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Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
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Credit:
Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
Learn more about our product testing
The Dremel 3000 is powerful, comes in a durable case, and includes a wide array of accessories. Read More
The Dremel 8220 is a high performer and a good value in kit form. Read More
The Goxawee G4007-US has a lot going for it. It includes over 100 pieces for close-up work, a cutting shield, and a few replacement brushes. Read More
The Wen 2305 is affordable and a good tool for lighter work like sanding or polishing. Read More
The Ryobi One+ P460 is a great tool for buffing. engraving, sanding, and carving. Read More
Rotary tools have a lot of uses for home improvement—whether you're a casual user or a serious tradesperson. For tasks that are delicate or close-up, it's common to use a rotary tool to cut, polish, and carve. Many people even use them to trim their pet's nails. An ideal rotary tool will combine a powerful motor, compact size, and light weight with a wide variety of high-quality accessories and attachments.
To find the best, we put a well-rounded group of products from popular brands and different price ranges through a battery of tests to give us a good idea of what kind of versatility and capability you can expect. Our results show that the Dremel 3000 2/28 kit (available at Amazon for $81.99) and the cordless Dremel 8820 (available at Home Depot) are the best rotary tools you can buy. The Dremel brand defined this type of tool many years ago, and the high-quality, comprehensive kits are backed by solid performance.
The Dremel 3000 is easy to handle and comes with a wide assortment of accessories.
The Dremel 8220 is a high performer and a good value in kit form.
Includes more than 100 pieces and replacement brushes
Not great for long-term use
Great for lighter work
Batteries power other Ryobi tools
Expensive
Rugged
Can handle tougher tasks
No speed control
Heavy
Available at most retail stores
Doesn't have many features
Struggles with heavy-duty tasks
Rugged
Powerful
Heavy
Not suited for delicate tasks
We used the rotary tools to polish tarnished metal and de-burr the edges of a newly cut piece of sheet metal.
I'm Dan. I own a 120-plus-year-old house and am stubborn enough to DIY as much as I can. That means I'm familiar with a lot of tools and my experience helps me figure out what's worthwhile and what's a gimmick. I've spent decades building and fixing, from cars in the driveway, to plumbing in the basement, and recently a glass tile backsplash in the kitchen. I hope my experienced do-it-yourselfer perspective is helpful for you when you're trying to choose between the vast array of options out there.
To find the strengths of each of our assembled products, we tested in two phases. First, we tried some close-up work like carving a design into a piece of wood and sanding down the edges of a plank. We also used the rotary tools to polish up some tarnished metal and de-burr (grinding smooth) the edges of a newly cut piece of sheet metal. We switched from the mandrels and polishing pads to a spiral cutting bit and traced and cut out an "E" from a 3/8" piece of birch plywood. The 3/8" thickness and different orientation of the layers was a tougher challenge than something lighter, like lauan, which all of these tools would easily power through. A soft wood-like pine would also be a less difficult task, though the challenge there is to find the right speed for the tool so you don't scorch your work with an overheated bit.
For the second phase of our test, we cut circles out of the same piece of birch plywood, etched designs into glass, and drilled into cinder blocks. With the right bits, some tests, such as drilling into cinder blocks, were surprisingly easy. You may have trouble getting through mortar or cement, but something like old brick is softer than you'd think. These tasks, from the small stuff to the big challenges tested the full range of these rotary tools' power and ease-of-handling. For continuous cutting, like our "E," your best bet is a corded model to avoid abusing batteries or running out of a charge before you finish the task. We found a surprising amount of similarity in design and performance among several of the tools, as well as stand out showings from our winners.
A rotary tool spins at a high fixed or variable speed, and can be used for detailed work such as cutting, polishing, engraving, and even carving. You can use them with drill bits and there are some accessories available to turn rotary tools into a sort of miniature drill press. There are many accessories and bits, and swapping accessories and attachments is easy and quick.
Most rotary tools fit in the palm of your hand, and the latest cordless rotary tools are highly portable but usually less powerful than any you'd plug in. That will change as batteries and motors keep improving, and one of our top picks was a battery model with impressive performance.
Rotary tools have a lot of uses, from fine miniature details to speeding up a wallboard installation. A rotary tool isn't the same thing as a rotary drill or rotary hammer, two terms you may come across while searching for one of these. Those are lower-speed, heavier-duty devices for different jobs including general carpentry and construction, masonry, and demolition.
The wide range of tools and attachments available to accessorize a rotary tool can make your head spin. Every product we tried at least came with abrasive cutting discs. These are miniature versions of the bigger cut-off wheels used on angle grinders, and they'll chew through wood, metal, or plastic material. Grinding attachments in a variety of shapes—conical, spherical, round, etc.—are useful to sharpen things such as shears, lawnmower blades, or other metal shaping tasks. There are small wire brushes and soft polishing pads, too, for making things shiny. Small drill bits, often made out of very hard material such as carbide are used for precise work in a variety of materials including metals, tough composites, and plastics. Stone and diamond grit tools can cut and shape glass and some rock and are available in a wide array of shapes and sizes. Spiral, or "Rotozip" (after the tool that originally made them popular) bits are used for cutting. We used some on our wood cutting tests, and drywall installers keep them handy to quickly trim pieces around electrical boxes or other detail cuts. We even found a carbide bit for cleaning away grout for a kitchen tile installation happening at the same time as our testing.
The attachments further adapt a rotary tool's set of capabilities. There are cutting guides that set a fixed depth-especially handy when cutting sheet materials. Guides make it easy to use the tool as a router, along the edge of a piece of material, or cut a perfect circle several inches in diameter. Flex shafts allow a user to hang the motor and have very precise control over the bit. The possibilities for bits and attachments seem nearly endless, and it makes a rotary tool a very versatile purchase.
We've drawn attention to the speeds these tools are capable of throughout our review. That's because it's important for a rotary tool to be able to achieve both a very high rotational speed, but also have enough choices to run slower when necessary. High speed is suited for things such as drilling, especially with very small bits, while the higher speed may generate too much heat when carving or sanding. The ability to dial up the speed when necessary makes for cleaner work, because the tool has the power to cut and shape properly. For people who use these tools as pet nail trimmers, for instance, too high a speed can actually hurt an animal. Any polishing task should also start at the lowest speed setting and work up to something in the middle of the range. The wider the range of speeds is, the better matched your rotary tool will be to the task at hand. It will be safer, too.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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