Thread: Why you need an air micro die grinder

Buying from CTC's online store proves more economical than their Ebay store.

NEW Micro AIR Grinder RPM58 000 Grinding Polishing DIE Tool Equipment C99 | eBay

CTC Tools Cart

I bought mine from Melbourne Tools because it looks the same as CTC's, it was cheaper and there is the chance it might arrive sooner. We'll see.

BT

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

Buying from CTC's online store proves more economical than their Ebay store.

NEW Micro AIR Grinder RPM58 000 Grinding Polishing DIE Tool Equipment C99 | eBay

CTC Tools Cart

I bought mine from Melbourne Tools because it looks the same as CTC's, it was cheaper and there is the chance it might arrive sooner. We'll see.

BT

Melbourne to Perth compared with Hongkong to Perth. Could be a close run thing. I have had some ridiculus postage times from Perth and the one purchase I made from CTC via online store arrived in pretty quick time over Xmas period.

It looks the same? Probably is. It is the colour that is important. Red ones are faster of course. $50 from CTC EBay store. It does have an extra colletand a useless oiler and for me a useless air fitting.

Hope to see some results from it when it does arrive.

Dean

Hi Bob,
CTC online store is cheaper for the air tool, but when you add in freight it is $43-00. Melbourne Tool Supply $31-49 delivered.The carbide burrs are even more effected by freight $1-66 for the burr $8-49 delivered. I think CTC needs to look at his freight costs as they seem to me to be way too high.There are some wild prices on Ebay for these little grinders.
Bob

Originally Posted by krisfarm

Hi Bob,
CTC online store is cheaper for the air tool, but when you add in freight it is $43-00. Melbourne Tool Supply $31-49 delivered.The carbide burrs are even more effected by freight $1-66 for the burr $8-49 delivered. I think CTC needs to look at his freight costs as they seem to me to be way too high.There are some wild prices on Ebay for these little grinders.
Bob

The trick with CTC Tools is to save up and make a BIG Purchase in one go. This reduces the freight cost per item and makes their prices very competitive. Not much help for a single purchase tho.

Dean

Hi Dean,
You are right about ordering a lot of items it does reduce your freight costs. I have purchased a lot of tooling - well over two thousand dollars worth from CTC over the last few years. I mainly used sea freight and the freight cost worked out at under 20% of the tooling price, but sea freight last time I checked was almost the same as air and air freight has risen much faster than the tooling prices. I find CTC tooling prices and quality very good but as RC pointed out a little while back you have to check around especially for small orders. It will be interesting to see what is included in the grinder that BT and I have ordered as they all look very similar from all of the retailers.
Bob

Originally Posted by krisfarm

Hi Dean,
You are right about ordering a lot of items it does reduce your freight costs.
Bob

Yes, with CTC it's best to order up to get the freight cost down.

The pencil grinder I got was not direct from the CTC store, but from one of their Ebay "sites" and was $14 plus $15 postage at the time.

Since then our dollar has gone pear shaped.

The spare collet was not listed and was just something extra that I didn't expect. Came in handy.

I was using the die grinder again today to grind out some holes in plastic. So damn handy, but had a miserable day where everything went wrong.

So I'm sitting having a red wine while I type this and try to forget the disaster that was today

Cheers all.

Rob

Originally Posted by nearnexus

Yes, with CTC it's best to order up to get the freight cost down.

The pencil grinder I got was not direct from the CTC store, but from one of their Ebay "sites" and was $14 plus $15 postage at the time.

Since then our dollar has gone pear shaped.

The spare collet was not listed and was just something extra that I didn't expect. Came in handy.

I was using the die grinder again today to grind out some holes in plastic. So damn handy, but had a miserable day where everything went wrong.

So I'm sitting having a red wine while I type this and try to forget the disaster that was today

Cheers all.

Rob

It's surprising how often those one forward two back days occur. Probably why they invented plonk.

Tomorrow's another adventure Rob.

Bob.

Yes, you sometimes wonder why you tried.

+1 on the plonk.

Rob

After all the collet talk, I'm still confused as to whether dremil collets will fit or not....
If either Bob could let us know what collets do come with the Melbourne units that would be good. As a dremil owner I have a stack of 1/8" burrs etc. I dropped the dremil around the same time Rc was asking about alternatives, and she don't work no more. One of the field coil wires broke off right were it disappears into the coil. It was gutless anyway.

Cheers,
Ew

Originally Posted by Ueee

After all the collet talk, I'm still confused as to whether dremil collets will fit or not....
If either Bob could let us know what collets do come with the Melbourne units that would be good. As a dremil owner I have a stack of 1/8" burrs etc. I dropped the dremil around the same time Rc was asking about alternatives, and she don't work no more. One of the field coil wires broke off right were it disappears into the coil. It was gutless anyway.

Cheers,
Ew

Ewan I tried the dremel collet and it did fit and seemed to grip fine. I have not tried it running tho. I will be going out to the shed soon and will try it.

Dean

I have tried the Dremel collets on my 4 bearing model air grinder from CTC, and they work fine. The Dremel ones are aluminium, as opposed to steel (stainless?) on the air grinder. Other than that difference they fit perfectly.

Originally Posted by GTVi

I have tried the Dremel collets on my 4 bearing model air grinder from CTC, and they work fine. The Dremel ones are aluminium, as opposed to steel (stainless?) on the air grinder. Other than that difference they fit perfectly.

Thanks for the feedback.

One question: seeing as the Dremel collet has a flat section between the collet tapers and the air die grinder does not, does the nose cap use as many threads to screw down?

In other words, do you sacrifice nose cone threads when the Dremel collets are used ?

Rob

I'll try to summarise without taking pictures, because its now getting dark in the shed...

I have a bout 12 dremmel collets collected over the years. They all vary slightly. They range from aluminium to a very week alloy steel that is barely picked up by a strong magnet.
What I noticed between the dremel collets and the air die collets is as follows...

1. The metal on the dremel collets is half the thickness of the air die collets. (I can squeeze the Dremel collets easily with my fingers.)
2. The air die collet is strongly attracted to a magnet, where as the dremel collets either are aluminium or a different steel alloy. (The later has a very weak attraction to a magnet)
3. The head of the Dremel collet is more pointier
4. It takes 5 x 360 degree revolutions to fit either type of collet to finger tightness.
5. and about another 1/2 or 3/4 to fully tighten - no difference between the two in the threading.
6. When the bits are fully tightened, the air die collet remains unchanged.i.e. no sign of wear.
7. whereas the dremel collet (aluminium and steel) will deform slighlty or wear a ring around the head.

Conclusion: whilst the dremel collets will fit and work, I have my doubts they will last as long.

I no longer use collets on my dremel becuase I have a flexi shaft and a mini chuck on the end for the type of work I use it for its adequate, I use it free hand so not concerned about run out.
The air die collets are far superior in quality and being a thicker material will last longer. Plus I believe it may be stainless/polished.

Now the quest is to find spare replacement collets for the air grinder. I wonder if CTC have them?

Originally Posted by GTVi

I'll try to summarise without taking pictures, because its now getting dark in the shed...

<snip>

Now the quest is to find spare replacement collets for the air grinder. I wonder if CTC have them?

Thanks GTVi that really is an excellent reply.

I doubt you will be able to source collets from CTC .

Looking on the web I drew a blank on any replacement collets.

Rob