Shopsmith Forums

For Christmas my son gave me the above named tool. It came with a charger base and a small box of Dremel accessories. It has a variable speed range of 5,000 to 25,000 rpm. The dial to control the speed is located on the back of the tool. The best way I can describe the shape of the tool is that it is similar to a hand phaser on the original "Star-Trek" T.V. series. The battery is a lithium-ion one.

This tool is extremely comfortable to grip much as you would a pencil. It is geat to use as a carving tool. It operates extremely well as an engraving tool. Of all the Dremel tools I own, this one is, for me, the most comfortable to work with. The ability to control the tool using a pencil grip is especially useful when adding finer details in small carvings. It is also great to use in this manner for rust removal, cutting metal, etc.

If you do any type of carving that entails intricate details, this is the one tool you should not be without.

BPR

What kind of battery life do you get out of it. In other words, Does it last 5 min or 30min. How long does it take to recharge?

The initial charge time was about 3 hours. As far as work time is concerned, it depends on the project involved. With what I was doing today, I was able to go for about 2 hours before recharging (getting rid of rust, cutting rail, engraving tools). The big plus is the battery. It is sure an improvement over Ni-Cad ones.
BPR

I have had one for over a year. It replaced the earlier 7.2 volt model and a corded Craftsman that were loaned out and not really returned. I'm not a carver, but use it for a lot of trimming, sanding and cutoff chores. Better tool than either of the ones it replaced.
The only thing I would do different, if I used it regularly, would be to buy a second battery. The life of a charge is outstanding, but Li-ion batteries don't fade, they drop. My experience with the tool is that if the battery is going to hit 0, it will follow Murphy's Law and drop at the 98.5% point of completion of whatever you are doing.