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After some search on the forum, there is no specific topic about Dremel bits.
Dremel remains a good source.
Few users, for what I see, had Dremel fitted to X-Carve instead of the standard spindles.
More to that: the place I live, Dremel is accessible 12 hours a day. Just jump on your bike – and you have a new bit in 15 minutes. The mail order for other bits takes weeks!
Would be nice if forum users can share and categorize their experience, on different materials and for different kinds of projects. Please kindly list the “bit number”, feed rates, hints and tips.
Acrylic held in place with thin two-sided tape
Spindle speed used: S2000
Penetration (Z) feedrate used: F30
Horizontal (X,Y) feedrate used: F50
Cut performed in 0.4 mm passes (experimented all the way to 0.8, but my acrylic emits unhappy creaking sounds), with one extra clean-up pass.
Alternating CW and CCW cutting passes used.
The cuttings are about 0.5 mm size, no bit heating, cuttings melting or bit plugging visible.
The bit is suitable for drilling straight holes 2.5 mm, which can be tapped to M3
The bit has a tendency to walk-off by about 0.6 mm
The cut is clean, nearly vertical, required minor filing and buffing.
The engraving result is not quite right due to excessive bit walk-off. Perhaps, only single-pass engraving should be attempted (I used 2-pass).
Generally, positive experience. Bit suitable for cutting acrylic with accuracy better than 1 mm.
If you are willing to try an experiment try putting your Dremel tool in place of the 24 volt spindle. You will see amazing improvements. It is a quick swap and you will be prepared when your spindle fails.
Actually, this is the master plan (world domination, boo ha ha ha!)
But, first I want to get on-top of the mechanics/electronics and figure out all the bugs. After using Dremel in hand-held mode, I understand automating it is not a one-hour project.
It is 2.8 mm (or 1/9" if you wish) Australian made, extruded. Who says the world should be easy for a test?
DOC was 0.4 mm, to the total depth of 0.8 mm, with an additional clean-up pass. The purpose was not to make a sharp engraving (like with the engraving bit) but rather check the but accuracy.
Actually, yesterday night I obtained much better results with another Dremel bit: 560. Will publish today.
You should be able to find a local supplier for endmills — machine shops have to use them, so there’s a good network for pdistribution — I was able to use Harvey Tools’ find a distributor link to find a local company which would allow me to walk in, pay w/ a check and pick up endmills when the order arrived.
Acrylic held in place with thin two-sided tape
Spindle speed used: S3500
Penetration (Z) feedrate used: F10
Horizontal (X,Y) feedrate used: F60
Cut performed in four 0.7 mm passes, with one extra clean-up pass.
Alternating CW and CCW cutting passes used.
The cuttings are about 0.5 mm size, no bit heating, minor cuttings melting, but no plugging visible.
Decreasing spindle below 3000 or increasing feedrate above 70 resulted in stuck bit.
The bit walk-off is less than 0.1 mm
The cut is clean, nearly vertical, required minor filing and buffing. Observe the 0.2 mm “glue dam” on one of the parts and 1mm recess groove made to hold the PVC box in the small rectangular piece.
The engraving result is acceptable for the bit size.
Generally, positive experience. Bit suitable for cutting acrylic with accuracy better than 0.2 mm.
Not just to resuscitate an old topic, but how would Dremel bits go for carving wood/melamine/mdf? I can get them here, but there is no such thing as end mills (3rd world banana republic), at least in the carpentry or wood gear shops. However I can buy some Dremel cutters, plus I already have a ton of ACE brand bits for my Dremel. Would the engraving bits be the ones to try for carving? To test speeds etc do I just start slow and then speed up until the bit breaks or makes strange noises or burning smells?
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The dremel tools will work, but they are not very good compared to real carbide two or three flute endmills and ball nose bits. Since they are small you will need a higher RPM, but since the basic 24V spindle is not very good at maintaining speed under load (low torque issues), you will need to keep the feedrate and ODC lower than recommended for the high RPM. This will cause the bit to heat up and quickly dull. Plus your cuts are going to take a long time to complete.
If you have the 611 I would really recommend to add it sooner than later.
Can you order parts from eBay? If so you can find all the endmills and bits you could possibly want or need.
We should have a thread for getting supplies to third worlders. We could start our own NGO, get funding, recruit volunteers from local churches. Get sponsors like Inventables, Destiny Tool and maybe Volkswagen. Have Angelina Jolie as an ambassador of good will. If we promote that these x-carves are combating global warming and enabling alternative energy sources, I am SURE Al Gore would contribute.
The only flaw I see in your plan is Volkswagen. The cat is out of Volkswagen’s bag. Given the scope of their emissions scandal, Al Gore might be hesitant to sign on, and many would refute our claim to combating global warming. We might be reduced to signing on some lesser former political figure. Other than that, sign me up!
Other than that, sign me up!