What do those Dremel bits do? Well I’ll tell ya!

Yeah, I’m an overachiever.

I originally thought I could fit all of my notes from Jill Timm‘s class, The Amazing Dremel, into one blog post.

Bwahahahahahahah!!!

I did not take into account how many notes I took during the workshop. In fact, my table neighbor at the workshop teased me for two days on how many notes I took.

My plan is to split the information into three blog posts:

Please note that this post only focuses on what the bits look like and what they do. Oh, and the bits mentioned are the only ones that we used in the workshop – we didn’t use any routing bits. Sorry.

That said, let’s talk Dremel bits.

I think that one of the things that both attracted me and freaked me out about the Dremel was its huge buffet of accessories. The packages are labeled by use, but it still seemed like gibberish to me. Jill created the perfect environment for overcoming my Dremel fear.

We were lucky enough to get a set of Dremel bits that included in our materials fee so I didn’t have to buy any in advance. If you want to get the same set of Dremel bits that I used when I first got started, head on over to Amazon (Amazon affiliate link – I earn from qualifying purchases).

You can read about my class in the following blog posts:

This post is in no way meant to replace the total awesomeness of taking Jill Timm’s class. I benefited so much from hearing Jill’s experiences and seeing her work in person. If I had bought a Dremel and experimented with it on my own, most likely I would have never tried it on the range of materials that we did in class.

Jill recently announced that she’s taking her Dremel class on the road and would love to be scheduled by your group. I highly recommend the class if you have a chance to attend.

The main categories of bits, according to Dremel, include the following:

Carving & Engraving Sanding Cutting Grinding & Sharpening Cleaning & Polishing

These categories are pretty consistent among other manufacturers of rotary tool accessories, so you can often find alternatives if you shop around. Carving & Engraving I used two different types of bits that fall into the carving & engraving category – diamond bits and high speed cutters.

Diamond bits can be used with the following materials:

Aluminum

Bookboard

Ceramic tile

Glass

Mirror

Steel

High speed cutters can be used with the following materials:

Bookboard

Linoleum

Polymer clay

Wood

Sanding

Sanding involves two different parts – the drum and the sanding band. Sanding bands come in different grits, just like sheets of sandpaper.

To use the sanding band, you simply slide it over the drum. Replace it when it wears out. Easy peasy.

Sanding bits can be used with the following materials:

Aluminum

Bookboard

Plexiglass

Polymer clay

Wood

Cutting

There are different types of cutting wheels for different materials.

Abrasive cutting wheels can be used with the following materials:

Bookboard

Plexiglass

Wood

Fiberglass cutting wheels can be used with the following materials:

Aluminum

Bookboard

Ceramic tile

Wood

To use a cutting wheel, you have to attach it a mandrel.

Unscrew the tiny screw on top of the mandrel and remove one of the washers.

Slide the wheel onto the screw, then add the second washer. Attach the screw to the mandrel base and tighten.

Replace the wheel it when it wears out.

Grinding & Sharpening

Grinding and sharpening stones are made of two basic materials: silicon carbide (green bits) and aluminum oxide (brown, orange, pink, or grey bits). You may have noticed that some of my grinding stones are oddly-shaped. This is because the stones wear out with use. You can reshape your grinding stones using a dressing stone.

Orange stones can be used with the following materials:

Ceramic tile

Glass

Mirror

Steel

Blue/green and pink stones can be used with the following materials:

Aluminum

Ceramic tile

Glass

Mirror

Cleaning & Polishing

Felt polishing wheels and cones are used in combination with polishing compound.

To use a polishing felt, you have to attach it a mandrel (different from the cutting wheel mandrel). The felt has a tiny hole in the center of it – you screw the mandrel into the hole to attach it.

Felt polishing wheels and cones can be used with the following materials:

Aluminum

Ceramic tile

Glass

Mirror

For further reference, you can check out Dremel’s website for information on all of their attachments. Even better though, is this very sexy poster: Dremel Accessories Guide Poster. We got one of these posters from Jill in our workshop packet.

I can’t decide if I want to hang it in my studio…