click pics to enlarge
Well, the beginning of my little story is this. I had seen everyone modding their cases, and I thought to myself "self, I could do that". However I needed the right tools. At first I considered the Dremel, but when I saw the price I almost fell over. Then I remembered a review I had read on the Black & Decker RTX Rotary Tool and it sounded like the thing for me. I knew I would need the flexible shaft, so I decided to go for the full kit. Then came the hard part. Finding it. After a trip to my local hardware store, and much searching on the web, I decided to ring DeWalt (the distributors) direct. They informed me that that model was not available in Australia, but they had the next best thing. The RT550KA Wizard Rotary Tool Kit. It seemed to be roughly the same as every other product out there, and it came with a case, AND 118 accessories. But, it didn't have a shaft. The good part? It was $96.95, which came to $50 cheaper than a Dremel, and had more accessories. Happy? I was. Here is the basic kit, with all the accessories, and case
Basic specs are (quoted from the brochure):
You get a fair few accessories with this unit, including multiple heavy and medium duty cut-off disks, sanding drums, various grindstones, as well as one wire brush.
Before I go any further, I have to say that I cannot compare this tool to any other, as I have never touched any other. These are just my rambling's on this particular tool, however I will compare accessories. More about this later.
On with the show.
Now, not being a newbie to power tools, I had it all connected, and up and running in no time. It was quite simple really, most of it is ready to go, and you just need to choose your weapon (accessory) and whack it in. It also has a handy locking spindle, which I wouldn't use with a flexible shaft. First things first, how well does this sucker cut? Quite well really. It goes fast enough for cutting sheet steel, plastic, bolts and all sorts of things:
One little gripe though. When you put your accessory directly into the tool, it is hard to do tricky work with the way you must hold the tool, as well as the general bulk of the unit. This is the bit where I decided to test it's compatibility to "universal accessories". So I went and purchased the Dremel flexible shaft.
What can I say? Mission accomplished. It was a perfect fit. Although the $80 I spent on the shaft was a bit rich, I figured I could probably modify an old speedo cable to do the same thing. However…….
So, a chop chop chopping I went. And it did a wonderful job. I cut up all sorts of things, but mainly a computer case. More on that at another time. Then I decided to test out the grindstones, to clean up my work a little. This is where Black & Decker fall down, compared to Dremel. As I mentioned earlier, I can compare accessories, and here's why. After a little grinding with the finer grindstones in the B & D kit, the stones snapped off! So, I whipped out the files, however some of the holes I needed to clean up were too small. Oh well, do some more cutting. Then the worst happened. The screw on the mandrel snapped off!!! Off down to the hardware store again…
I decided that the Dremel Cutting and Sanding kit would be what I needed, so I bought it. $25. WOO HOO, I was cutting again. It came with a few more sanding drums, as well as about a dozen cut-off disks, and a spare mandrel (a mandrel is the bit that you screw the cut-off disks onto). However the best was yet to come. Included in the kit were some Tungsten-Carbide high speed cutters. Hmmm, say's I, I wonder how they will do for cutting. Not very well, I'm afraid, however, I did find an excellent use for them. Use them instead of the grindstones. And they worked a treat!!! They got rid of all of the burr's, as well as easily evening out my sloppy cutting. I was impressed! Whilst the B & D accessories are good, the Dremel stuff is better. Another thing I noticed was that the Dremel cut-off wheel lasted a lot longer than the B & D one. Just a small warning. The little packets of heavy and medium duty cut-off discs are useless. Too do a cut that was approx. 10cm long, I went through 8 discs.
Final impressions? It's a good tool. Does what I want it to do, as well as being cheaper than a Dremel. In total, I spent $201.95 getting the full kit, whereas I would have spent $254.95 on the full Dremel kit, AND I would have had fewer accessories. The Dremel MultiPro retails with only 40 accessories, where the B & D unit has 118.
Just as a humorous aside, the hardware store that I bought it from had never heard of it. They actually thanked me for informing them about the product, because they got a lot more information from me than they did from the distributor. It's now up in their shop window, right alongside the Dremel, which is $50 more. Also. 4 weeks later I walked into a hardwarehouse to buy some more accessories, and what did I see? Main display, right in front of the door, about 30 of these units stacked up, for $101.00 each.
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