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Should I

What does the tool need to do for you?
Personally, I think Dremels (and their clones) are practically useless in most casemodding scenarios, the jigsaw being a much better alternative.
 
a good rotary tool is much more versatile than a jigsaw. It sands, it polishes, it carves, it cuts; its a nice multipurpose tool.

Anyway, OP, the one you pointed out is single speed. I have a black and decker RTX-3 and the ability to vary 12,000 - 30,000 rpm has come in real handy alot, but it wont hinder you too much. Just remember, you usually get what you pay for, and that thing looks kinda cheap.
 
Get the $30 single speed dremel and the variable speed foot pedal, you'll thank me later :)

Cheap tools burn up quickly (assuming its not a dremel, that site is filtered here)

I use mine for gunsmithing, case modding, wood carving, cabinetry and trimwork, drywall cutting, and a host of other things my fried brain cannot come up with ATM.
 
Probably 10 or 15 years ago I bought a variable speed Dremel. Still works as good today as it did new. I've learned by many mistakes not to try to save a lot of money on cheap tools, it'll cost more in the long run, not to mention frustrating.

For case modding, great for cutting sheetmetal when using the reinforced cutting wheels.

Also as above, great for gunsmithing too - my other expensive hobby.

-- Rev
 
last halloween i carved my jack-o-lantern with my rotary tool. my god that was much easier/messier. :D
 
JinxyBoi said:
last halloween i carved my jack-o-lantern with my rotary tool. my god that was much easier/messier. :D
Click to expand...

I did too, the trick is not to use cutting disks but the small but from a multipurpose cutting kit :)

And to the OP, if you want to use that "dremel" for about 15 minutes go ahaed and buy it
 
There are brand name alternatives to the dremel but those are the only ones I'd consider. Don't bother with the cheapy harbor freight ones because some of the better attachments won't work with them.

Harbor freight is good for cheap bits for them though.
 
JinxyBoi said:
a good rotary tool is much more versatile than a jigsaw. It sands, it polishes, it carves, it cuts; its a nice multipurpose tool...
.
Click to expand...
Yes, the Dremel is a multipurpose tool, it does many things...most of them poorly.
Go to any sheetmetal fab shop and ask to see their Dremels.
After the hilarity dies down ask to see the tools they do use and work out from there what will best do the job you have in mind.
 
Dremels are infinatly useful. they aren't as good for certain thing as other tools (jigsaw, milling machine, lathe) but they will do what they do, pretty well.

Me, I use a Jobmate from canadian tire, with the flex shaft. Sooo useful. And it was $9.99.
 
sprocket said:
Go to any sheetmetal fab shop and ask to see their Dremels.
After the hilarity dies down ask to see the tools they do use and work out from there what will best do the job you have in mind.
Click to expand...

There's a large ocean between a casual modder and a machine shop, I'm sure you know. And there's an ocean of difference between a 20 dollar hand tool and hundreds of dollars worth of professional hardware.

To the casual case modder, putting up with some minor inconveniences in favor of a cost effective dremel, is well worth beign able to put the other moeny spent elsewhere (like, i dunno, a new video card or cpu or something)
 
JinxyBoi said:
There's a large ocean between a casual modder and a machine shop, I'm sure you know. And there's an ocean of difference between a 20 dollar hand tool and hundreds of dollars worth of professional hardware.
Click to expand...
Of course I'm aware of this but you miss the point.
For every expensive "professional" grade tool there is the low-cost consumer equivilent and jigsaws are no exception.
Even the lowliest jigsaw (fitted with the appropriate blade) will produce a better rad cut out say, than a Dremel- and it will do it faster and with less post-cut cleanup.
Plus, I have never seen a jigsaw "get away" from the user and skate over the surface...an occurance commonly seen in worklogs everywhere (the pic of such a disaster is usually followed by the comment, "Don't worry about the f*uckups, I'll clean them up later!"). Furthermore, jigsaw blades are cheap and outlast the cutting discs used on rotary tools.

Face it- 95% of the casemodding we commonly do is just simple sheetmetal work, removing a stamped fan grill, cutting an opening for a rad, etc...why not study how pros do such things and emulate them?
 
sprocket said:
Face it- 95% of the casemodding we commonly do is just simple sheetmetal work, removing a stamped fan grill, cutting an opening for a rad, etc...why not study how pros do such things and emulate them?
Click to expand...

Simply because the pros are using their tools for only one task. Most of the people that post and mod here I'm willing to bet aren't professional case-modders or machine-shoppers. The fact that dremel can be used for case-modding, home repair, small wood fabrication, various cleaning tasks, makes it a much more worthwhile investment.

Yes, if I needed a tool to only cut out holes for fans/rads/grills, a jigsaw would be the best option. However, for your average full case-mod project, you're going to need to do a lot more than that. Therefore, it's much more cost-effective to invest in a dremel and deal with the inconveniences you mentioned above, than to get 3 or 4 tools that do the job a little bit better/quicker.
 
jreffy said:
Simply because the pros are using their tools for only one task.
Not necessarily.
Most of the people that post and mod here I'm willing to bet aren't professional case-modders or machine-shoppers.
Nor am I.
The fact that dremel can be used for case-modding, home repair, small wood fabrication, various cleaning tasks, makes it a much more worthwhile investment.
So can scissors for that matter and at even less cost, so would that make them the better option?
Yes, if I needed a tool to only cut out holes for fans/rads/grills, a jigsaw would be the best option. However, for your average full case-mod project, you're going to need to do a lot more than that.
A lot more?
Like what?
Therefore, it's much more cost-effective to invest in a dremel and deal with the inconveniences you mentioned above, than to get 3 or 4 tools that do the job a little bit better/quicker.
Click to expand...
T'were it only "a little bit better/quicker" I'd agree with you but IMO the difference is much greater.
Look, it's not as though I have anything against Dremels per se- I own a few myself, although they don't get anywhere near my cases, they do have their uses- but I find it odd that, having already spent whatever it takes to get the hardware you want (and cases these days are not exactly cheap), suddenly, a few bucks more to work on the hardware well with better tools becomes such a big issue.

Sorry, I did not mean to threadcrap here...@SXT14- if you want to get a Dremel, go right ahead (obviously).
I would highly recommend that you practise on a piece of scrap before you get cocky and attack your pristine case however...it's not as easy as you may think.
 
sprocket said:
Yes, the Dremel is a multipurpose tool, it does many things...most of them poorly.
Go to any sheetmetal fab shop and ask to see their Dremels.
After the hilarity dies down ask to see the tools they do use and work out from there what will best do the job you have in mind.
Click to expand...
I don't know much about a "sheet" metal shop but I use rotary tools in my metal shop ALL the time! And they do many jobs ALL of them well or I wouldn't use them because if they screwed up the metal I work on... Gold, Platinum, Silver, Palladium, Titanium, I wouldn't have any customers! I also use them to carve stones from Amethyst to Sapphire. Dremel as a brand is good are there better yes Foredom makes some of the best rotary tools on the market. as for the other suggestions such as a foot pedal and flex shaft they are well worth the extra money. the tool you linked is only 12V and wouldn't have the torque to do any real metal cutting.
 
Designer Goldsmith and Lapidary or as most people would say a Jeweler Dead on the money. And I can do anything with a rotarytool that you can do with a jigsaw can you say the reverse is true?
 
chris.putertech said:
I can do anything with a rotarytool that you can do with a jigsaw can you say the reverse is true?
Click to expand...
No, nor do I think we're talking apples and apples though.
Firstly, you're probably more accomplished with the rotary tool than most of us here and secondly it's rare (in fact, unheardof- for me at least) that I need to grind/shape/polish crevices or intricate detail whilst mounting a rad or creating a blowhole.

Just this morning (literally) I cut a Lian-li v-series sidepanel to fit my Silverstone TJ07.
The LL panel, which is aluminum, is very thick (approx. .08"- about 3 times thicker than a standard guage panel) and, including the window, needed over 110" of cutting.
The entire job (including edge filing afterwords) took under 45 minutes.
The saw blade I used is still good and won't need replacement.
I'm sure that you could use your Fordham for a similar job but I daresay that it'd take considerably longer and, in the hands of a more typical user, would not turn out as nice initially, requiring much more finishwork.
 
sprocket said:
A lot more?
Like what?
Click to expand...

Sanding down the square ends of cold-cathodes
Sanding/grinding down edgest left from cutting blowholes/radholes
Custom fan grills (like this one from my current mod)
Small cuts/adjustments when trying to mount custom parts in your case
Cutting off screws/bolts at odd angles or inconvenient places
Custom etching into acrylic windows
...and I'm sure there's more I'll encounter as I continue with various modding projects.

I also find it's rather convenient to use a dremel or some cuts instead of having to dissassemble half my case in order to cut a small slot/hole (like cutting a hole in the back of the mobo tray for cable management)
 
OP If you want something like a dremel but with more power (1/4hp) you could look at some of the hobbyist flex shaft machines like this one: http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/PROD/dremel-power-tools/SGR9-FSG at under $60 it's a really good deal.
To sprocket: I know we aren't comparing Apples to Apples but neither were you when the OP asked for advice on a rotary multitool and you suggested a jigsaw instead. As we have been trying to point out that there are a mulitude of uses a dremel can do, all well, that your jigsaw can't. BTW what do you use to start your window cuts the last time I used a jigsaw it didn't do plunge cuts in metal? I cut a window in a Chilli Pro 3 1/4" Aluminium case, 3x as thick as LL, in under an hour with a cut off wheel that was already 6 years old and is still good for at least as long... sintered diamond cutting wheels FTW!
 
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