Elissa R. Campbell | Blue Roof Designs

I’ve been quiet…

Yesterday - by Elissa

I won’t lie – life has been rough lately.

I’ve been dealing with a significant personal crisis and my level of motivation (and mood) fluctuates wildly from day to day (and hour to hour). I’m a private person, so I won’t go into the details.

I have a long list of blog posts that need to be fleshed out, so they are coming – I just need to find the impulse to write.

I really appreciate everyone’s support of me, my work, and my blog. I hope to be back in the swing of things soon.

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Yes, I have a Dremel…what else can I work on?

August 23, 2010 (2 weeks ago) - by Elissa

As mentioned in my last Dremel post, this post focuses on tips for using a Dremel with specific materials. When I attended The Amazing Dremel with Jill Timm last year, I documented what I learned in my post So now I have a Dremel…what can I work on?

This time I took 4 ½ pages of notes during the workshop. Most of my notes duplicated what I learned last year, but some of the tips were new to me. In addition, I worked on two new materials – bookboard and brass – those notes are new.

New materials:

Bookboard:

• It’s easy to drill holes in bookboard. For better control, use a workstation to stabilize your Dremel.
• Use carving bits to do deep work.
• Bookboard tends to “barf” when you work on it, meaning that material comes off in fluffy chunks. In addition, you’ll be left with fluffy, chunky burrs on the board.
• To get more control when carving out areas, cut out borders with an X-Acto knife, then work within those lines. You’ll get a cleaner edge.
• Aluminum oxide grinding stones (brown, orange, pink, or grey bit) can be used to clean up burrs and soften edges.
• Bookboard will erode grinding stones, so move the Dremel while working to even out the wear.
• You can get a smoother finish on the surfaces of worked areas by burnishing down with a bonefolder.

Brass:

• Because brass is softer metal, it’s easy to create depth with layers of work.
• Diamond bits can be harder to control.
• Pay attention to the direction of your work and stay consistent – it shows!
• For polishing, use felt pads with polishing compound.
• For polishing, use emery-impregnated bits without polishing compound.
• Polish brass before doing other work (such as engraving) or you’ll risk getting polishing compound into groves/texture and you’ll have to work hard to get it out.

Previously-covered materials:

Some general tips:

• When putting a sanding band on the drum mandrel, tighten the screw on top of the mandrel to snug up the drum.
• If your bit turns red, it’s overheating. Once it burns, it will turn black and you won’t be able to use it again.
• A Dremel has two motor brushes, one on each side of the motor.
• Motor brushes will wear down and get shorter over time.
• Always replace both motor brushes at the same time.

Glass/Mirror:

• Use light pressure – you don’t need to go deep.
• Put a drop of oil on glass prior to drilling to both increase speed and keep the bit from overheating.
• Be careful when drilling too close to the edge of glass because it can shatter apart.
• For safety, tape glass edges before drilling.

Linoleum:

• Start at medium speed.
• This is a soft material and won’t allow fine lines or detail like harder materials.

Plexiglass:

• If your bits get gummed up, put them in the freezer for easy removal of the offending material.
• You can also squeeze gummed up bits with pliers and the material will pop off.

Steel:

• Sanding bits can be used to create a satin texture and remove rust.
• It is easier to work in one direction.
• Use titanium bits to drill holes – these are gold in color.

Wood:

• Take short passes because wood can scorch.
• Use sanding bits to remove burrs from the surface of wood.
• An aluminum oxide grinding stone acts as really fine sandpaper.

In my next post, I’ll share the Dremel sample books that were created in class. Jill came up with a great solution for housing our material samples – stay tuned!

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• Tagged as book arts, Bookbinding, craft, Crafts, Dremel, equipment, tools

The Amazing Dremel – new (to me) accessories

August 21, 2010 (2 weeks ago) - by Elissa

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently assisted Jill Timm with her Amazing Dremel workshop for the Book Arts Guild of Vermont. In this post, I’ll talk about some of the new bits I used.

Before I start, I’d like to make it clear that in no way am I paid for endorsing Dremel products – I am merely talking about the products I used in the workshop. I’m sure that there are alternatives to the items listed below. Of course, being the tool junkie that I am, I sooo want one of everything!

In reviewing my What do those Dremel bits do? Well I’ll tell ya! post from last year, I discovered that I left out some information about another option for cleaning & polishing (I blame information overload) – emery impregnated bits.

These bits look like grinding bits, but they’re much softer. Unlike the felt polishing bits, you don’t use these bits with polishing compound. These bits are good for use on rougher surfaces, including scratches and burrs. If scratches still remain after using these bits, you would move to the felt polishing bits for finer work.

The polishing point is good for detail work, as you can get better control with the tip.

The emery impregnated disc is better for general use and for work on larger areas. As is the case with cutting wheels, you have to attach the disc to a mandrel. You can see how to attach the disc to a mandrel in this post (scroll down to the cutting section).

In addition to using the polishing bits on metal, they’re also great for use on mirror. If you use one of these bits on the backside of a mirror, it will remove the paint and silver without affecting the glass – you’ll get a clear glass effect, not frosted (the diamond bit creates the frosted effect).

Something else I did at this workshop that I didn’t get to do last time was drill glass. To help with stability, I put my Dremel into a workstation, which essentially turns your Dremel into a drill press.

I so have to get one of these. It makes drilling sooo much easier. I can totally see using it in my studio for drilling sewing holes.

I started with making a small hole with a diamond bit. Once I got through to the other side of the glass, it climbed up my bit and started spinning. The tip of the bit glowed a really scary red before I was able to turn off the Dremel.

While I was successful at achieving a hole, the edges of the hole were chipped. I would need to sand down those edges to get a neat hole.

Next, I used what I’m pretty sure was a tungsten carbide cylinder cutter. The bit is hollow in the middle and allows you to drill larger holes.

I didn’t make it all the way through the glass before it shattered. Luckily, the bit didn’t burn out. Oh, and no one was hurt by the flying glass shards.

Here’s what I learned about drilling glass:

• Make short passes with the Dremel – let the bit cool off.
• Put a drop of oil on the glass prior to drilling to both increase speed and keep the bit from overheating.
• If your bit turns red, it’s overheating. Once it burns, it will turn black and you won’t be able to use it again.
• Be careful when drilling too close to the edge of the glass because it can shatter apart.
• For safety, tape the edges of glass before drilling.

Jill told me that the bits we were using to drill glass weren’t really recommended for that use. She added that as of now, there are no “official” Dremel bits intended for drilling glass.

There is hope – in October 2010, Dremel will release two new glass drill bits.

From the Dremel website:

This diamond-impregnated core-style bit features superior long life and is ideal for drilling in both flat and contoured surfaces. Diamond grit a full 360-degrees around the circumference of the bit allows it to be used in a rasping action to enlarge a hole if needed. Holes on the side of the bit allow the removal of glass dust from inside the bit. Each bit is packaged with Dremel cutting oil to increase the speed of cut and prevent damage to the bit from overheating.

For use on glass, ceramic wall tile, glass block, glass bottles, jewelry.

The new drill bits come in two sizes – 1/8″ and 1/4″. These seem like good sizes for use in bookbinding and I look forward to trying them out.

As promised, my next post will focus on new tips for using a Dremel on specific materials, both new and old (includes materials covered last year).

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* Many thanks to Dremel for allowing me to use product photos from their website.

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• Tagged as book arts, Bookbinding, craft, Crafts, Dremel, equipment, Supplies, tools