How fast should a Dremel go when cutting steel (P180 mobotray)

D

Darth Bobo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 6, 2007
Messages
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I'm going to be cutting into a P180 tomorrow or the day after with a Dremel, so I'd just like to know how fast said dremel should run (5-33.000RPM) when cutting steel?

Thanks! :D
 
As fast as it needs to to complete the cut....


What are you cutting up on a P180? I hope it's not the sides.
 
Ockie said:
As fast as it needs to to complete the cut....


What are you cutting up on a P180? I hope it's not the sides.
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don't worry, I won't cut anything visual. I'm going to cut out the fangrill on the back of the case and the I'm going to cut into the motherboard tray in order to route the cabling behind said tray to get my case nice and clean looking. I'm going for low airflow (approx 800RPM fans) so I will want the airflow inside the case to be as clean and unobstructive as possible.

And no I have never done something like this before, so I'm quite excited :D
 
LOL you will get over the exitement with the dremel tries to skip all over the place, and after you do get the hole cut it will be rough. If you have a drill, drilling a hole to start where you are going to cut really helps.

For steel fast as it will go when using the cutoff wheels. For grindstones it depends on the type of stone and its grit. You will quickly get a feel for the correct rpm.

Be sure to have an extra pack of cutting wheels hand, and for all that holy WEAR EYE PROTECTION, those little disks like to explode.

Use the grindstone to clean up the cuts/hole and a small fine tooth round and flat file helps a lot too.

dont get metal filings in your electronics. Putting a couple layers of masking tape around the area you are working on somethimes helps prevent nicks, scratches and gouges when the dremel jumps on you.
 
i go for a nice medium setting (22,000) rpm. I dunno, discs tend to pop less around that speed for me. And I figure I'll join in and heavily advice you be sure to wear eye protection.

I'm pretty sure the phrase "it's all fun and games till someone loses an eye" can be found in perfect context in the owner's manual. lol
 
BillParrish said:
LOL you will get over the exitement with the dremel tries to skip all over the place, and after you do get the hole cut it will be rough. If you have a drill, drilling a hole to start where you are going to cut really helps.

For steel fast as it will go when using the cutoff wheels. For grindstones it depends on the type of stone and its grit. You will quickly get a feel for the correct rpm.

Be sure to have an extra pack of cutting wheels hand, and for all that holy WEAR EYE PROTECTION, those little disks like to explode.

Use the grindstone to clean up the cuts/hole and a small fine tooth round and flat file helps a lot too.

dont get metal filings in your electronics. Putting a couple layers of masking tape around the area you are working on somethimes helps prevent nicks, scratches and gouges when the dremel jumps on you.
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LOL thanks for the advice / warnings man! I will be sure to wear eyeprotection! :)
 
Darth Bobo said:
LOL thanks for the advice / warnings man! I will be sure to wear eyeprotection! :)
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You're telling me... I've got a piece of steel embedded into my eye. It's healed over so much now that I can't get it removed.

I was wearing glasses too, just not the full "wrap-around" ones... They were more like oakley sunglass shaped goggles.

So, no CAT/MRI scans for Arcy.
 
Holy cow... I've never actually heard firsthand from someone who came up on the wrong end of flying shards, especially when wearing any eye protection at all. I guess it's very apparent that safety and caution (and keeping your vision) is much more important than the sweaty, irritating safety goggles.

To answer the question, too high RPM's will cause vibration in the cutoff disks and make them more likely to "explode" like someone else said. A nice medium (22-25,000 RPM) setting will work just fine unless you're cutting hardened steel or such...
 
BillParrish said:
LOL you will get over the exitement with the dremel tries to skip all over the place, and after you do get the hole cut it will be rough. .
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Cutting a finned heatsink on a Zalman VF700 cooler was fun. A stock VF700 heatsink will not fit an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9800 Pro ( it gets in the way of the TV tuner)... but what was I to do after ripping the cooler package open? Anyway it worked out ok after I learned to control the Dremel and cut off six of the fins.
 
Oh man. Dremel and eyeglasses. Eye protection is a must. I had one guy (i build computers for this dude)who thought he didnt need them just because he was going to cut a small one inch hole in his case and got a piece of metal right in his eye. He was rushed to emergency and luckly for him it wasnt deep so the doc was able to take it right out. But it couldve been worse. So ya definitely wear eye protection no matter how small or how short a time your going to use the dremel.
 
Hey Darth. Everytime i see your username im laughing. Great name. Hilarious.
 
Susquehannock said:
Great to see eye protection mentioned so often here.
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My preference is to use safety glasses and a face shield. The latter is not rated to protect your eyes if used alone. It does do a decent job of keeping fine stuff off your face and out of your nose etc. If you have safety glasses that do not have full enclosure, the face shield will help keep stuff from sneaking under the edge.
 
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