Cutting picks with only a dremel.

[bumber]

well Ive been using a dremel to make picks for a long long time, and I would have to say that a bench or desktop grinder is really the way to go...but a dremel is good to use if its all you have.

I have no idea what speed to use the tungsten cutter(link) at so I never use it, I use the brown wheels that are about 1in. wide for the rough cuts.
I start the cuts on top of the metal and go back and forth till it cuts a line, then I go to the edge and let it follow the line on the edge so it cuts out the line..it goes pretty fast and doesnt ruin the cutter.

for rough sanding use the sanding drum that you can change the paper on, these are ALOT better than the grinding stones in my opinion because the are rougher to get out the ridges the cutter leaves...

for the finer sanding you can use the ginding stones, but if you cut them out good enough the drum sander should be all you need, when your done sanding you can hit them up with the cotton polishing wheels...if you use the polish that dremel sells you can get them as smoooth as glass

[headshot tM]

It doesn't have one like the one you linked.

It has these:

The orange bits are used for deburring/finishing up right? What about the thick brown bit?

If I can't use any one of these, I'll have to take a drive to CT tomorrow and pick a bit up, as well as a vice (if Canadian Tire is open on Family Day). It's going to be much easier for me to control my cuts when either the metal or the actual dremel is mounted in the vice.

[Isepic]

Any of the grinding bits WILL work, the only problem that I could foresee is that a grinding bit will wear down a lot sooner than a tungsten cutting bit.

[headshot tM]

Alright, I'll just pick one up tomorrow anyway.

So the brown wheel, right? Because I don't think the orange thick bit would work since they said that its just used for a grinding stone for deburring and such?

Thanks again for your help.

[bumber]

Yea the orange ones are the fine grinding stone, the rings are for the drum sander...ive never seen the brown/black one next to the orange ones...the whites are for polishing.

Next time you take pictures dont use a microscope
And i would say DONT PUT THE DREMEL IN A VISE...if you use a vise ONLY PUT THE METAL IN IT...that being said i hold the pick and dremel in either hand.

[Isepic]

The more coarse it is, the faster it will cut, but it will also leave a rougher edge. I'm not familiar on the colors of the dremel bits, so I can't say for sure which color will be better for what you want to do, but it's kind of like sandpaper. Start with the most coarse wheel and work down to the finest wheel, finishing up with a buffer and polishing compound, if you want a mirror shine.

[bumber]

Dont use the thick brown STONE for cutting you need to get the cutting wheels, they have a screw that go through them into the the shaft...you can use the bigger black carbon webbed ones(look like they have clear glue criss crossed on them) if you want but since they are almost twice as thick as the brown ones they will wear down faster, heat up faster and 5 of them cost as much as 25 of the brown ones.

WEAR SAFTY GLASSES

[headshot tM]

Well I tried



It's shaping the metal nicely, and fairly fast.

@ Bumber:

Yeah I use the reinforced carbon fiber cut off blades for fine details, but I'm talking about what bit I should use for just shaping the general pick blank (instead of using a table grinder)

Yeah I always wear safety glasses.

[bumber]

I'm talking about what bit I should use for just shaping the general pick blank (instead of using a table grinder)

Yeah thats what i meant they were for is rough cutting the blanks, if you go a bit outside of you template or if you freehand just trace the pick out with the wheel and cut it through and the you can also use the wheels for touch up or the orange or green grinding stones, or whatever you choose to

[headshot tM]

So you're saying you prefer using the reinforced cut off blades (thin ones) rather than a thick one?

For me it would seem much faster and easier to use the thick wheel.

[bumber]

yup...the only reason is because the thinner ones have to cut less material so the metal you are cutting doesnt get hot as fast, the thicker ones might cut them faster but since im used to the thin ones and they work for me that is what i use. The only thing is you have to let the wheel do the cutting because if you press too hard they wear out, which happens to the thick ones too but not as fast, but you have to worry about the metal getting hot or going slower.

This is all just my opinion, if something works better for you let me know I try all kinds of new things that i didnt think would work

[Isepic]

I think one of the sources of confusion is that you are talking actually using a cutting wheel to cut a chunk out of the blade, whereas I was talking about using a bit to grind the blade down to a shape.

[headshot tM]

Yeah well I would like to grind down the metal.

I tried cutting chunks out of scrap metal (an old CD drive case, 'bout the same thickness) and it was really sketchy and looked bad and was kind of off the stencil, I don't know I just don't feel like I have as much control and accuracy when I cut big chucks out.

[bumber]

Well i dont see why you would want to grind away what you could cut off, i mean it seems faster to cut it out, but I may be REALLY confused but then again i normally am so....

Anything you can do by grinding it off can be done by cutting it out if, and for the smaller parts that need to be flat/straight you cant beat the cutting.

But why is it so important for you to grind?

[Isepic]

I prefer grinding over cutting just due to the simple fact that I feel like I have more control over how much metal I'm removing.