Hello all, I am just starting to mod and I am currently working on a mouse and keyboard and have a question on what dremel bits to use, IE what are the best for plastics and cutting designs into the plastic. Any incite will help thank you in advance.
Reinforced cutoff disc for cutting straight lines ( mask off the area and draw the lines on the tape so tht the plastic doesnt melt and stick to the casing ). There are various engraving bits around, depends on the design you had in mind- bare in mind pretty much any mini-tool or rotary-tool bits will work in any rotary tool so dont worry about having to use dremel branded parts specifically.
What ^ he said !!! any of the 'knock off' bits should fit, and usually can be picked up for a bit less cash than the 'dremel' branded ones.
If your gonna use it for plastic i would recommend the round balls that have small cutting grooves in them (i´ll see if i can fix a picture when im home) But i will say one thing, dont expect great lines. If you want a clean design with small lines i think using a hot knife would be better, tho i´ve never tried it myself (using a hotknife that is, used to do engravings in plastic before =) )
Here we go, the 3 on the left are for plastics and wood, and the 4 on the right are for metal glass (any hard surface) One thing you need to think about is if you use high speed, it can easily melt and get stuck on the bit, so you need to experiment with that usually //Cuda
To clarify a bit on what teejay said, You need to keep your speed down when machining plastics because of the whole friction = heat annoyance. It´s a bit hard to say exactly and you need to try for yourself, somewhere between 1-3 krpm should do the trick (not 100% on the speeds, but fiddle about a bit and you will find a good spot)
I'm kinda just wanting to inquire further as I was gonna ask much the same question lol, I'm using a dremel 300 and it's minimum RPM is 10k does this mean it'd be unsuitable for cutting plastics? as I was going to use it for cutting an acrylic panel(window), also best disc's for cutting a steel case?
Your going to want to use the 'reinforced' disks, available here: http://www.mnpctech.com/DremelDisc.html Bill works with this community, and is a modder/contributor to this site, as well as the sponsor of the MOTM prizes and such....I am pretty sure you can trust him. Lots of other neat goodies on his site as well, not just the cutting wheels. Nano
Yeh I have a couple of things coming from his site for my first mod thanks for the link looking at that tut on using a dremel now that mine has actually arrived could i use the grind whel to make a circle?
You can do just about anything, for a circle I would still suggest that you mask/mark it out and drill a series of holes inside the circle, then cut the web between the drill holes. Then just clean it up with the dremel to your mark. Obviously the best way to make perfect circles is with a knock-out punch if you can borrow one, not very cost efficient unless you plan on making a lot of them the same size. http://www.northstate.com/ridgid/en-us/dept_266.html As you can see from the link above, they can be quite pricey
Best thing to try, Buy som Plastic (perspex or whatever) Should be cheap from most places. Now get a set of engraving cutters and test ^^ if it does jam up, you will have an annoying time freeing upp the melted plastic from the bit. But its cost you a maximum off about 5 or 6$ . //Cuda
yeh it never worked it just melted through the plastic lol, gonna get some different disc's and see if i can get a better result
Those bits are the ones I use the most. Also come in various sizes and shapes, excellent for removing plastic from small places. And for cutting I use the excellent SpeedClic-wheels Such a pleasure to use compared to the stupid tiny screw-mounted ones. Sure, they do cost quite a bit, but area also easily the best cutting wheels I've tried. And indeed it's all about getting the RPM and "feed rate" right. Just take your time practicing and use safety goggles
Like Jipa said, use goggles. Im a bad example of that as i never use googles for anything (dont have a valid reason, just cba ;P Tho i´ve never had any accidents, but if there is anything that is in risk of flying off i usually use my trusty gasmask, Pretty good protection when working with more or less anything dangerous Fun fact, Apparently british soldiers are bad at keeping track of their stuf on the train. Got it from a mate when they had to clear their lost and found box
