Dremel Tugsten Carbide Cutter (9901)

[luke42]

hey guys,

i picked up a nice tugsten cutter from my mitre 10 today,

www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/HomeDepotCana ... ab02_4.jpg

just wondering on how long these should last cutting your average hacksaw blade and also, at what stages of making the pick should i use this tool?


cheers,
luke.

[Olson Burry]

Personally I would use a grinding wheel (541) or cut of disks.

For fine detail you could get away with a tungsten cutter, if you were making a snake or ripple pick. You'll need to make sure the blade is clamped down in a vise firmly to get the best out of it - the way the cutter works is likely to vibrate the material more than the grinding wheel. Also having to clamp the work down restricts manoeuvrability somewhat.

As for longevity, its hard to say. If you use it properly and dont force it, it should last a good time. The key is to let it cut at it's own pace really. I wouldn't use it for the bulk of material removal, more, detail work.

Hope that helps.

[luke42]

thanks for the quick response. looks like i've got some more to buy.
how long would these grinding discs last for and would you use them for the better part of cutting out most of the shape?

if not, which tool would you use? the brown cutting discs?


cheers,
luke.

[Olson Burry]

Its difficult to say. I would probably cut most out with a re-enforced cut off disc rather than grinding it all away, but then I use a bench grinder for that anyway.

The grinding wheels will last a good long time - again if you dont force them and generally I would say you get a little more leeway so for as slippage goes with them, in other words youre less likely to completely mess up your work with the grinding wheel.

On the dremel web site they have a video that shows using two of the brown cut of discs simultaneously for extra strength, however for shaping im pretty sure it's not necessary.

You also get more of the brown discs for the money, i think you can buy a small tube with 30+ in there and they will give a nice fine cut, but as I say the grinding wheels are a lot fatter and last a long time. You can kind of use the corner to grind sideways a bit as well which is a total no no with the cut offs.

It shouldn't cost too much to get some grinding wheels and some brown cut off discs, you could also just get 1 or 2 of the re-enforced cut off discs and experiment with them to see which works best for you.

If i've waffled and not made much sense it's because I need some sleep

Easy now.

[zeke79]

Personally I prefer the reinforced disks for a couple of reasons. First of all, you can get the type that work with the quick change dremel tip so when one wears out you do not have to mess with unscrewing the the flat head screw from the tip to replace the disk. The reinforced disks last quite a bit longer also. My favorite thing about them is that they do not "shatter" if you happen to get them in a bind at 50k rpms so you are not digging pieces of dremel disk out of your hands, face, or arms. With any of the disks or any of the tools for that matter be sure to wear safety glasses or a full face shield if you have one.