Dec. 25th, 2008 10:43 am
I shouldn't have been surprised
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mizarchivistI asked for a dremel- sort of offhand- a week or so ago. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quiet_elegance kept his poker-face properly affixed, but for once I asked for something he totally has covered. So! I have DREMEL! And STUFF. A bit overwhelming since I've never used one and have no idea what I'm doing yet. It's clear I'm going to have to come up with projects specifically for the tool to be used to its full potential. This is beautifully juxtaposed to the MAC gift card. Power tools + make up. Yeah!
The key present for q_e is Rosetta Stone for Italian: a present to be shared. Given the vagueries of our after work time, I thought this would be much better than taking a class. And hey, can the State Department and Michael Phelps be wrong? I don't think so.
There will be more present-opening whenpurple_terror comes home tomorrow.
ETA: OK. I've had my first test run. Running that thing makes me sort of zone out a bit- maybe I'm forgetting to breathe (which was also a problem for the first year of riding my motorcycle)- but I can see how this can go. I know how to put the bits in now. I also have a Sculpey frame that held a water color until this week that had structural failure. Now I have for clay planks to test things out on, which is good because I'm uglifying them more than anything else ;) Amusingly enough the clay is Tardis blue.
quiet_elegance kept his poker-face properly affixed, but for once I asked for something he totally has covered. So! I have DREMEL! And STUFF. A bit overwhelming since I've never used one and have no idea what I'm doing yet. It's clear I'm going to have to come up with projects specifically for the tool to be used to its full potential. This is beautifully juxtaposed to the MAC gift card. Power tools + make up. Yeah! The key present for q_e is Rosetta Stone for Italian: a present to be shared. Given the vagueries of our after work time, I thought this would be much better than taking a class. And hey, can the State Department and Michael Phelps be wrong? I don't think so.
There will be more present-opening when
purple_terror comes home tomorrow. ETA: OK. I've had my first test run. Running that thing makes me sort of zone out a bit- maybe I'm forgetting to breathe (which was also a problem for the first year of riding my motorcycle)- but I can see how this can go. I know how to put the bits in now. I also have a Sculpey frame that held a water color until this week that had structural failure. Now I have for clay planks to test things out on, which is good because I'm uglifying them more than anything else ;) Amusingly enough the clay is Tardis blue.
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It's fun. I bet you'll come up with lots of crafty applications for it. I'm still getting used to it myself...I still think of it mostly for buffing, but I know it can be used for carving and etching and cutting and...
Yeah.
It'll be fun.
Just remember your goggles.
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My favorite 'learn to use a Dremel' trick is space-age whittling. Get a tiny scrap of wood, put one of the carving burrs in, and make somethin'. The first thing I made was a tiny wood treble clef, about half the thickness of a #2 pencil. Still have that around here, somewhere. I made a carved Army MI crest about 8" square from a chunk of half-inch plywood for one of my bosses.
My most brilliant dremel creation was taking a set of Army jumpmaster wings, cutting the parachute out, flipping it over, rotating it 90 degrees, polishing it, drilling some holes in it so it looked like a wedge of swiss cheese, and then gluing it back to the wings and the wreath-and-star, to create "Cheesemaster Wings", which were then awarded with much ceremony to the cheesiest officer I ever worked for. Fifteen years later and he's on the bird colonel's list now, and still displays that in a place of honor in his office.
Something else you'll get good at is the #1 use of a Dremel - the cutoff wheels. It's like a tiny hacksaw that can cut anything, but there is a caveat: if you're using a saw and you twist in the kerf, the saw bogs; do that with a dremel and a cutoff wheel, the wheel shatters and blows little bits of itself all over the damn place.
If it didn't come with the jumbo box-o-dremel-bits, that's the NEXT good gift idea. Also, Craftsman makes a special dremel toolbox, with a top tray that holds more bits than you'll ever need space for. Mine's about half-full, after getting two different jumbo-box-o-dremel-bits kits.
yay power tools!
Great minds and all...