Dremel Holder
A small handheld Dremel-like rotary tool is a popular MillingDrillingHead for RepRap.
See Category "MillingToolheads" for other designs.
There have been two approaches to combining a RepRap with a Dremel-like grinder:
- Attach the Dremel directly on the tool head. Move the whole thing around.
- Attach the Dremel to a flex shaft. Attach only the tip of a flex shaft on the tool head. mount the Dremel itself some other convenient stationary location.
- FlexShaftHolder thing:1832 (designed for the Mendel)
- DremelFlexShaftHolder thing:1703 (designed for RepMan, not yet converted to Darwin or Mendel)
- Flex Shaft milling-toolhead thing:1832 (designed for the Mendel)
- thing:1767 Dremel holder by laszlo: moves the entire Dremel around (not merely the end of the flex shaft) (Only works on a RepMan, not the Mendel, right?)
Challenge
The DremelFlexShaftHolder was
Developed for the RepMan, Marcus posted a design challenge to convert this reliably working toolhead to the RepRap Mendel.
He discontinued that challenge when Bogdan Kecman posted his FlexShaftHolder on Thingiverse after a discussion in the BitsFromBytes forum.
It is still to be converted to the limited space of the RepRap Mendel or Darwin compared to the RepMan.
There was a design contest going on to adapt an existing Dremel Holder from Marcus that was designed for the RepMan to the RepRap "Darwin" or RepRap "Mendel".
It was closed after Bogdan designed such a toolhead.
unanswered questions
A few people suggested that perhaps it would be better to make the horizontal smooth bars of the Mendel X-axis further apart, so it would be easier to put the entire Dremel and other larger, more powerful toolheads between those bars. How difficult would that be?