Dremel’s Got New Grit
What would we hobbyists do without Dremel? Yes, there are cheap knock-off products that, I guess, could take their place. But in my limited experience, we’d be buying our tools over and over again. By contrast, I’ve got an old Dremel 261 moto-tool that I’ve used since the 70s and while it’s not as nice as the modern Dremel tools, it still spins a bit after almost four decades of use.
But without all the ‘accessories’ that we chuck up in our Dremel tools, our moto-tools wouldn’t be very useful and Dremel just keeps coming up with new, useful accessories for their products. Recently, on Twitter, Dremel ran some “contests” which really amounted to them graciously giving sets of their new “abrasive brushes” to those of us who were interested. I was surprised, when mine arrived in the mail, as they sent an example of each of the 3 brushes they’re just released, in 36, 120, and 220 grit.
Those of us who work small often have a hard time sanding and buffing our work and this is where some of these newer Dremel accessories become very useful. These new brushes will be particularly because they work like a gentle, micro flap wheel. If you’re unfamiliar with flap wheels, sanding mops and their various incarnations in the full-size woodworking world, these tools present spinning abrasives to your work in a very soft, loose fashion. This results in a less aggressive, more generalized sanding effect. For instance, if you’re trying to sand miniature moldings, you can use an abrasive brush and it’ll smooth the surfaces without chewing up the cross-sections of your moldings. They’ll be great for removing the fuzzies from miniature carvings.
Another of my favorite Dremel accessories are their “abrasive buffs.“ These have been around for a while and I use them constantly. These are like little ScotchBrite pads only you can stuff them in your Dremel tool and buff anything that you’d use a ScotchBrite pad or steel wool on. Like the abrasive brushes, they come in 3 “grits.” I apologize for the somewhat ratty look of the two buffs in my photo. Seems my stock is running low and these are the only two I have left. Better order more.
Lastly, just to be complete, the other ‘loose’ sanding device that Dremel sells in a couple sizes and grits is their mini flap wheel. I used these a lot. They’re more aggressive than buffs and brushes, of course, but far less aggressive than Dremel’s sanding drum accessories because of the ‘flap’ feature of these wheels.
Cheers — Larry
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[...] used Brasso on all of the brass bits which cleaned them up pretty well and I buffed them with Dremel “buffs” that I mentioned recently and polished them a bit with polishing compound on a Dremel felt wheel. [...]
Larry, I don’t have a dremel – what am I missing? Do you have a list of uses for these accessories? Am I grinding done the skin on my fingers with sand paper when I could plug in and whirl away?
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I can’t imagine not having a Dremel in my shop. I actually have 3 of them. One is permanently mounted in a router table, another in a mini-drill press and the third is the one used most often and I use it for shaping, sanding, buffing, polishing, cutting…gosh just for everything.
You don’t need one for your petitpoint, of course, but as I know you build wonderful furniture, you just “need” one
I thank you for this question as I’ve just assumed that anyone doing modeling of any kind knows the virtues of Dremel tool ownership. Given that you’re such an ‘old hat’ in the miniatures world, I’ll need to reconsider that and, maybe, say more about them.
Cheers — Larry