DREMEL FAILURE

[4krow]

Recently, I bought a used Dremel on flea-bay, and after few uses, it simply stopped. Crap! So I disassembled to see what I could see. I'll cut to the chase, instead of a faulty switch, or the usual suspects, the trouble was a broken connection at the field winding. The fix was to unwrap one half turn of the winding, and reconnect at the post. I am sharing this because by using a meter and a little patience, it may be well worth your time to investigate one of the few tools left that you can still work on if it fails. Finally, good news for my troubled brain.

 

[randy@matrixq.com]

Bottlehead gear and dremel tools are some of the few things that can still be fixed if they break. 

Cool tip, Greg.

 

[Grainger49]

The Dremel does everything but hammer.  One of the best toys tools I have.

 

[tuffy_puppy]

yup,  greg can fix anything!  even if it's not yet broken.  this i know!  don

 

[earwaxxer]

I have a  battery powered Dremel, and everytime I want to use it the batteries are dead! I end up using my cordless drill! Doesnt spin as fast, but good torque!

 

[Grainger49]

Wow, and it isn't off balance now?

He said it was the field winding.  It doesn't rotate, except in the case of a real synchronous motor.  In a standard AC motor the field is the stator.  Regardless, 1/2 turn wouldn't imbalance an armature winding by much.

 

[4krow]

SURVEY SAYS,  FIELD WINDING!  runs like it is new, cuz i did the brushes too(each one of them is the same length  heh heh i just had to say it)

 

[earwaxxer]

Greg - you should have slapped in a brushless. Hop it up to about 14V. Lipo. Water cooled. Sorry... I shouldnt be drinking this early in the day!

 

[tuffy_puppy]

eric,  just go ahead!  works for me!  too early?  what's that?  don

 

[earwaxxer]

Lol! (hic)

 

[4krow]

wait, you mean i can UPGRADE my dremy for performance? how much!?

 

[Grainger49]

Greg,

This is the AC version of the Dremel, right?  I wouldn't do it, but you can weaken the field to get it to go faster.  However, the torque is proportional to the field strength. 

Still, I wouldn't do it.

 

[4krow]

Yah, that eric guy....I usually don't fiddle with a well engineered product. I would like to own a dremel type tool that has more torque. As of now, I own 3 dremel tools and a die grinder. The die grinder is WAYYY over the top for power! But maybe a Foredom type tool or something.

 

[2wo]

The Fordom tool is great. I find the Dremel a little hard to control, the one I have is much too fast. A few years ago I trash picked an old low speed dental drill, the belt driven kind with the articulated arms. That is the best ever and looks cool as well...John 

 

[4krow]

Well John, NOW you've done it. Time to shop for cool stuff again.

 

[earwaxxer]

+1

Dental drill! Thats sick! - I'm going to have to look for an old ECT machine to burn in my cables.

 

[4krow]

You again? Well EEric, sometimes morbid meets practical. Now where did I put those glass eyeballs that I use for isolators....

 

[4krow]

Has anyone heard of Proxxon rotary tools? They look to be quality.  In the mean time, I was bidding on a Foredom rotary tool and won. This might be interesting.

 

[4krow]

Just because, another one of my dremels died yesterday. Fortunatly, it was the exact same problem as the first one. I'm like a pit stop now, and fifteen minutes later, it's back to work. heh heh. BTW, I have a used Foredom on the way. We'll see what thats like soon enough.

 

[Demsy]

I used to build precision model airplanes commercially for ten years, have got many broken Dremels of various types. I can tell by experience the Proxxons are more precise and durable, it has metal housing and the accessories are also of very good quality. It's more expensive than the Dremels but worth every penny of it, I can recommend it.