I'm thinking this will come in way handy but I'm not entirely sure for what. I get how each thing works, from videos on You Tube, but I'd like know what practical applications you guys have used it for, particularly in terms of building things for your photography if you have indeed gone there. I can see lots of craft uses, some house uses, but I'm thinking I'm probably not even beginning to get the scope of what one of these can do or how it might help me in terms of the studio...

[Ratmagiclady]

Heehee. A gal's best friend, sometimes.

I like the buffing cylinders, myself. Grinding stones come in handy, too.

[Steinback]

I use the industrial equivalent with 1/4" shank tools like carbide burrs and sanding discs for blending edges, deburring and similar tasks, mainly in steel and aluminum. I have yet to actually grind a die with my die grinders but they do come in handy for lots of finishing operations. High precision work still gets finished off with files, oil stones or scrapers instead.

[Just1MoreDave]

I carved a big hole in the tile in our bathroom and installed a soap dish. It worked well the first time, the second time (we moved) the tile was super-hard and didn't cut that easily. I used carbide bits the first time and diamond the second.

I have a lot of woodworking tools so most wood stuff gets done with those. I sort of have a chisel buying problem.

[atupdate]

I bought a couple of backgrounds with a stand from Amazon. The tubes for the cross bar fit very snugly together. I used the grinding tool to grind down the machining burrs on the aluminum fittings. It goes together really easy now.

I also use the sand paper roller to shorten our dog's nails.

Tim

[Tom S.]

They are a great little time saver, but a word of caution is needed: make sure you are wearing safety glasses when using it! All it takes in one opps to cause a lot of misery or even blindness.

[Rupert]

I've used one for years, mostly to cut off bolts and nuts that are frozen on, but for a number of other things too. Had a tooth chipped and ground down the sharp point once with a small grinding wheel. Get the reinforced cutting wheels, they can cut through anything, even a padlock, with ease. Yes, be sure to wear eye protection..those wheels can sling off some particles too tiny to see and land in your eyes.

You are unusual, most girls don't love tools....excepting diesel powered vibrators!

Regards!

[Kerrowdown]

I Think I Am In Love With My Rotary Tool...

You'd better not let Mrs Magkelly hear you talking like that.

[thechumpen]

Had a tooth chipped and ground down the sharp point once with a small grinding wheel.

Err, seriously? You used one on your own tooth? Or have I completely misread that?

I was using one for the finer bits when sanding down our old doors but the parts don't half wear out quick, and are quite expensive. I then found that the much larger sanding pads you stick in the end of a normal drill work just as good. Therefore if you are doing a lot of something then worth looking whether there is a lower cost way of doing it than with the fairly expensive rotary tool parts. Otherwise though, I completely agree, they are great.

[magkelly]

FYI, I'm a woman. I don't have a Mr. or a Mrs. either. The only thing I'm married to is my Pentax gear. They'll probably cremate it with me, lol. I like men actually, occasionally even date one, but only when I can tell him to go home when I get annoyed with his presence. If I had to permanently share a house with a guy I was sleeping with, or (shudder) marry one? I'd probably go stark raving. I'm just not the marrying kind. I don't like to share my power tools. ;p

I do have safety glasses. I don't mess around when it comes to my eyes. I have enough problems with them already. I've been wearing a mask too actually. I don't want to inhale anything that might mess up my lungs and I'll be working with things like metals, plastics, resins, polymer clay et all. I got almost 300 little attachments with this tool. Just learning what they are all for should take me a few days...

I carved my first pair of wooden doll heels last night. They came out pretty cool, grin. I'm making leather uppers for them tomorrow probably. I need to make a quick trip to Micheal's for a leather needle and some little brass nails so I can do them first though.
Will take pics when I am done for the gang on my doll board but I will likely also show them off on here just so you guys can see what I wanted one of these tools for.

Rupert, I'm half convinced you're pulling my leg on that one but having read your posts for quite a while now? I'm just not so sure you wouldn't have actually gone there. Besides, it's two days late for April Fool's... laugh.

[Ratmagiclady]

Err, seriously? You used one on your own tooth? Or have I completely misread that?

I was using one for the finer bits when sanding down our old doors but the parts don't half wear out quick, and are quite expensive. I then found that the much larger sanding pads you stick in the end of a normal drill work just as good. Therefore if you are doing a lot of something then worth looking whether there is a lower cost way of doing it than with the fairly expensive rotary tool parts. Otherwise though, I completely agree, they are great.

They usually are in fact better for smaller jobs, but they tend to make a quick job of a lot of things. The little sanding drums aren't really best for covering a lot of area unless you really want to leave other parts of a piece untouched, and can take a pretty delicate touch if the surface is bigger than the drum you're using.

(Also, Dremels are one thing I was an early adopter of: I suggest variable-speed ones over the single-speed one like I have. )

[Kerrowdown]

FYI, I'm a woman

Oops, no insults intended, but I think you understood the gist of what I meant.

[RoxnDox]

Quite the thread title there

I've had one for years and used it to do so many things I couldn't even begin to list them all... Door latch openings enlarged, fence gates trimmed to open smoothly, bits of excess plastic/metal/wood smoothed off, pipes and tubes cut, holes drilled, glass edges dulled, and Dog only knows what else... I have some stuff I might even use it on tonite, on the kayak sail rig I'm building.

Jim

[wildweasel]

Have you tried a model shop where they sell parts for model boats? They have the tiniest brass nails you can imagine, as well as loads of other goodies you could most likely use for your dolls.

Oh, and rotary tools are such useful toys, I mean, tools. You'll soon find yourself looking for things to use it on. You can even turn foam and soft wood like balsa and linden (I think you guys call it 'bass wood' over there); could be useful for making all kinds of accessories. Keep the swan-neck lubed though as they can run dry and get quite hot. Damn you Rupert; now I can't help but read a double entendre into that last sentence!

[Lloydy]

I was drilling holes in a Tokina lens with mine the other day. Don't ask - it's a long story.....