New Dremel- Time to Frag!

So after learning the hard way with trying to frag my hammer and cracking the skeleton with my hard coral cutters I bought a new Dremel 7700 with a diamond wheel.

Now I am ready to slice up some frags! If you're having a hard time picturing what it will look like when I fire up my new Dremel, check out this link, skip to 1:10 and substitute a dremel 7700 for the metal rod: Star Wars Kid - YouTube

Anyway, my main question is whether there is anything I should keep in mind when fragging with a cutting wheel.

 

you need to have some form of eye protection
I wear glasses and when I used the dremmel to cut frags of torch corals
the glasses got covered in small bits of calcium etc

so eye protection is smart

Steve

 

Good idea. I always do it anyway because I am absolutely terrified of getting toxins and such in my eyes or on me. I don't try to discern between what is toxic and not- I just cover myself regardless.

Is there a specific technique that works well? Do you hold the frag or place it on a table and hold it down? Should it be a slow or quick cut or does it not matter?

 

+1 on eye protection. i now live with a problem eye due to being young and cool/knows everything. I used to have perfect vision, but now I have a scar across my right pupil. Been in the hospital a few times getting rust and metal ground off the surface of my eye with a dremel like instrument :S . kinda off topic but figured I'd share.

 

I held onto the base of the coral wearing a glove on that hand

the dremmel needs to be at a speed that will not snag as it cuts through as that can also result in an accident
I would test it a few times on bits of rock(that is what I did)

holding the rock in my left hand, and dremmel in right hand, away from my body, and ensuring the wheel is spinning in a direction away from yourself and the hand holding the rock
that way if it skips off the surface, it is going away from you and not towards you

takes a couple of goes to get confident with it
once you have the confidence in addition to safety principles in your technique, you will have no problems IME

 

+1

Excellent advice for using a Dremel, regardless what you're cutting. :thumb_up:

 

Great point. I was going to add this but i dont have to. lol