I love my Dremel tool. Actually I love my Dremel tools. I have several, at different sizes and types (corded, battery-powered, different RPMs). And I have tons of bits and accessories. These are amazing tools that I wouldn’t want to live without.
But the accessory bits you buy for the Dremel and other rotary tools are not cheap. And they are limited in selection, can wear out quickly, and often break. For instance, the sanding discs are limited in the grits available and they are only sold in small diameters.
So, industrious makers have taken bit-making into their own hands and have created a number of different types of bits for sanding, polishing, and more. Here are just a few examples. You’ll find others if you do a web search on “How to make your own Dremel bits.”
Desiree is a jeweler and she makes her own abrasive buffs out of 3M stripping pads. See her how-to here.
Daniel Allen (aka Schpoingle on YouTube) is a wood carver. He creates his own sanding discs by backing whatever grit of sandpaper he desires with thick tape (e.g. duct tape) and cutting this composite material into circles of various diameters. He likes having control in making sanding circles that are much larger than Dremel commercially offers.
These discs are all well and good, but surely the eminently useful and rather expensive sanding drums can’t be rolled at home, can they? Oh, yes. Knife maker Geko on Crete shows you how in this video.
3 thoughts on “How to Make Your Own Rotary Tool Bits”
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I like using sheet sandpaper, carpet tape and a stiff backing material to make sanding disks. Carpet tape is essentially double sided duct tape. It’s ferociously strong stuff, and it’s cheap. The backing material can be heavy paper.
Needs materials list! This is great but I don’t know what he used for backing & the diameter (or suggestions) for the pipe.
Easier just to buy the cheap rotary tool bits from somewhere like Aliexpress or ebay,