Sunday night
Scott came to my rescue, and fixed my smoking Dremel problem. Apparently, tightening things too much was what caused the problem. I also read in the fine print that the motor needed to be ABOVE the handpiece. I’d seen racks for just this setup in my catalogs, but didn’t know what they were for. Now I know. I decided to save myself $20 and hammer a nail from which to hang the Dremel in the proper position, since there’s a little hanger loop on it. Worked just dandy.
So it works now, and I thought I’d just try it a little, just to see how it goes…and a little became more and more, until I’d finally outlined the whole piece.
The dental burr I put into the hand piece is pretty slick—so tiny I can actually get into the tight corners.
The lines I was making seemed a little bumpy, and I finally realized that it was fighting the grain lines. When I ratcheted up the speed, that problem was mitigated quite a bit. Good to know. I still have to get used to using the hand tool; this was the first time I tried it. Apparently, too much pressure and friction gets the bit excited, and it was growing longer in front of my eyes. I had to stop from time to time and put it back in.
The next 4 pictures are the finished result. The first 2 were before I realized a higher speed would avoid a lot of the bumpiness, the 3rd about half and half, and the last I’d cranked it up and the lines were smoother.
Since that bit has bite all the way around, it makes for a very nice precision smoothing tool that I’m sure I’ll make use of when I start fitting the pieces and find edges that are just a bit off. Using this bit with the hand tool is the first part of a 3-step process I read about—outline with the precision bit, then use the router as I had been to clean out the middle junk left behind, avoiding the edges entirely, and the third step is to “undercut” (I’ll need to review that part; it wasn’t real clear) with a ball-end dental bit. I may use the first step exclusively for very skinny vine parts that are as thin as the router bit is. I’ll have more control.
I decided to stop while I was ahead and feeling good about it.
