The not-Dremel

I have spent more than a month trying to decide what to buy in the way of rotary tools.  The thinking behind this urge is that I need to make quite a few grooves for wires for lighting and fires and they are relatively hard work to do manually.

For those of you not committing to powered help you can make them with a sharp knife, a v-shaped file, a lino cutter, a v-shaped chisel.  Most of you will have to buy the tool of your choice and by then you might feel you are already some way towards the cost of a (cheap) rotary tool?

I would also like it to be useful for making up furniture kits.  I think it might be overkill.  I am hoping I could do some sanding with it but the sanding drums are a very course grit.  I need to find out if they can be bought in super fine stuff.  I am also hoping it might do the tedious buffing after applying wax.

Dremel is the big name in the market but rumour has it the old ones were brilliant and are still being used thirty years on, which is how they got their name.  Then the manufacture went to the USA (???) and they were not good, now it has returned to Germany and Bosch (??) and they are good again.  I emphasise this is what I heard not what I know for fact.

That said they are also a wee bit too pricey for me.

I had a single speed kit when I was doing 1/12ths before and it worked fine other than being single speed which meant it was underpowered and cutting a groove took forever.  As it and all its tools cost me $10 I had my money's worth.  With that experience behind me I have splashed out £19.99 including postage and bought this from Amazon:

Xenta

163 things to play with

So far I have unpacked it, put all the loose bits and pieces back in place and run the tool to see how it feels and sounds.  So, yes, it didn't blow up or do anything nasty.  However, as always, these things are made for blokes and at that size and weight I probably need to buy a flexishaft attachment.

I emailed Xenta to see if they sold one - got an immediate reply (ten points in my book) they don't make one but they recommend a Dremel 225-01 Flex Shaft Attachment.  Seems a bit of a shame to pay as much again to Dremel for this as I paid for the motor piece and its 163 bits and bobs.  Hey ho, bite the bullet.

I then got narky in my head about the prospect of another elevenish pounds to buy a stand for the shaft but I think this elegant solution will suit me just fine.  Watch this space.