Customer Reviews

Dremel 220-01 Rotary Tool Work Station

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

This is an excellent accessory for the already-versatile rotary tool. The trick to its use is to recognize the inherent limitation of all rotary tools.

They are high-speed, low-torque tools. The work is done in the same way that a dentist's drill works: Very light pressure lets the bit in effect shave away the material. As the manual says, you need to adjust the tool so the bit is very close to the workpiece, then slowly lower the bit into it.

This means you can't use the Dremel drill press the same way you would use a full-size drill press, where you can bear down on the lever and force the bit to dig into the work. If you try to use it that way, you'll get the "slop" that some other reviewers mention.

When it's used correctly-- and the manual makes it very clear how to do so-- this is a very good accessory to have.

This press is great for all those little odd jobs. As a hobbyist, I use this item often. The slop others mentioned in other reviews can easily be removed by adjusting the 4 set screws to snug things up and tightening the other nuts and bolts in the assembly. Any press will flex if its forced beyond its intended limits. When used as intended. This press does everything it claims and more. The fact it can be adjusted to work as a bench grinder only adds to it value. When combined with a cross-slide mini vise. It will also work as a mini bridgeport for light machining. I would have given it a 5 star rating. But because I had to take the whole thing apart and reassemble it the way it should have been done at the factory. I gave it a 4. All in all, its still a great addition for anyone that owns a Dremel.

Dremels' work station for their rotary tool is a great little station. You are able to bolt it onto your workbench if you prefer. Some folks don't think you need to but I like to work with different jigs and such and need a very stable base, so I bolt mine. And along that line of thinking is the fact that you can tilt the tool anywhere from 15° to 90° which will help you when you want to turn it into a sanding and polishing tool for more intricate work.
It has a great little tool "caddy" which they like to call the "Crows nest" that you can store some of your more favorite bits. Or the way I use it is to place the bits and collets I'm going to use for whatever project that I'm working on at the time because I put all my bits and things up when done and cover the station to prevent dust build up.
The telescoping tool stand holds the tool when you are using the FlexShaft(tm). The base of the station has both metric and standard symbols as does the depth gauge.
All in all it's a great station for the rotary tool. But, the one little drawback that I've found in my working with it is that with other stations like this one, the others usually have a strap to clamp the upper portion of the tool securely to the tool stand. I find this helpful when drilling fine holes into decorative stones that I tumble and polish. Without that strap, using the the fine diamond drill bits will sometimes try to "travel" across the stone which will cause scratch marks. But, the great feel that the handle gives you allows me to prevent that by very delicately bringing the bit down to the stone in minute strokes until the bit has the hole started and then it's drilling as usual when using a fine diamond drill bit. That's why I give this station a 4 out of 5. Really I'd like to give it a 4½ stars but that's not one of the choices! Also the great deal I got buying this tool through Amazon.com beats all other sites and stores. So guys, show the wife the tool, what can be done with it and the low price, and you'll be getting yours in the mail soon!

I purchased the 220-01 Workstation planning to use it as a drill press. After taking it out of the box, and assembling it per the instructions, I realized that it is horribly flexible, making it impossible to drill holes with ANY accuracy. I'm not that picky either -- I know that a $50 drill press/attachment will have its limitations, but even with the 1/8th inch drill bit, attempting to make a hole is impossible.

Trying to make a hole yields a disfigured slot. The tool holder will flex in one direction when you push down, and flex in the other direction when you pull back up. You end up with a disfigued slot that is of no use. It ruined a piece I was trying to work on.

The dremel tool itself is held tight ... It's the flimsy plastic tool holder that seems to have a lot of slop internally.

To make matters worse, the clamp that will let you rotate the tool holder 90 degrees (to use the dremel as a stationary sander, etc.) never locks tight, so if you aren't careful, the tool holder itself can rotate counter-clockwise.

This "workstation" is a waste of money if you plan to use it as a drill press, or want any sort of accuracy at all.

I bought this work station & a dremel to go with it to use as a PRECISION drill press for handcrafting jewellery. This was to accompany the Italian flex shaft I already own.

Intending to accurately drill holes in Sterling Silver & Gold, I have tried this many times now to no avail. There is too much movement in the work station to accurately do anything. And yes my Dremel work station is bolted to my work bench.

While the work station can be manipulated in many ways/heights & angles these adjustments become inaccurate upon tightening up the thumb screws to lock these positions in. There is so much movement in the tightening, that you never get close to what you were aiming for by the time it is secure enough to use.

As well as this the 'pull down leaver' is spongy and has side to side movement during the last centimetre or so of travel - no hole is ever drilled exactly in the planned position.

The spongy pull down leaver also has a spring return, which initially looked usefull - until you drill many holes in sequence, then it just becomes irritating having the leaver spring-back EVERY time.

Finally the changing of bits (I am using .8mm twist bits) is slow and cumbersome as you need to swing the drill to the side just to get enough room to manipulate the chuck release etc. The chuck release is hard to access as it is recessed back from the nose of the drill press (where the dremel screws into the drill press assembly)

Overall I was looking forward to having a micro-drill press when I bough these 2 items from Bunnings a few months back. Since then I have become frustrated with this clumsy product and wish I'd never bought it. Basically the tolerances are too wide and NOT for delicate metal work.

This tool works quite well for me as a light duty drill press in my activities as a silversmith. While I rarely drill through any thing much heavier than 24 gage [B&S] sterling silver with a bit any larger than 1/16", it works fine if you don't "hog it" and allow the bit to do the work. I have also used a #61 bit with equal success while drilling starter holes for pierced work, usually within close quarters where accuracy is important. In either case, ONE DOES HAVE TO FEED SLOWLY in order to avoid deflection in the bit itself. I have occassionaly used it for light duty grinding [of stones] although that is the usual domain of my Foredom flexible shaft tool.

I have a Delta drill press for woodworking. Each machine fills its own niche and does a good job in their respective roles. Just don't confuse their roles. I would recommend the Dremel for its intended design purpose. It would work great in most any reasonable hobby use such as model aircraft and/or model railroad construction, both of which I have enjoyed.

And, I am a retired mechanical and structural engineer that is pretty picky about his tools.

I purchased the 220-01 workstation hoping to be able to use this as a drill-press, as is an obviously implied function per the plunging handle. I own a slightly older model 398 (high-end digital tool sold just previous to the new XPR model). The box clearly states that my model 398 is supported by this accessory. Thus, I made the purchase and took it home.

After unpacking, assembling, and reading the instructions clearly, I mounted my Dremel to see how it would fit. Immediately, I noticed that the only mount point for the Dremel is a single nut that screws to the removed collar. The picture on the box made me thing there was some sort of strap that secured the upper part of the Dremel. However, I was mistaken as the light-grey plastic visible in the 220-01 picture is actually a part of the Dremel unit, not part of the 220-10 Workstation. From an engineering perspective, this is absolutely lunacy! One nut around the collar is just not enough to stabilize the Dremel and prevent play. In the case of the 398, if you apply a little light pressure on the top of the Dremel, the entire unit shifts a great deal.

As if loose tolerances and a sickening amount of play are not enough of a reason to return this product, manufacturing quality of the unit is so poor that the my drill bit is facing inward over an inch and to the left just enough that the bit would scrape the bottom tray. If I had turned on my Dremel and tried to drill something without checking first, my bit would have plunged right into the bottom table and certainly shattered.

Considering the normal high quality and great reputation of the company, Dremel, I contacted customer service and asked if there might be some sort of adapter or other component I might be missing. Also, I asked if this might be just a fluke in that I received a defective unit. Impressively, the customer service agent actually went and retrieved both the Dremel 398 and the 220-01 Workstation and tried coupling the two together. The representative confirmed that the single collar nut is indeed the only mount point intended to stabilizing 30,000 RMPs of steel as it bores into materials. Also, the representative confirmed that there are no adapters or other components that would improve tolerances. In conclusion, the representative said that the 220-01 was simply meant for basic arts and crafts. It was not intended to be a precision drill press at all. As far as being off center so much, the representative suggested I return the unit as defective and try another. While I sincerely appreciate the great customer service, I will return this, but I will certainly not waste my time trying another unit.

After really trying hard to make this work, I am returning my 220-01 workstation to the store I bought it from. Not only that, I will certainly be a lot more weary of purchasing future Dremel products. The 220-01 could have been a great unit if the company had simply done a little better job at engineering. Though, in the current state, I see the 200-01 workstation as an accessory that simply does not live up to expectations.

Dremel Workstation
I have tried this unit in several different situtations and have found, if you let the tool do the work, it performs like a pure winner. Working as a drill press....like I said before, let the tool do the work and do not force the piece and it works as it is supposed to.
As a stationary buffer/grinder....works wonders on brass and other "light" metels.
If you are carefull it will also work as a light duth router.....just in reverse as to what you are used to.
All in all I would recomend this product to anyone in the market for a good light duty press/grinder.

I use my Dremel mainly to drill holes in glass. With the work station I can make consistently even holes. It also keeps all my bits and burs in order.

This "workstation" is not designed to the standards that one expects of Dremel, and the assembly instructions in the manual are wrong. If you follow them, you will not be able to assemble the workstation. They should therefore be ignored. Here are the instructions that I have written and that do work with the workstation that I received.

1. Remove the rubber caps from both ends of the long tube.

2. Pull out the inner tube as far as it will come and twist it to lock it into place.

3. The "square nut (short end first)" is a nut with a non-concentric hole. It is not for the height adjustment lever, as stated in the assembly instructions, but for the angle lock lever.

With the Dremel tool holder (the "press") in horizontal position (NOT in vertical as stated in the instructions), insert this nut with the thinner edge at the bottom, and check visually that it aligns with the hole for the angle lock lever, then insert the angle lock lever and give it the minimum number of turns necessary to capture the nut.

4. Insert the other square nut (the one with the concentric hole) in the back of the blue plastic sleeve, opposite the hole for the height adjustment lever, insert the height adjustment lever and give it the minimum number of turns necessary to capture the nut.

5. Holding onto the height adjustment lever so that it does not slip into the hole, work the thicker tube into the hole, inserting the bottom of the thicker tube into the top of the Dremel tool holder (consult the pictures on the box to determine which this is). It is a very tight fit, but if the two nuts inserted in (3) and (4) are correctly seated, it will go in by dint of wiggling and twisting it. You must expect part of the tube to be marked (damaged!) by the corners of the two captive nuts, which protrude into the space designed to receive the tube.

6. Leave a good 4" (10 cm) of clear thick tube above the Dremel tool holder, and tighten both levers (the height adjustment lever and the angle lock lever) gently.

7. Insert the very large bolt into the outside of the hole in the back of the base and secure it loosely with the corresponding large nut, which goes inside the column (tube) slot. This nut was hexagonal in the kit that I received, not square as indicated in the instructions. A square nut of the right dimensions to prevent it turning would have been much better.

8. Insert the tube (the column), which now has the tool holder on it into the hole in the base and tighten the bolt referred to in (7), above. (The supplied wrench is the wrong size, so you will need to find a suitable spanner to do this.)

9. Slide the "crow's nest" onto the tube from the top, making sure that the small holes for drill bits and tool shanks are uppermost. It will bind sufficiently to be stable when it reaches the thicker tube.

10. Insert the cable holder into the top of the thinner tube.

11. Insert the "hanger wire" into the top of the cable holder. It will be loose, so be careful that it does not fall out if you have to move the workstation, and that it does not swing and put the cable into a dangerous position while working. Perhaps some tape could be wrapped round its vertical shaft, to prevent this.

12. Add the plastic cap to the end of the "hanger wire".

13. Unscrew the plastic cover from the front of the Dremel tool and store it with the tool accessories. (It is a pity that a storage position for this was not designed for the "crow's nest" storage shelf!) Lower the front end of the tool into the cup-shaped front of the press and engage it with the large nut at the bottom, then tighten the nut with the large spanner that is supplied. (Once the tool has engaged with the nut, you may find it helpful to rotate the tool press assembly into horizontal position so that you can see what you are doing while tightening this nut.) The spanner can be stored in the slot at the back of the "crow's nest".

14. Tighten the press in vertical position (or other desired angle) with the plastic wing-nut behind the press.

15. Tighten the angle lock lever.

16. Adjust the height range as desired and lock in place with the height adjustment lever.

17. The base should be secured to a suitable work bench, preferably with four bolts or screws (not supplied!) through the holes at the corners of the base.

18. Inexplicably, the depth gauge is only moulded on the top half of the depth scale, so that less than half of it is usable. Users may wish to make their own depth scale and stick it on the bottom half of the depth scale bar, or make an alternative index point.

TRA
7.5.10.