Let’s talk Dremels

3lackMamba

3lackMamba

3lackMamba

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Hi guys, hope this is the correct section!

Okay so the situation is, I need to cut the honeycomb mesh from the front of my Corsair 650D where the 240mm intake fan sits. A very common problem with the earlier versions of the 650D was the fan sits too close to the mesh and creates a very loud wooshing/jet noise, and so I never bothered with the fan for years.

Coming into the summer though and I want to get it sorted this year to tackle temps inside my case, so I need a dremel as this seems to be the only tool I can think off that is suitable for this job. Only problem is I don’t fancy spending £50 or upwards for a good dremel just to cut out a single hole.

Has anyone had any experience buying cheaper brands of dremels around the £15-£20 mark, I would pay that but I don’t know if the cheaper brands will do the same job as say, a Dremel 3000

My options so far:

1. Suck it up, buy £50 dremel
2. Buy a cheaper brand
3. Use a different tool?
4. Or if anyone in N.Ireland has a dremel they are willing to lend.. message me please lol

Any thought or solutions would be greatly appreciated
 
The two things at play here, are longevity/reliability of the tool, and effectiveness/longevity of the cutting disc. So you could, say, buy a cheaper tool (Lidl/Aldi often have them, also check out Proxxon for a cheap-ish quality-ish brand) and then buy some good quality cutting discs. I bought a Dremel about 10 years ago and it's not been used much, but I'm certainly pleased it still works. I've seen them closer to £35-40 TBF.

But I also have a bunch of tools so I haven't used a Dremel on a PC. I use hacksaws, side cutters, files, sandpaper. Depends how much time you want to spend vs how much money you can justify.
 
Simple, hoe often are you going to use it outside of this one job?
If the answer is very little, then B&Q's cheap as chips imported rip off dremel is your way to go.
If the answer is a lot, then get a proper one.
 
As long as the Dremel lasts this one job I don’t care, cheapest one I could find on b&q was the Dremel 3000, which is £45. I don’t mind investing the time but I do want a clean cut, don’t want it looking like a blew the hole out with C4 lol

There’s very cheap ones on amazon like the Vaunhaus or Silverline brand but I’m worried in case they burn out/break down doing this one job since I’m using it for cutting metal and not polishing like they are advertised for, reviews are very mixed.

Maybe the cheap brand Dremel coupled with proper Dremel cutting disc would do the job? What you guys think?
 
The newer dremel don't seem as well built as the old ones.

We have a newer "digital" one at work but it's not as good as my 15 year old mains dremel.

I would get a cheap copy from a shop
Then you can return it easily if it breaks before you finish your case.
 
You may get a better finish with a Jigsaw.

Dremel is handy as you can do lots of different things, but often less flexible tool may be faster and easier
 
I would definitely NOT use a jigsaw for this job, particularly with the awful blades that come with them; it’ll snag and give a horrible finish, in my experience at least. You’ll need an expensive blade I’d you want a good cut.

I’d buy the decent dremel, it’s only £40 to £50. Mine was pricier, but I’ve used it for loads of jobs I wouldn’t have thought of, the decent discs, especially the fast click ones, give a good finish.

You may want to sand or file afterward, I would. Or buy some trim, which might improve the seal too.
 
STHCXvu.jpg


It's the honeycomb mesh in front of the fan, from a price perspective I'd love to go with tin snips but, for the finish, I'd rather go with the dremel lol

Think I'm going to go with the 170W Apollo branded Dremel for £25 of Amazon and get some official Dremel metal cutting discs
 
3lackMamba said:
STHCXvu.jpg


It's the honeycomb mesh in front of the fan, from a price perspective I'd love to go with tin snips but, for the finish, I'd rather go with the dremel lol

Think I'm going to go with the 170W Apollo branded Dremel for £25 of Amazon and get some official Dremel metal cutting discs
Click to expand...

Get some sandpaper too, and a second cut or smooth round file if you can afford it, they’re cheap, and will offer a much better finish.
 
I’m not a file master, but the basics are there are three main cuts; b@stard, second cut and smooth. B@stard is for hogging material and smooth is for making a decent surface. If you’re using a dremel, then second cut and sandpaper should be absolutely fine.

You really don’t need to spend a lot of money unless you’re going to be using it again. There are plenty of different shapes, for this job I would go for a half-round, it’s flat on one side and rounded on the other. Files cut in only one direction, so push down and away, lift and return to the piece.

For home I just I bought a cheap set of second cut files for jobs like this, main shapes I would need for less than £17, plus a bunch of needle files. I’ve got a decent b@stard cut for when I need a lot of material off.

This is the set I bought : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B012DDEK16/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For this job I’d just go for something cheap with good reviews on the rainforest. Something like this : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-Too...9&sr=8-46&keywords=Half+round+second+cut+file

Good luck!
 
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3lackMamba said:
It's the honeycomb mesh in front of the fan, from a price perspective I'd love to go with tin snips but, for the finish, I'd rather go with the dremel lol
Click to expand...
Will be much easier with snips and either way you're going to have to file it down to make it not look ****.

Unless you have a lot of other stuff you know you're going to need the dremel for then personally I would just save the money. Hell TBH I personally would just use my snips on that rather than my dremel, would be quicker and result in a better pre-filing finish anyway.
 
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