Dremel 7700

xanadu

Some things in life should not be cordless. For everything else, it needs to feel as if there is a cord, else its function becomes null.

I've always had a corded cheap knock off version of a Dremel style tool. It was worthless, no torque at all. That limited it to the kinds of jobs I don't need it for. A few months ago I was in Lowe's and saw a cordless Dremel 7700. It was around $50, I think. I opened the box on the ride home. I was excited about finally having a cordless Dremel, who wouldn’t be?

When I got home I charged the battery in the wall charger it came with. It mentioned a three hour charge time. I do not want or need quick chargers in my life. I'm a last minute guy when it comes to everything except batteries. When it comes to batteries I need maximum capacity, not three hour charge time. When I get a charger that doesn't agree with my policies… I assume the manufacturer designed it to last at least a year. It didn’t really matter because I was about to Dremel a bunch of stuff.

Back to the battery for a sec, the 7700 pack is 7.2v, and I assumed it was nickel-metal hydride. The odd shape had me guessing about the cells. Much to my dismay it turns out the thing was just as gutless as my corded one. I started questioning my own motives with Dremels, maybe I need to take up jewel crafting, and maybe I’m in the wrong hobby. I didn’t use it much after the initial disappointment, we’ll call it a learning curve and write it off. I would still periodically top off the battery. Just in case I needed to cut butter or polish some glass.

Today I needed to make the tiniest little cut in plastic. No go from the 7700. Charger had a green light but the battery was not charged. No magic cordless Dremel awesomeness anywhere in sight.

I decided to open the battery pack, and this is what I found;



Six 800mah nicads, 7.2v/800mah. Bleh…



Mechanical switch for “HI” and “LO”, more like “LOL”. The switch moves the contacts against the battery terminals. The cheese was getting deep.



No problem…



JST, now I can cord it or battery it.



7.2v? Runs a lot better on 8.2v. Mission accomplished. This thing will slice through time itself.

W9GFO

Our robotics club has one of those - complete garbage.

It has been replaced with an 8000 10.8V lithium version that works very well, I have one at home too.

NWCCTV

Myself I am disappointed in the quality of Dremel over the past few years. I have gone through three of them and all I ever use them for is to cut holes in drywall. I air clean them and lubricate as needed. However, I have one I bought at a garage sale for $1.00 that is from the 90's and that one kicks butt. It is the one I decided to place in my Dremel Drill Press and it cuts pretty much everything I need it to.

erco

I got a Montgomery Ward "Power Kraft" brand dremel tool circa 1980, nearly half the price of a Dremel. Corded, obviously, with variable speed. It was all this poor college student could afford. Came in a plastic dremel-like storage box with all the bits. Nice kit. I peeled the Power Kraft label off of the box and tool. It said DREMEL underneath.

Still works fine today. I don't mind the cord.

wass

I've had a Dremel 800 10.8 V lithium tool for several years, it works incredibly well and hardly ever has to be charged. It has more torque than the corded Dremel 380 it replaced.

xanadu

The lithium version looks way better and worth getting spare battery packs instead of hacking it. I wonder why Dremel would produce something like the 7700 in today's market. It has a very 90s feel to it. There are a lot of good reviews about it online though. A lot of people mention the battery but somehow for them it isn't a show stopper. I wonder if there were better batches of batteries, maybe Dremel didn't manufacture the batteries.

jayden

I am thinking of that too. It seems that Dremel only manufacture tools and accessory kit.

MJB

in 1993 Dremel was bought by Robert BOSCH GmbH and is one of their tool business lines.
just realized this recently

CuriousOne

I have almost similar dremel model, which uses 4 AA batteries. "upgraded" it with 14500 LiIon rechargeables (3.6v ea). Got the power almost same as corded one

dmagnus

I'll second that. Wouldn't be without mine...

Mark_T

I think the moral is "never buy a cordless power tool that doesn't have lithium batteries"

Scope I think for a kickstarter project, open-source dremel-alike with choice of motor (brushless DC motor, mains AC)
and compatible CNC mounting collar.

Invent-O-Doc

I think I see why. The 7700 sells at sears for 25, the quality dremels are 3 to 5 times the price.

xanadu

Invent-O-Doc wrote: »

I think I see why. The 7700 sells at sears for 25, the quality dremels are 3 to 5 times the price.

$25 is more like it. I looked it up and I did pay $50 at the time. It was the only cordless Dremel there. It's a shame because the tool itself is great, just the battery or possibly the charger that ruins it.

xanadu

NWCCTV wrote: »

Myself I am disappointed in the quality of Dremel over the past few years. I have gone through three of them and all I ever use them for is to cut holes in drywall. I air clean them and lubricate as needed. However, I have one I bought at a garage sale for $1.00 that is from the 90's and that one kicks butt. It is the one I decided to place in my Dremel Drill Press and it cuts pretty much everything I need it to.

That's what I ended up doing. I found a used Dremel 4000 on craigs for $20 with all the original bits still new. Problem solved.

For drywall you ever try a sawzall?