Dremel

[vendic]

I've had one for a long time. Today I needed to get a diamond bit because I slipped and broke the HSS tapping bit I was using. I tapped two holes almost 1/2" but messed up the last one. Granted, I'm at home, the vise is on the boat, I don't have a tapping bit holder so I was using a shifting spanner as I didn't have sockets that went that small. To hold the work I used vise grips and rested it on the BBQ. Let's just say it was luck that I got two holes done in 1/2" steel and almost a third. Sadly, all I needed was three tapped holes and now I have a broken tap in the last one.

Anyway, I was distracted from the job because someone called that wants to see the house tomorrow. So drop everything and clean up the huge mess I have made making the intermediate lathe. Finally once all that is done and I have little else to do (I'm no longer on Facebook so have plenty of time ) I started on grinding the tapping bit out. It's going to take a while, let's just put it that way. The wife closed all the doors so I didn't wake the MIL but the Spaz cat was downstairs and wanted up so woke her anyway.

Great, no I have to stop work till tomorrow and they are due 10-12 and then I have to make dinner. So I thought my night just turned to crap, lets read the Dremel instruction manual they supplied which I completely ignored for about 5 years.

OMFG. Who writes this shit? That was my first thought.
Things you can do with your Dremel:
Replace a gutter corner using their teeny tiny cut off disc. Because that should get you all of about an inch before needing another cut off disc. WTF? Are they serious?
Apparently they are.
They also reckon you can sharpen lawn mower blades. Now I don't know how many people here sharpen their own lawn mower blades but I do. I sure as fuck don't use a Dremel to do it. I have a 4 1/2 inch grinder that I use and sometimes I wish I was in Oz and had access to my 9 inch. I sure as hell won't use a 1/2 inch grinding bit. Wow.

Next up, you can cut stainless pipe to install your plumbing for your sink.Seriously? With a cutting disc that is less than 1 inch in diameter? Here's a time. If you don't want to spend more time changing disc's than actually cutting, get a 4 inch or larger griner and a thin cut off blade. In about 30 seconds the job is done. Not 30 minutes.

Make a bird house by cutting a hole with a Dremel. WTMFF drugs are you people on?
Go buy a fucking hole saw and complete it in 15seconds and it'll be cheaper and faster to drive to your local hardware supplier and buy one if you don't have one.

When I think of Dremel, I think small projects. Like, removing a broken 5/16 tap from a hole that's 1/2" deep. Getting into small tight spots that few other tools can. These guys in marketing are selling it for large jobs where the cost of the consumables will end up being more than the cost of a new tool and will take longer than driving to the store to buy the new tool. Like cleaning a bbq grill. Holy crap! I would literally spend all day with a dremel and about 2 minutes with a large brass wire brush on a drill or grinder.

Now I'm not upset or pissed off about this. I'm just completely stumped at the stupidity of the marketing department selling a tool to do things that it is worst at doing and ignoring the best stuff it can do. Some asshole got paid to write that crap. A whole team of people worked on it. I have an idea, lets sell roller skates and market them as idea of long distance interstate travel. A surfboard for crossing oceans. The possibilities are endless.

[geonuc]

I've had a Dremel for as long as I can remember. Hardly ever use it.

[vendic]

Since I had mine, I've used it about three times in anger over a span of about 5 years in the USA.
Maybe that's why they are marketing it as useful for doing other things.

Handy for electronics work but I'm in the design and prototyping industry and I rarely have a need for one. When I worked in production assembly I think we used one once. Gun smithing, once. That's over a span of about 30 years. When you need one though, you really need it so you go and buy it. Then it hangs around like luggage.

There's a photo of a couple with a his and hers Dremel working in the kitchen.
I don't think I've ever thought, hey, this job in the kitchen really needs a Dremel.

The craziest one (I'll take a pic and post it later) is instructions on building a toy car. Now that is something to behold!

[SciFiFisher]

So... The instruction manual is really a bunch of marketing hype. This is what happens when you let marketing write technical manuals.