Dremel Question

D

Danja

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
195
Hi all,

A couple months ago I dremeled out a fan slot in the side of my hp media center case. During the process, I was wearing thick work gloves and a face mask to avoid inhaling metal particles. I noticed in the worklog forums that people are dremeling without gloves. I didn't see any pictures of faces. What safety protection do you guys use while dremeling?

Thanks,

Dan
 
Safety glasses and sometimes gloves, it depends if I'm holding the material I'm cutting and how close.
 
Ideally everyone would wear eye and hand protection, at a minimum, but I'm sure a lot of people don't. This past weekend I dremeled out my 700D case and lost a few grinding wheels to poor technique. A few whistles past my head had me going for the eyewear.
 
One of my biggest phobias is blindness, so I kind of took the safety glasses for granted :)
 
Usually just safety glasses. I find gloves to be too intrusive and I don't feel like I have as good of a grip with em on, same reason I generally don't wear em while working on my car. I'll also only wear a face mask if I'm doing real fine work where there are gonna be a lot more small bits and particles and/or if I'm gonna get putting my face a bit closer.
 
I didn't wear anything except my normal prescription glasses. The sparks don't really hurt, and the metal dust was rarely even noticed by my eyes.
 
Use safety glasses. Metal shavings in an eye is quite painful. Gloves aren't as necessary depending on the bit which is being used.
 
Gloves aren't often used in machine environments (mill, lathe, etc.), I think because the risk of the spinning tool catching a flap of glove is too great. I find no gloves gives you better feel, too.
 
Colonel_Panic said:
Ideally everyone would wear eye and hand protection, at a minimum, but I'm sure a lot of people don't. This past weekend I dremeled out my 700D case and lost a few grinding wheels to poor technique. A few whistles past my head had me going for the eyewear.
Click to expand...

Ya i second this as well. At first I thought i would just man it up and not wear any safety equipment. But those little cutoff wheels for a dremel tend to break very easily. Not really the way i want to lose an eye. The sparks honestly shouldn't really even hurt you if they hit you in the eye, unless you are a few inches away and have every single one pulverising your eye.
 
The basic cutoff wheels break easily and frequently. The ez change metal disks are very durable, I have yet to send one into oblivion yet like the old brown wheels.
 
The brown dics are scary to work with, they usually only last for one round and zoom past your face.
Wear eye protection at a minimum.
 
Definitely wear protective, optically clear eye-wear, but I like to wear a basic particulate mask as well because I'd rather not inhale metal (I can feel it collect in the back of my throat when I'm working).

Gloves - don't need them, and they interfere with work. I'd use thin ones if at all.
 
Thanks for all the advice! I'm glad I'm not being too over cautious. I may try to go without gloves next time I dremel, and I'll look into the EZ change disks.
 
Glasses, face mask, and some time gloves. Can't be too careful with your health.
 
Psh, you guys think the brown discs are bad, talk about the wheel wire brushes! Those bristles go flying EVERYWHERE and are sharp as hell!
 
Well it really depends on what you're cutting, but glasses are a must all the time.

Particle mask I don't really use since I cut outdoors, and I hold my breathe while I cut.

Gloves? Never bothered with gloves.. Better control of a dremel without gloves.
 
When you need to cut a straight line, do you do it freehand or use some sort of guide? As I mentioned in another thread, I may get a new case and cut into it to make room for a somewhat complex-shaped removable drive bay. I'd like to make it aesthetically pleasing, so I would have to cut really well.

Also, what do you use to smooth out the edges? I tried using the grinding wheel on my steel case and it only somewhat worked. It also wore down the grinding wheel to the shaft and it eventually snapped.
 
Danja said:
When you need to cut a straight line, do you do it freehand or use some sort of guide? As I mentioned in another thread, I may get a new case and cut into it to make room for a somewhat complex-shaped removable drive bay. I'd like to make it aesthetically pleasing, so I would have to cut really well.

Also, what do you use to smooth out the edges? I tried using the grinding wheel on my steel case and it only somewhat worked. It also wore down the grinding wheel to the shaft and it eventually snapped.
Click to expand...

Straight lines with a large enough grinding wheel are actually not that hard to do. I had the same fear cutting steel in my 700D and it worked OK. I think the trick is to grind away a fairly small spot until it goes through the material, then slide the Dremel along the line very slowly.

Aluminium is super annoying to grind because the dust gets EVERYWHERE. It'd be nice to do all that sort of thing inside a machine shop, with real mills.
 
Colonel_Panic said:
Gloves aren't often used in machine environments (mill, lathe, etc.), I think because the risk of the spinning tool catching a flap of glove is too great. I find no gloves gives you better feel, too.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. Use of gloves with power tools, revolving or reciprocating bladed tools is a major safety violation and an accident waiting to happen.

Always wear safety glasses. Lots of tough stylish and inexpensive polycarbonate types available. Or tighter-fitting shooting glasses, less than $10.
 
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