Is Dremel 4000 enough or sould I buy the spindle also?

X-Carve
1

Hello!

I’m planing to buy the 500mm X-carve for PCB stuff, some wood and plastic work (mostly cutting 4 - 8 mm plywood. I have a Dremel 4000, and I would like to reuse that. Power is 175W. Is that enough ?

Also, should buy a spindle mount ? Which one ?

2

Dremel is good enough for PCB engraving, BUT… I wasted several Dremel for different reasons and chuck bearing is not that good, it wobbles.
My personal advice is either Dewalt 611 or Makita RT0700C.

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A Dremel will get you through your starting phase easily. It can be slow with harder thicker materials but I have made a lot of stuff using a Dremel 3000. For mounting the Dremel I made the following attachment:
Dremel mount.dxf (33.0 KB)
It can cut 6mm Birch Ply, I made a Speed Skate Laptime sign for the Sparkfun 150mm 7 Segement display

DSC_4412.JPG2956×1958 2.75 MB

Also cutting 0.5mm for an edge lit acrylic sign was no problem.
The main purpose for me to build the machine was for building model airplanes out of balsa and plywood
My plane build log
This summer I reinforced my machine in order to improve accuracy and cut quality, the sound is better and cuts easily through 2mm plywood now.
For me the Dremel works, I only do light enough materials it can handle, no aluminum and only use it for hobby purposes. If I had to earn a living with it I would not choose the Dremel but a real Spindle like the Kress 1050 or Makita700C.

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Thanks, I’m going to use it for hobby stuff, so from your answer I get that it will be enough.
Does X-Carve come with a default spindle mount or do I need to add one to my order ?

Which of the

  • DeWalt 611 Spindle Mount
  • Bosch Colt Spindle Mount

would be most easy to adapt to Dremel ?

5

I have an old Dremel, though it does its thing it is noisy on anything higher then the slowest setting.
The front bearing is also weak and its structure supporting it. But within those limits, it will work.

I have the Makita RT700 and in comparison it is sooo smoooth and very quiet. For PCB/Acrylic you’d use speed setting 1 and at that speed I can easily have a normal conversation right next ot the CNC. I believe the DeWalt611/ Bosch is similar. If you can, I would advise you to upgrade on the conveniance alone, the bonus is a more robust spindle with larger material capabilities :slight_smile: Makita have a “smart” rpm control meaning rpm will be kept constant regarless of cutting load. (DeWalt also IIRC)

I would get a 65mm spindle mount and just use spacers to accomodate the Dremel4000, allowing you the upgrade later directly to DeWalt/Bosch/Makita. Beacuse you will go that route at one time anyhow :wink:

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A rotary tool was the standard up through the SO2 days: Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable

Agree the Makita, w/ an Elaire collet is the best bang for the buck.

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I’m going to go with Dremel 4000 with a Universal Spindle Mount. Thank you all!