Today, one of the popular types of work in decoration and jewelry production is engraving. If we talk about the tool used, then in most cases an electric engraver is used for engraving, which is also called a dremel, drill or mini-drill. Let's consider what types of electric engravers there are, which one to choose for the home, which one for professional work, where they are used and the criteria by which they are divided.
Engraver design and characteristics
The tool is a modification electric drill, enclosed in a body held with one hand. It is somewhat reminiscent of a large fountain pen, at the end of which the working attachment rotates. Anyone who has seen a drill in a dentist's office already has an idea of how this tool works.
The device body contains the following components: an electric motor, a gearbox, and a spindle. A working tip (nozzle) or a flexible shaft of different lengths is fixed into the spindle (in this case, the nozzle is located at the end of the shaft). To cool the electric motor, a fan impeller is located on the axis, blowing the engine through special air intake holes.
The principle of operation is almost similar to the operation of an ordinary drill. As a rule, electric engravers weigh about a kilogram, which allows you to work with one hand. Any tool has a set of characteristics by which the user selects a specific model. And if the supply voltage of the device corresponds, most often, to the mains voltage, then such properties as rotation speed, the presence and length of a flexible shaft, and weight can differ within a fairly wide range. Serious differences can be in the systems for adjusting the speed of rotation of the working tip, the number of nozzles included in the kit and other options.
Goals and Applications
With an electric engraver you can perform many different operations. In general, its scope of application covers many professional jobs and hobbies in various fields of activity, where the use of conventional power tools (drill, grinder, screwdriver) is limited due to their rougher action. For example, if you need to drill a hole with a diameter of 0.2–0.4 mm, not everyone can do it accurately with a standard tool. With the help of an electric engraver this work can be done more accurately. The same applies to grinding, cutting, milling operations various materials.
Several areas of use of the tool:
- engraving on almost any material (jewelry, design, decoration);
- modeling;
- watchmaking;
- production and improvement of fishing baits;
- household use for various operations with small parts and objects;
- cleaning seams, polishing surfaces hard to reach places.
It is clear that the list of works for which electric engravers are used can be much longer, but to describe everything possible applications it makes no sense.
Intensity of use as one of the selection criteria
During the selection process, the question is often asked: by what main parameter should the tool be divided? For some, the main criterion is price, for others it is the manufacturer. However, behind the technical characteristics, cost and well-known brand, one point is often forgotten - how often and with what intensity will the device be used? Sometimes the answer to this question determines the choice of a specific model, the required equipment, the need for additional functions. It is clear that a device professionally used for engraving on metal, stone, glass every day for 5-6 hours should be different from what is used for crafts or hobbies maximum 1-2 times a week.
Since there is no shortage today, a tool can be chosen in such a way that it ideally matches the assigned tasks and does not have redundant, unnecessary functions. For amateur and household purposes, a tool with a power of 100–200 W is quite sufficient; for professionals, units from 250 W are more suitable. You should also choose the functions inherent in the desired model - from the point of view of whether these capabilities are really needed. After all, there are many parameters that electric engravers can be equipped with today; which one to choose is not an easy question. Here you should use common sense. It’s a shame when, from a list of options consisting of three dozen items, 2–3 of the simplest ones are actually used.
Engraver appearance and operating comfort
Not always, but quite often the determining factor becomes appearance and ergonomics of the tool. Before purchasing, you should definitely hold the engraver in your hand and see how comfortable it is to hold it. If the instrument fits comfortably in your hand, is it too heavy? Is it possible to work with it for several hours, will your hand get tired? It would be useful to look at the quality of materials, neatness of assembly, whether the switch and adjustment controls are conveniently located. Comfort of use depends not only on the tool, but also on the data of the person working with it. Therefore, the device must be selected for a specific user to make it as convenient as possible.
It also makes sense to pay attention to the convenience and speed of changing attachments, the tightness of the flexible shaft, the softness and quietness of operation. If squeaks and knocks are heard from a new instrument, perhaps you should think about whether there is a need to purchase it.
Of two absolutely identical devices, having identical characteristics and even the shape of the body, in most cases a person will choose the one that looks better. Simply because it is more pleasant to work with a beautiful instrument.
Since electric engravers are, as a rule, light in weight and dimensions, the level of noise and vibration is also low. The tool is several times quieter than a standard drill. Accordingly, the comfort of its use is higher.
Manufacturer and cost
Power tools are manufactured by many companies today. Many of them have earned an outstanding reputation for quality, reliability, and careful assembly. These are Defort, Makita, Bosch, Dremel, DWT. Good engravers are made by Skil, Sturm, Einhell. Recently, domestic manufacturers have also proven themselves well - Zubr, Energomash, Vikhr.
It is clear that the price of a tool, depending on the class, manufacturer and purpose, can vary quite significantly. Here you need to decide on the necessary properties, compare several models, and then make a choice. If the engraver is used infrequently, then there is no point in overpaying for a professional model. You only need to be wary of very cheap devices from unknown manufacturers, without a guarantee.
In the end, the choice may not be difficult. You need to spend some time on reviews from owners and recommendations from professionals, compare required parameters with those possessed by the models of interest, indicate the cost limits - and the number possible options will noticeably decrease. An important role is played by the equipment of the device, as well as the number of attachments supplied with the tool. It’s a good idea if the engraver comes in a case containing special sockets for attachments, a flexible shaft and other additional accessories. It is convenient for transportation and storage, everything is in its place.
Electricity has given humanity a lot, but to imagine life without electric tool impossible. Universal source power allows you to create universal tools, the need for which is amazing. One of the representatives of such universal electrical equipment is an engraver.
If you look at an electric engraver through a magnifying glass, it will turn out to be nothing more than a type of drill. It’s just that the dimensions of the tool are much smaller, and the functionality is significantly expanded. Like conventional drills, engravers are equipped with a relatively powerful electric drive. Electric drive not only creates sufficient torque, but also a very high rotation speed of the nozzle.
The majority of engravers are based on the rotational principle. But there are also impact varieties in which electrical energy is transferred into the kinetic energy of the impact. A special nozzle made of a fairly hard material knocks out particles of the material, leaving the required pattern or inscription.
The main characteristics of engravers come down to several:
- tool weight;
- motor rotation speed;
- number of universal nozzles.
The preference of craftsmen is given to a lighter tool, with a shaft rotation speed of up to 20 thousand revolutions per minute, with a set of a wide variety of attachments. Typically the weight of the engraver does not exceed 1 kg. This is due to the fact that engraving work is done by hand, and tools heavier than 1 kg are difficult to work with for a long time. It is better to work with a light tool for a long time.
The variety of attachments determines the range of functionality of the tool. Therefore, this range depends proportionally on the number of nozzles. The list of attachments may include:
- collets, couplings, jaw clamps;
- engraving attachments;
- cutting and polishing wheels;
- miniature drills;
- burs of different configurations and sizes.
In addition to attachments, it is possible to attach flexible shafts, which allow, by extending the drive shaft, to perform additional work without experiencing discomfort.
For home workshop, for household needs An engraver with a rotation speed of up to 20 thousand revolutions per minute and a power of about 200 W is sufficient. Professional engravers have a speed of up to 30 - 35 thousand and a drive power of over 250 W.
Electric engravers are produced by many companies with famous brands: Dremel, Bort, Sturm, Einhell, Hammer, Bosh, Makita and many others. This serious attitude to such an unenviable instrument is expressed in permanent job to improve the design and offer new attachments.
Why do you need an engraver?
Engraving work is work that always requires special precision. Functionally, the engraver can drill, cut, mill, clean and polish, apply inscriptions and drawings. But all these works are connected with the jewelry of their execution. You can process wood, metal, different types ceramics, glass and plastic. When using diamond-cut attachments, the functional range of the tool increases many times over.
Without an engraver, the work of jewelry workshops and enterprises producing souvenirs is impossible. Because in addition to purely technical purposes, an engraver can create works of art from metal, wood or other precious and decorative materials.
And the engraver’s technical goals are at any industrial enterprise– from restoring parts to creating miniature units that cannot be made with any other type of tool.
When using diamond-cut attachments, the functional range of the tool increases many times over. But working with such a tool requires some experience and professionalism.
Engraver manufacturers we trust + (Video)
A good branded tool is worth the money paid. The manufacturers and their models included in this review have the best characteristics:
| Model | Rating | Characteristics | Rating indicators |
| Sturm GM2317FL | 1 | Power 170 W, rpm from 8000 to 32000, cartridges 1.6, 2.4, 3.2, weight 700 g, 120 attachments and accessories | Tool for home |
| Dremel Hobby Edition F0130290JJ | 2 | Power 35 W, speed up to 6000, weight 310 g, 2 nozzles | Handicraft tool |
| Skil 1415 LC | 3 | Power 125 W, rpm 15000 – 35000, cartridges 2.4, 3.2, weight 730 g, 25 attachments and accessories | Quality-price ratio |
| Dremel 3000 – 1/25 | 4 | Power 130 W, rpm 10000 – 33000, cartridges 0.8, 1.6, 2.4, 3.2, weight 550 g, 25 nozzles | Carrying out precision work |
This rating list can be expanded, adding other manufacturers and other rating criteria. The market for engravers, their functionality and basic characteristics are changing almost every day. Each specialist can create his own rating list based on his needs and preferences.
How to choose an engraver + (Video)
When choosing such a tool, it is necessary to clearly understand the purpose of use. It is necessary to take into account the quality of the material being processed, the list of functional operations, the necessary and sufficient volume of attachments and devices. First of all, you need to decide what you plan to do.
A mini drill differs from impact engravers in that it can be used for more than just engraving. It can be used to cut and drill, clean and polish. You need to carefully familiarize yourself with the equipment, because for such work it will be more expensive to purchase attachments separately. For hard-to-reach places, a model with a flexible shaft is useful.
You also need to decide how often the engraver will be used. If the work will be performed every day, then you need to select the most reliable model. This could be Dremel, Proxxon or Foredom. And it is better to select a power reserve for professional work from 250 W. The power reserve will allow you to work at low speeds due to the large torque. For handicrafts and hobbies, the Einhell, Hammer, Bort, Storm or Skil models are quite sufficient. Their declared power is in the range of 100 - 200 W.
The material with which to work is also important in the choice. Glass, wood and soft metals can be easily processed with a mini drill with speeds up to 20,000. Gems, steel and hard alloy materials can be processed by a mini-drill with speeds up to 30,000 and their mandatory adjustment. This will allow for precise tuning. Otherwise, you will have to use an impact engraver.
After determining the purposes of use, a tool is selected according to technical specifications– power, shaft speed and tool weight. And the selection is completed based on such indicators as the noise of the tool, its ergonomics, workmanship and price. But, even without experience working with an engraver, you can choose a tool according to the above criteria.
Most craftsmen and processing specialists different materials For fine work, electric engravers and drills are used, which are more commonly called simply Dremel. They must exactly correspond to the purpose of use, which means it is time to consider the differences and features of choosing such a tool for your workshop or small home tasks.
What work is planned to be done
In our educational program we will give answers to most popular questions regarding hand drills and engravers. The most important of them is what determines such a variety of instruments and what is the specialization of individual varieties. The first thing a novice engraver or micromachining enthusiast needs to understand is that a drill is not a universal tool. Before purchasing it, you need to know exactly what operations will be carried out during the work, and what specific materials will be processed.
The three most important criteria for any drill are power consumption, speed range and torque. Power is a very relative concept; the real performance of the working body of a drill depends on both Engine efficiency, and on the effectiveness of the speed control system. However, it is by power that one can quite accurately determine the suitability of a drill for processing parts of various sizes:
- For engraving and invoicing - up to 50-70 W.
- For artistic carving— 100-150 W.
- For cutting and grinding small parts— 100-250 W.
- For multidisciplinary work with massive parts - from 200 W.
The ratio of spindle speed and torque is determined solely by the properties of the materials being processed. Thus, for milling plastic and tough metals, low speeds with high torque of 3.5-5 N/cm are required. In turn, stone carving, bone carving and grinding require a rotation speed of at least 35-40 thousand rpm, and torque is a secondary parameter that determines the amount of material removed in one pass. All these nuances will be discussed during our review.
A few words about Dremels
Drills are often mistakenly called Dremels, although this is only one of the brands. More knowledgeable people are asking the question: are expensive branded tools of this class really worth the money spent and is such a purchase justified if you have no experience of use?
Those interested should know that a limited number of power tools are produced under the Dremel brand, and these are mainly rotary hand drills. Their range is quite large - a dozen models of varying power with different ratios of spindle speed to torque. As a rule, branded tools are purchased not for one-time work, but with the expectation that they will pay off over time. professional activity. For beginners, Dremel or Proxxon drills can also be a profitable purchase; this tool has a significant margin of reliability and is quite tolerant of errors when choosing processing modes. In addition, the branded tool does not have such diseases as inaccurate collet fit, problems with cooling, alignment and engine balancing. However, buying a branded drill will be an adequate solution only if the instrument will be used more or less regularly, and not just as a test.
But what about other types of drills? In total, at least five can be distinguished:
- Manual rotary drills.
- Drills with a micromotor.
- Hanging drills.
- Pneumatic drills.
If, while studying the material below, you come to the conclusion that a certain type of tool is ideal for your purposes, it is better not to focus on a specific manufacturer. Having compared the processing features of certain materials and operating conditions, you need to establish the exact characteristics of the equipment, and only after that think about the issue of quality and reliability.
Nuances of processing different materials
Processing of materials using drills and engravers is carried out either by cutting, that is, milling, or by abrasive grinding. A special processing mode is implemented in engravers; they are essentially micro-perforators, that is, they process the material with high-frequency shock method. And if when working with an engraver, the processing mode is determined mainly by the force of pressure on the tool, then the efficiency of cutting and grinding with a drill depends on the speed and torque.
Working with burrs requires maximum precision and the right choice cutting mode. With increasing radial distance cutting edges the angular velocity increases from the spindle axis; accordingly, it is necessary to reduce the spindle speed. Rotational speed cutting tool should be high enough to effectively reject chips, but not too high so that the edges have time to cut portions of the material and do not rub against the surface to no avail.
You also need to take into account the viscosity, fusibility and hardness of materials. Almost no type of milling equipment is designed to operate at speeds above 30-35 thousand rpm, and at extreme speeds, needle cutters are used predominantly. The maximum speed indicated above is determined for hard metals such as steel and stone, but for fluoroplastic or polyethylene this level is reduced to 4-6 thousand rpm; at higher speeds the chips simply melt. Working with burrs requires fairly accurate and smooth speed adjustment, which allows you to adjust the cutting mode on waste samples of material.
Abrasive grinding, on the contrary, is designed for high rotation speeds, which contributes to better cooling work surface and effective removal of removed microchips. For this mode, drills capable of delivering 50 thousand revolutions or more are optimally suited. Torque for this type of processing is not of fundamental importance, because grinding and polishing are the final types of processing, where the material removal is absolutely negligible. A separate position from grinding and milling is occupied by the work of diamond burrs, which require the highest possible spindle speed - from 100 thousand revolutions per minute.
Engine type and location
The classic type of hand drill has a monoblock design. The housing houses a commutator motor; its armature shaft simultaneously serves as a spindle, at the end of which there is a collet for attaching equipment. At the back of the case there is simplest scheme speed control, the principle of which is to change the applied voltage. The advantages of this arrangement include high accuracy, simplicity and reliability, the disadvantages are a significant increase in the mass of the tool with an increase in power.
Direct rotary engraver device
Drills with a micromotor have a separate standing block power supply, while the electric motor is located in the handle, and the power supply is in a separate housing. This arrangement provides higher ergonomics due to reduced weight and ease of control of the drill using a pedal. Another advantage of micromotors is the ability to use more effective schemes power supplies and speed control, with large overall dimensions and requiring active cooling of components. As a micromotor, either a conventional brushed DC motor or a brushless one, designed for more precise speed control, can be used.
Drill "Profile B-05" with power supply "Profile-6T"
A special type of drill with a separate motor is suspended; they are designed to connect the spindle to the handpiece via a flexible shaft. The main advantage of such drills is their virtually non-existent power limit. You can also point out the possibility of attaching a wide range of tips to the shaft, which themselves are quite cheap. In addition to rotary handles, impact engraving handles can also be used, designed for installing a gravel or chisel for wood carving.
Pneumatic drills have the same advantages due to their layout, but their handpieces are more expensive and are designed for use at extremely high rotation speeds - more than 300 thousand rpm.
Mains or battery
A standard benefit of battery power is the ability to work without being connected to an electrical outlet. This advantage is especially pronounced when working in hard-to-reach places or on non-electrified objects. The disadvantages are also obvious - the operating time is limited by the battery charge and the limited service life of the battery itself.
However, in the context of operating a drill, battery power can have an additional benefit. For example, when processing bone, some types of plastics and glass composites, grinding and wet milling are required. The degree of protection of a power tool does not allow processing material with a coolant supply, but in the case of working with a cordless tool, at least the possibility of electrical injury is eliminated.
Let us separately mention the disadvantage of cordless drills, such as the increase in weight, which is even more pronounced in comparison with networked hand tools. We can talk about any ease of working with such a drill with a power consumption of up to 70-100 W; a more productive tool cannot be used for a long time - the hand simply gets tired and numb.
Ergonomics and controls
When choosing a drill, the ease of grip of the body and the absence of vibration are especially important. If everything is relatively clear with the first factor - it’s enough just to hold the tool in your hands and try it out before buying, then getting rid of vibration entirely depends on the design and layout of the motor with the spindle. If it is not possible to evaluate ergonomics, as is the case when ordering in online stores, you should pay attention to the quality of casting, the shape of the case and the presence of rubber pads that prevent slipping.
Vibration of the drill is categorically unacceptable, because even with the slightest trembling, after 3-5 minutes of work, a painful itch appears in the hands, and irreversible damage to the carpal and phalangeal joints occurs. Vibration in drills appears as a consequence of resonance, which occurs due to the transmission of vibrations from the working body to the engine and vice versa. The main reason for this phenomenon is poor alignment of the armature, the presence of a poor-quality intermediate kinematic transmission unit, or excessively rigid mounting of the engine. It is optimal if the commutator motor armature is mounted in shock-absorbing cups and the spindle is secured with a backlash-free needle bearing. For DC motors best way fastenings - fitting the motor housing into neoprene segment covers, as is done in Dremel drills. Also original technical solution applied in instruments trademark“Profile” - connection of the spindle to the motor with a damper coupling.
The quality of speed control depends on the design and type of engine. Corded hand drills use resistive or electronic circuit changes in the applied voltage, captivating with its cheapness and simplicity; the same control principle is implemented in most budget drills with a micromotor. The disadvantage of this scheme is a significant drop in torque at low speeds and low adjustment accuracy. At the same time, high-quality suspended drills and micromotors use PWM control, which does not have the described disadvantages.
