Cost Efficient Tools

A picture of the Dremel 300

As somebody who does the vast majority of his shop work at home, I have done a lot of work looking for cost effective machinery that can work for a variety of things. Case in point, one of my most used tools is a Dremel. The number of bits and the number of uses for each individual bit makes the Dremel useful for almost all smaller projects. Of course, you won't be able to get as nice a cut with a hand tool, but being able to cut, sand, buff, grind, and engrave with one tool is something hard to find.

Second to the Dremel would be a scroll saw, simply because cutting thicker wood is extremely slow with the friction-based cutting bits that come with the Dremel. Perpendicular cuts are something difficult to do with a Dremel, but quite easy with a proper saw. Although less powerful, scroll saws are generally much cheaper than a band saw and can make more accurate cuts.

Although at first a drill press appears silly if one already has a hand drill, the precision in depth that one is capable of with a drill press is unobtainable with a hand drill. There are a few fairly cheap drill presses one can find, a large stand alone one is rarely necessary on a personal scale.