Next step up from Dremel?

Mark Barone

Well-Known Member
I work on a 2 x 42 and finish my curves with my hand held dremel. It’s okay, but I would like to bump up to something with a table. I have had the dremel jump on me and scratch the side of the blade. I see these oscillating drum sanders but they seem too large. I want something for small radius. Any ideas?
 
I can highly recommend the Foredom rotary tool. It's a dremel on steroids ! They're kinda expensive and worth every dime . Use the foot control for total control of the tool. You can also get different hand pieces. Dremel bits all fit. I've had mine for over twenty years and the only maintenance I've performed was to lube the flex shaft.
 
I recently bought a Foredom style rotary tool for about $60 or so. I'm not sure if it's a cheaper offshoot of the Foredom brand, or what, but it came with a Foredom manual, and it appears to be compatible with Foredom parts. Either way, it seems to be pretty stout and the foot pedal is nice.

A longer while back I made my own router table with a little trim router and a carbide burr. It worked well enough, though I haven't used it for a while.
 
When I graduated from dremel tools, I went to air grinders. For heavy grinding/sanding, I use straight or angled air die grinders, and for finer work I use a Harbor Freight "pencil" air grinder, and for fine/detail such as carving and texturing of handles, I use a GRS 850 rotary tool. That is all assuming you have air in your shop/work area.

If you don't have air, then then the answer is a foredom....hands down.
 
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