I wonder if there are any high speed dremel type tool that will withstand heavy-duty usage? I used a regular type for this particular time. Well... it got awfully hot. Also locking mechanism jammed so I had to take it apart and fix it. Maybe something like dentists use?
My only Dremel is probably over 10 years old and still works like new.
I use several Proxxon rotary tools, and the only one I killed was after a year or two of heavy use. Big side-loads in a router table, doing tasks that call for a real router. I've learned how to prevent even this. When the bearing starts to make funny noises, you have to stop using it and replace it right away before the commutators on the motor get worn out of whack. The Proxxon tools have their thin, slender neck at the cost of a stupidly thin ball bearing at that end. McMaster Carr sells them. They have only one model in this size, which is telling on how extreme a compromise it is.
Quote from: tkamiya on Today at 07:46:13 pm
Wooohooo! Great idea! I already have a smallish compressor. Thanks!
I have a broken refrigerator and the intention of using the compressor to build myself a shop compressor. It'll be any year now. 
Compressed air tools have the advantage of being powerful and refrigerated by the expanding air.
The problem with air grinders is air supply. They're hogs. They have much lower inertia and suck massive air even when up to speed. They get their torque from sucking massive power all the time. You probably need at least 20 gallon tank and a decent compressor to use one, even a pencil grinder. A fridge compressor is high pressure, low output; not at all right to run an air grinder.
I eventually upgraded my router table to take a trim router. And I bought a 1/8" collet for it, so I can still use all my rotary tool bits in it.
*edit: I also occasionally use a trim router like a big dremel tool, using both carbide burrs and stone/hard points. With a carbide burr, it will eat plastic and aluminum, but you need a big hand to hold it.
One curious thing I've found is that even the cheapest trim router you can find out of china runs true as any high money dremel or proxxon tool and will have a nicely balanced motor. Consumers seem to accept runout and buzz in cheap rotary tools, perhaps because they are still useful with a variety of tasks/bits. A router with any much runout would be fairly useless and perhaps even a safety issue. The balancing of the motor, which is the massive majority of the weight of the device, probably simply has to be done, and it seems that once that threshhold is crossed, it is perhaps not much more expensive to do the job, properly.