Dremel Minimite for cutting knife steel?

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Dave568

Joined
May 24, 2005
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Has anyone had any experience using a Dremel Minimite rotary tool? It is a small, cordless dremel with two settings - 5000RPM and 10000RPM. I was just wondering if this would be acceptable for cutting through knife steel with the appropriate cutting wheel, or would I need something more powerful?
 
Depends how much cutting you plan on doing. It wont cut to much because the wheels will wear out. A band saw would work better or the ol hacksaw.
 
Would work great on rods for pins. nickelsilver or brass and do a outstanding job on polish and steel in those hard to reach areas. I recommend purchasing a good bandsaw for cutting steel, or something of that nature. Hope this was of help to you. Have a great day and happy one.
 
I only use those little dremel cutoff wheels to make nail nicks in my occasional folders. I mount the cutoff wheel in my drill press at the appropriate height above the work surface, with my drill press running at the highest possible RPM.

I think that actually cutting steel with a cutoff wheel in a 5000 to 10000 RPM rotary hand tool would be a slow and expensive (lots of wheel use) process. My different dremels run anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 RPM max, and I still think they wouldn't perform well for cutting steel.
 
If you absolutely don't want a bandsaw for some reason, some folks use angle grinders to hack out their basic shapes before refining with belt grinders.
 
if you dont think you can afford an angle grinder goto harbor freight or even home depot. i got my ryobi 4" angle grinder for about $30 and i suggest getting the thinnest cutting wheels you can because they cut the quicket. i myself dont have a bandsaw or a cutoff saw. i just use my angle grinder.
 
+1 on getting an angle grinder, or a bandsaw if you can afford one. I'm using a hacksaw now but a grinder like PS mentioned is what I'm getting next. They can be found for $20, I saw the thin cutting wheels he's talking about at HF, I think they were 4 for $5. I also read on here somewhere that a high-tension hacksaw works much better than a regular hardware-store one like mine for not much more money, that makes sense too.

I use my Dremel quite a bit but not for major shaping or cutting. The other guys are right, Dremels are sweet for cutting pins and getting into small areas, radiusing tang/handle junctions, making choil notches, shaping brass, etc. I also agree you want higher RPMs, as scottickes said. But even cutting mild steel, you'll go thru discs like crazy. I've done it, and you can just watch the disc get smaller and smaller REAL quick :D Throws a lot of nasty alum-oxide (?) dust as the wheel wears away, too.

You probably already know this, but I'll say it anyhow... the best accessory for cutting, no matter how you do it, is a solid vise.
 
I have a 1/4" mandrill high speed grinder and use 3" Flexovit cutting discs , they are only about 1/16" thick and cut anything at about 25,000 rpm
 
the cutting wheels i use are made by makita. they come out to 1.99 each. they are strong but i have yet to try the ones from HF. to me if it works great why switch.
 
Just remember that you have to watch out for hardening the material that you are cutting using disks which means you will need to anneal before you can effectively profile the shape. Just don't get it too hot is all. I use my dremel and cutoff wheels to make my sawbacks. Love the little tool.
 
Yeah, don't try to cut much with the dremels, unless you're doing tiny, tiny work. Those cutting wheels also seem to break quite often, even the reinforced ones have chipped apart on me a few times. Try cutting a quarter in half, it'll eat up half of your disks!
 
I have used a dremel for many of my designs as I bought O1 in 6X36X thickness sheets- it takes a LOOOOONG time. The last thing I cut was a large bearded hatchet I designed and it took over 5 HOURS!! THis was with 1/4" steel. But as many of my designs are quite curvy and I don't like to waste steel this seems like the best solution for now - until I can get a garage (room for a bandsaw- I work in my basement and the grinder angle is way too loud (pun intended).
 
iv'e probably cut out 15 blades with dremel cutoff wheels only. the thinner ones work better than the thick for some reason. I went through a whole package (20 i think) almost for every blade. it would take me an hour to cut out a blade. I eventually saved up and got a harbor freight metal cutting band saw. I cherish this more than any other knifemaking tool. it now takes me a couple of minutes to cut a blade out. I definitely will never go back, but you use what you have and save for the rest.
 
i just checked the size of my cutting wheels andthey are 3/64" thick for my 4" angle grinder. best bet for you is like everyone is basically saying, save up for a bandsaw or angle grinder. harbor freight might still have the device that you can clamp in the angle grinder and use it as a cutoff saw. i have that item but i havent used it yet. another idea for you right there.
 
Dremels are too light duty for this job, plus they have open windings on the motors and will start shorting out before long. Offset grinders work OK, but use the good cutoff wheels, the cheap ones come apart and knock holes in you when you start cutting tough stuff like blade steels.

Another solution is to get 10" cutoff wheels and use a table saw, if you have one, to cut out blades. These are a lot better bang for the buck than the 4" ones.
 
As long as you have a good vise and a hacksaw, it's pretty easy to rough cut a blade shape. Then you can simply file the rest off, it doesn't take long once you're acurrate with the hacksaw, and it's fairly safe. Just be ready for the end of the cut, so you don't slam your hands and arms across the jagged steel you just cut, seen some nasty gashes/torn knuckles from that. You can cut curves with the hacksaw too, just tilt the handle in the opposite direction of the desired curve. With a little practice, you'll barely have to file at all to get your basic shape cut.
 
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