Most men love to tinker with iron and wood, drilling, knocking, screwing and screwing, doing useful things around the house or in the garage. Even one nailed shelf or twisted socket fills us with self-esteem and calm self-confidence. But it’s not always possible to keep at home a set of tools sufficient to carry out a variety of household chores. You have to borrow either a screwdriver, or a grinder, or a grinder. And so it was until the engraver appeared - a universal tool that allows you to carry out a lot of precise work on grinding, drilling, engraving and cutting, and taking up almost no space.
What is an engraver?
The engraver, or mini-drill, as it is sometimes called, looks like a huge fountain pen connected to the mains. If we open the case, we will see that it consists of a motor, a spindle,gearbox, and the impeller, which cools the engine itself. The case has holes for hot air to escape, as well as a place to hold (on some models a removable handle is provided), an on-off button, a button that blocks the engine, a nut for fixing various nozzles, a speed control and a cord for connecting to the mains. Most often, the engraver is equipped with an additional ring for hanging on a special tripod. For some models, removable flexible shafts are available, designed to work in hard-to-reach places, such as in a car or under a sink - such devices are equipped with a Dremel engraver and other expensive mini drills.
How it works
The device works due to the fact that the engine spins the shaft (from 3-4 to 35-40 thousand revolutions - Dremel engraver and similar), thus rotating the attachments attached to it. It is the wide range of nozzles used that forms the versatility of this tool - it turns from a drill into a grinder, and then into a grinder. And it all fits into one small box.
Of course, in terms of power the engraver is much inferior to its "big brothers", and drilling walls with it, as well as cutting metal sheets, is hardly appropriate, but such a task is not worth it. Plumbing work, home repairs, minor preventive maintenance and car repairs, engraving, finishing metal and wood products - the engraver does it all perfectly.
How to choose an engraver?
First of all, you need to define the range of tasks that this tool should solve. Would you like to polish your homemade gold once a month? Or from morning till night to work with him in the studio? Depending on this, you should choose your assistant:
- Power. As a rule, it ranges from 30 to 300 watts. The higher the power, the greater the range of materials you can work with. The resource of the engine, the time of work with the engraver at one time - all this depends on the power parameter. As a rule, household engravers are rarely more powerful than 100-150 W (the Dremel 3000 engraver is one of these), while professional ones, in turn, are 175-200 W (Dremel 4000 engraver).
- Weight. If there is no need for a powerful, ultra-productive engraver, then you should not buy models weighing more than a kilogram, because working with such a tool will become very difficult and tedious. Lightweight and productive mini-drills include, first of all, the Dremel engraver.
- Ergonomics. The engraver should not only work well, but also lie comfortably in your hand - otherwise you will spend half of your working time on gymnastics for the fingers. The same goes for weight distribution - the closer the center of gravity to your fingers, the easier it will be for you to work.
- Noise, vibration, heating. Everything is quite simple here - the more expensive the device, the less problems it creates. In elite models, these problems are solved with a good margin of safety - this is also why they have such a high price tag. Cheap models regularly suffer from overheating, they are inherent in the manufacturer's defect, but there is little noise from them -rather weak. But mid-price engravers can get warm, and vibrate and make noise - they have enough power, and manufacturers turn a blind eye to minor inconveniences.
- Complete set. Almost every engraver is equipped with a set of nozzles. Its completeness depends on many factors, but in most cases, experienced users buy additional nozzles - either as a set or individually. Even with the most careful use, the tips are a consumable item, and from time to time they will have to be bought in addition.
Which company to buy an engraver?
There are a number of manufacturers producing engravers on the market - Hammer, Makita, Hitachi, Sturm. The most popular and widespread is the Dremel engraver. The company's tools have become so famous that they are used as the name for all such devices - "engraver" and "Dremel" can be heard with equal frequency.
In any case, it is worth choosing an engraver after carefully reading the opinions of consumers about a particular model. And the Dremel engraver deserves only positive reviews: tens of thousands of users put the highest marks on the line of these tools. And, of course, you should not focus on Chinese counterparts - it’s better not to save on hand-held power tools.
