Aldi 'dremel' £13 Sunday

[meow2222]

Looks very good value. 135w, variable speed, 2 collect sizes.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News]

What I want is a smaller version and cordless - to replace my ancient Ryobi. Just for light stuff like say the odd hole in a PCB or de-burring, etc. No one seems to make one that small these days.

[meow2222]

I don't suppose you mean the little engravers? Those are still about I think, but of very limited use.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News]

No - just a small high speed cordless drill with collet chuck. This Ryobi one is pencil shaped - about 40 mm in diameter and 240mm long. It comes with a desk stand which is also the charger, so simply putting it back in that also puts it on charge. I find it so useful I'm surprised it's not still made - or a similar alternative. I do have a couple of similar sized hobby drills - but both low voltage with cords, so nothing like so convenient to use. Cordless versions of those tend to be much bigger. The Ryobi uses 4 AA rechargeables which I've replaced a few times, but is now falling apart. A modern version with Li-Ion is what I'd like.

[meow2222]

I don't suppose you could find an old one on ebay

NT

[Nick Odell]

I could quite fancy one of those in my toolkit but I see on their website that the one and only product review is not very good at all. Does anyone have any first hand experience of this product? Is it a badge-engineered version of the same knock-off-Dremel found in other discount shops at other times?

Nick

[Peter Parry]

I've got an earlier model from Aldi, a bit noisy at full speed but works fine and has done for several years.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, I have one, probably around 10 years old, but probably not had even one hours use. Works OK.

Most recently used it to cut a hole for a plasterboard mounted back box, where the plasterboard might have had insulated roofing felt touching the back which I didn't want to cut, so used a tiny side- cutting file bit to cut through the depth of the plasterboard, without completely penetrating the paper on the far side, and then tapped it to break the paper. Worked fine (and the roofing felt was not as close as I thought it might be).

[Nick Odell]

Thanks, Peter, thanks, Andrew. Reckon I'll pop down to my local store this morning and see if they still have any in stock.

Nick

[cl]

Those little dremel (and lookalike) saws can be very handy for that sort of thing. They're also good for making a neat job of removing knockouts from surface mounting boxes and such.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I popped into a nearby Aldi (Blackwater, Camberley) this morning, and they didn't have any that I saw. Actually, they didn't have anything much in the non-food line, except loads of spring gardening stuff.

Still, it was a nice cycle ride, which was the main point.

[Nick Odell]

I picked one up from my local Aldi (Ringway Centre, Huddersfield) It seems a jolly nice piece of kit - bloomin' brilliant for under thirteen quid. I've not given the accessories anything particularly challenging to do but all the same I don't suppose they are up to much. I plan to buy specific accessories for the kind of uses I'll put it to and I'll go for quality when I'm purchasing those.

A jolly nice day up here for cycling. Though since my knees won't let me cycle any more, I took the bus.

Nick

[Dave Plowman (News]

Not sure you'll get appreciably better quality accessories regardless of the price you pay.

[JimK]

/Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darken our skin?/q

FFS, radiation....

Jim K

[newshound]

I've had a couple of cheapies over the past 20 years, but when the last one failed I found that "real" Dremels are no longer as expensive as they used to be. I *think* mine was under £40, plus a few pounds for a collet. Not that I am against Aldi/Lidl products, I have several.