mel jacobson on wed 6 sep 00
old folks can remember as kids, `god, if we only had a dremel tool
to help with our model airplanes`. we just drooled over them at the
hobby store. tiny little spinning attachments that could cut, polish,
grind.
then as an adult you buy one. set it on the shelf, never use it. the
tiny attachments last about 2 minutes, then break or wear out.
my brother and i still make models, but they really fly. radio control.
they are multi thousand dollar gems when finished. we never use
a dremel when building them. it gathers dust. (my brother is two years
older, that means he builds the models, i get to do rough sand paper
work.) my brother just got his first lionel train. good god wally,
about three thousand dollars.
i have almost worn out three silicon carbide wheels for my angle grinder.
dewalt, powerful sucker. my bench grinder is on its second wheel.
so, my report is:
don't buy a dremel, get an angle grinder. and for sure as a potter,
have a bench grinder. vince knows tools, my tool hero. (sometimes at home
depot you can pick one
up for about 30 bucks. just got one for my boy (40 year old man).
mel
remember, ochre, yellow iron oxide, red iron oxide, black iron oxice.
they are all iron.
4 percent in a clear glaze will give you celedon in reduction. not yellow.
in oxidized cone 10 porcelain. perhaps yellow, with ochre.
of course someone will have a cone 10, reduction yellow some place
and make me apologize...
just got a note from tony c, his well dried up...so all new going in.
he is up to his butt in water problems...and his server dropped
all his clayart that had piled up..so he has to re/install clayart.
send sympathy notes.
FROM MINNETONKA, MINNESOTA, USA
http://www.pclink.com/melpots (website)
Lee Love on wed 6 sep 00
Hey,
I have an angle grinder and a cordless and corded dremel. Wouldn't
live without any of them. Don't use the dremel as an angle grinder! Use
a tool for the purpose it was made for!
Please look here to see what a friend of mine does with a dremel type
grinder. Please excuse the poor scan quality, it is my fault and not the
fault of the work or the photographer. It is the work of my friend (and
David McDonald's), Masa Miyajima (did I spell it right David?)
Go here:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=815504&a=6697442&p=27796193
Richard Jeffery on tue 19 dec 00
Martin try this. no idea if it will work....
get a lambswool polishing mop [B&Q] to fit on the end of an electric
drill/rotary sander/electric grinder. They usually are sold cheaply to fit
over rotary disc sanding attachments.
Carefully stretch a plastic bag (look for a smooth tough one) over the mop,
and secure tightly with wire/string/tape/whatever. Drill probably best if
secured to bench, and would make sense to use something with variable
speeds. This should go some way to replicating level of pressure from hand
work. Make sure the lamsbwool is tightly compressed, or the pot might try
to dig in.
I would think there's a 50:50 chance of the pot being snatched from your
hands and bounced on a wall or three, but I won't hear you scream from here,
even though you're a damn sight closer than most on this list......
Richard
Bournemouth UK
www.TheEleventhHour.co.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On
Behalf Of Martin Howard
Sent: 19 December 2000 19:14
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: dremels
Thank you all who suggested that I buy a Dremel. Great idea.
But I cannot make it do one thing which I need to be able to do.
I polish terra sigilata on raw ware. I dip the bottom of my pots in terra
sig.
Then need to burnish. I need to wait to bone dry, but nothing in the dremel
armoury seems to do the job. It comes back to time spent rubbing with a
finger in a plastic bag.
Any ideas, friends?
Perhaps this is one job that cannot be hurried.
Martin Howard
Webb's Cottage Pottery
Woolpits Road, Great Saling
BRAINTREE, Essex CM7 5DZ
England
martin@webbscottage.co.uk
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Jane Powers on wed 20 dec 00
How about using a personal manicure tool? Has both small sanders and buffers
in the kit and less rpm than a Dremel. Comes both electric and battery
operated and handy in case you break a nail!
Jane Powers
Gavin Stairs on wed 20 dec 00
At 11:17 AM 12/20/00, Jane Powers wrote:
>How about using a personal manicure tool? Has both small sanders and buffers
>in the kit and less rpm than a Dremel. Comes both electric and battery
>operated and handy in case you break a nail!
This is a totally unqualified opinion. I think the Dremel, "polishing"
crowd are totally off the deep end here. What you do to a sig is more like
burnishing. This is an operation that doesn't remove any material at
all. It just rearranges what's there, flattening it to a mirror
finish. In the case of sig, it ends up aligning the little plates of clay
and making a dull sheen. If you use any conventional polishing technique,
especially power techniques like the Dremel with a mop or soft wheel, you
are removing material, which will rapidly cut through the surface layer of
fine clay. If you want to get at the detailed nooks, get a smooth, metal
or plastic tool with the right rounded contour, and have at it, but
gently. Think of the back of a spoon, but tiny. There are dental tools
called spoons that might work.
All the best, Gavin
Gavin Stairs
Stairs Small Systems
921 College St., # 1-A
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6H 1A1
phone: (416)530-0419 stairs@stairs.on.ca
mel jacobson on mon 20 dec 10
ryobi makes a high speed motor for those small attachments too.
(home depot)
dremel is fine.
they are all just a small drill motor.
it is what comes attached to those inserts.
some fall apart in about two seconds.
that sand paper insert is pretty good on 1/8th inch balsa wood or
match sticks..
other than that...worthless. that array of 56 inserts is rather
poor. lots of hype.
for anything ceramic you must have a damn strong
grinding wheel....
as a kid i always desired a dremel, then i got one
and it sits for years on the shelf. more dust on the dremel
than most any other tool.
it is one of those `god, it seems so cool to use`, well
until you actually use it.
mel
but, then...i don't pick around on my pots...i like to do
that pik'n when the pots are wet. (in fact, i hate to touch bisque ware.)
from: minnetonka, mn
website: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
clayart link: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
new book: http://www.21stcenturykilns.com
alternate: melpots7575@gmail.com
Frank Gaydos on tue 21 dec 10
Mel,
We use a dremel all the time.
They have a pointy grinding tip that works great on glaze. For the small cr=
evices.
And useful for the delicate pots you don't want near a grinding wheel.
Dremel 952 3/8" Aluminum Oxide Grinding Stones 1/8"
They also have silicon carbide tips.
Frank Gaydos
James Freeman on tue 21 dec 10
May, others...
A Dremel tool has proven very useful for me, but everyone has a unique
way of working. For pottery, I use it to remove occasional crunchies
from the bottom of pots, especially those that have been wood fired.
I use it to remove the residue from the occasional fluxed wad, and
also to smooth the occasional plucked foot ring so that I can at least
use the imperfect pot at home (I never sell damaged goods). I use it
for metal, such as when fairing small welds on sculptural items where
aesthetics are important. I used it quite recently to remove
stripped, rusted screws from a 1962 Hiawatha bicycle by cutting a new
screwdriver slot perpendicular to the mangled original slot. I used
it with felt bobs to polish a set of gold wedding bands. I used it
with a wire wheel to clean the accumulated crud from the crevices of a
friend's antique cookie cutter. I used it with a scotchbrite buff to
round the edges of the thumb hole on a friend's new bowling ball.
There are other ways to do most of that kind of stuff, but the Dremel
tool is fast and easy.
As Mel mentioned, brand does not really matter, so long as it is a
real name brand. They all accept the same grinders and such. Don't
buy Harbor Freight junk. I made that mistake with a similar tool
years ago, and the heat from the bad construction and cheap bearings
literally melted the case of the tool. Piece of junk. Stick with
Dremel, Ryobi, Sears Craftsman, that sort of thing.
I personally would not even consider a cordless version, as they are
expensive, heavy, and don't have the guts or run time of a corded
motor. As Mike from Taku mentioned, I also have the optional flexible
shaft handpiece. I have used it on rare occasions (hanging the motor
from a salvaged rolling hospital IV stand) for more precise work, such
as when I polished the wedding bands. I also sometimes use it when
working with the tool for long periods, as it keeps the accumulated
heat of the motor away from one's hand. It also helps keep grinding
dust out of the motor by moving the motor away from the work. Though
I do not use the flexible shaft accessory often, I am glad I have it,
so if money is not an obstacle I would second Mike's advice. As the
old saying goes, "better to have it and not need it than to need it
and not have it".
For grinding of both ceramic and metal (but not wood), I use
"heatless" wheels from a dental supply store (they also work for
plastic, which an ordinary grinding wheel would just melt). The
heatless wheels are far superior in terms of cut, longevity, and price
compared to the common Dremel accessory wheels sold to homeowners and
hobbyists. As Mel mentioned, the hobbyist grinding wheels tend to
self-destruct quite readily. The heatless wheels mount to standard
Dremel mandrels, or to the mandrels sold by the dental supply house.
For smoothing a glaze blemish after using the heatless wheels, I use
Cratex wheels on the same type of mandrel (Cratex is a brand name, and
other firms make a similar product, usually sold as "rubber wheels").
Cratex wheels are rubber discs impregnated with fine abrasive, sort of
like the pink eraser atop a pencil. They come in different
hardnesses, and I prefer the harder varieties. The Cratex wheel
leaves a very smooth satin matte surface. If I desire a polish, I use
felt bobs on a screw mandrel, working through various grades of
polishing compound, tripoli, white rouge, and sometimes "porcelain
polish" made for bridgework and sold by the dental supply house.
For really big "small jobs" (not as oxymoronic as it sounds), I use a
really solid and beautiful Red Wing benchtop motor with a Jacobs chuck
to hold the small Dremel grinders so that I have both hands free. The
motor also came from a dental supply house, but they are a bit
expensive, and overkill for most people.
Well, I guess that's all I can think of right now. I hope it helps
you make your decision.
All the best.
...James
James Freeman
"...outsider artists, caught in the bog of their own consciousness,
too preciously idiosyncratic to be taken seriously."
"All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice.=3DA0 I
should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed."
-Michel de Montaigne
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesfreemanstudio/
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com/resources
William & Susan Schran User on tue 21 dec 10
On 12/20/10 11:06 PM, "mel jacobson" wrote:
> for anything ceramic you must have a damn strong
> grinding wheel....
I have an older model variable speed Dremel that I use a great deal on my
crystalline glazed pots.
For any grinding of fired glaze or clay none of the grinding media in the
kits will work. The grey colored grinding wheels are alumina and do nothing
on glazes or clay. You must use the silicon carbide grinding wheel, they ar=
e
a green color. Haven't been able to find these in local hardware or even bi=
g
box stores, order mine online.
I use most often the 3/4" SiC wheel.
I've gone through 3 of these wheels in 5 years. For me this is a valuable
tool essential to what I do.
If I were using them for occasional glaze drips, one might last for years.
If I needed something just to remove the occasional glaze drip, I'd suggest
forget the Dremel tool (except for grinding inside the foot) and get a 6"
bench grinder and a 6" silicon carbide grinding wheel. This will do the job
quickly and last the rest of your life. I use this set up for "coarse"
grinding. I have my father's Craftsman bench grinder bought in the 1960's.
All metal, weighs about 20 pounds and will last me for the rest of my life.
FYI - ALWAYS wear eye and lung protection when grinding!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - do all grinding outside!
Bill
--
William "Bill" Schran
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
http://www.creativecreekartisans.com
Patty on tue 21 dec 10
We've attached a flexible shaft to the Dremel, not sure where we found it,
maybe Sears. And I've found a Dremel bit called a "diamond point". Very
tiny, for fine work but it does work on glazes, I use the side of it. I've
also used the diamond point for carving egg shell. Dremel of course is
perfect for drilling the eggs before blowing them. I'm not sure how old ou=
r
Dremel is. I think my husband had it when I married him 14 years ago and i=
t
was little used.
We recently got a rechargeable one for filing the dogs claws instead of
cutting them. The vet uses a Dremel and said the Dremel was better than th=
e
Petipaws thing advertised on TV, the rechargeable because it is not always
easy to get the dog near an outlet and he and we would end up tangled in th=
e
cord.
My husband wants a high speed tool for sanding all the tiny details on his
wood carvings but we are making do with the Dremel and flex shaft until the=
y
wear out or SS gives us an increase. Not complaining, it is nice to get a
monthly check when so many are going without.
Patty Kaliher
MJ on tue 21 dec 10
Hi All - I got a flexible shaft for my Dremel at Home Depot. Just got it
and the Dremel a few months ago, so waiting to see how long it holds up.
Love the flexible shaft attachment. I had a battery powered one before but
it seemed to run out of juice very quickly, so I have had much better luck
with the corded version.
Cheers, MJ
On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 2:15 PM, Patty wrote:
> We've attached a flexible shaft to the Dremel, not sure where we found it=
,
> maybe Sears. And I've found a Dremel bit called a "diamond point". Very
> tiny, for fine work but it does work on glazes, I use the side of it. I'=
ve
> also used the diamond point for carving egg shell. Dremel of course is
> perfect for drilling the eggs before blowing them. I'm not sure how old
> our
> Dremel is. I think my husband had it when I married him 14 years ago and
> it
> was little used.
>
> We recently got a rechargeable one for filing the dogs claws instead of
> cutting them. The vet uses a Dremel and said the Dremel was better than
> the
> Petipaws thing advertised on TV, the rechargeable because it is not alway=
s
> easy to get the dog near an outlet and he and we would end up tangled in
> the
> cord.
>
> My husband wants a high speed tool for sanding all the tiny details on hi=
s
> wood carvings but we are making do with the Dremel and flex shaft until
> they
> wear out or SS gives us an increase. Not complaining, it is nice to get =
a
> monthly check when so many are going without.
>
> Patty Kaliher
>
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