Best way to use a Dremel tool?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hey handyman Dopers: what’s the best way to use a Dremel tool?

The deal is that I’m working on my Halloween costume and I’m cutting pieces of armor from a large sheet of PVC foam (1/8" thick, if that matters). There’s two problems I discovered when I cut a test piece last night:

  1. The plastic doesn’t cut so much as melt. I should have seen this coming between the high speed of the Dremel and the amount of heat it creates. I can make pretty decent cuts, but it does spew a decent amount of liquid plastic onto the edge that it has to be sanded down (which ruins the smoothness I had). I could try a thinner blade, but I don’t know if it’ll go through the material as well. I could try a slower speed, but again, I’ve found that only the highest speed really gets through this stuff.

  2. I need to cut pretty straight edges. I’m wondering if I should clamp an aluminum ruler along the edges I’m cutting as a guide. However, I’m worried that the Dremel will cut through the ruler if I angle it wrong, thus ruining both the ruler and the whole point to begin. :smack:

Other than that, I love my Dremel and think it’s the coolest tool ever made.

2

The right tool for the job is important. For 1/8 PVC foam, a utility knife or exacto knife is probably the preferred implement. It’s straight-edge friendly and won’t melt the PVC. You could also consider a hot-knife (essentally an exacto knife screwed into a soldering iron). It might be a bit slower, but you did say this is a Halloween costume…

If you want to use a Dremel tool to cut a straightline, you should get one of the different kinds of guide attachments (some of them are essentially just hollow tubes) and use the guide against the straightedge with the appropriate offset.

3

Man, I’m bummed out!

Here I was all set to discuss do-it-yourself root canals . . . :frowning:

Oakie

4

ditto the utliity knife w/ straight-edge - you’ll find other uses for the Dremel toy :slight_smile: (I have 4 of them…)

5

I also have a Dremel. It’s great for mixing cocktails.

Though my most frequent legitimate use is as a high-speed drill through light steel. I’ve used it to install extra fans in my computer case.

6

I had the same problem. IIRC I made the cut then snapped it to break the melted joint.