Dremel Pumpkin Carver

GimpyMcJackass writes "With Halloween just around the corner, Dremel has "developed" the ultimate pumpkin carver set. It actually looks like it's just your normal dremel (although it's translucent orange) with a 191 high speed cutter and some fancy patterns. Of course, if you already have a Dremel and cutter (or reasonable knock-off of either/both), then you can just download some patterns."

Article Text

[The Good Reverend]

It's already slowing down fast...

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TOOLS
#764-01 Pumpkin Carving Kit

Pumpkin kits are available at Lowes stores, or contact Dremel directly at 1-800-4-DREMEL to order your pumpkin carving kit today!

For those looking to carve more advanced pumpkins than the traditional jack o'lantern this Halloween, the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit allows fast, easy carving of spectacularly sculpted pumpkins. Using the templates provided (or one of the thousands of pre-made templates available on the market), the Pumpkin Carving Kit makes carving intricate pumpkin designs as easy as tracing a drawing.

Create pumpkins that are sure to impress the entire neighborhood!

Join the Dremel Owner club chatroom to share and learn about other Dremel owners carving pumpkins.

Product Features:
6V 2-speed cordless rotary tool
Runs on 4 - AA alkaline batteries
6,000 / 12,000 RPM
191 High-Speed Cutter - ideal for carving intricate designs
Six bonus templates included

Get some _real_ stencils

[insanewombat]

None of this dremel stencil business - what you all need is a Trogdor stencil for your pumpkin! http://www.homestarrunner.com/ween_stencils.html [homestarrunner.com]

Just for you, zentex: more Dremel patterns

[sczimme]

Clicky. [ehow.com] Enjoy! :-)

Re:Been there Done that.. WONT do it again!

[pohl]

The wife, kids, and I went out and bought a Dremel last night and carved pumpkins using the drywall bit...inside...no mess. It could be the bit that you used, or it could be your technique. I had a blast, and I intend to do it again. Funny timing this slashdot article. I hadn't heard of using a Dremel for this until a friend suggested it about a week ago.

Re:download

[Wanker]

It looks like the patterns made it into the Coral cache before Dremel melted:

http://www.dremel.com.nyud.net:8090/html/products/ tools/pumpkin_patterns.html [nyud.net]

Alas, not all of the actual PDFs seem to be cached, but some of them are.

Right job, wrong tool

[srussell]

Recently, while adding a stall to a barn, I briefly toyed with the idea of doing a photo howto essay titled, "How to Add an Addition to Your Barn With A Dremel". Of course, you'd need just a couple of other, minor, "auxiliary" things, like wood, nails, a hammer, a reciprocating saw, a circular saw, a tape measure... but like most Dremel owners, my primary tool (even if it isn't used much) is the Dremel.

Anyway, the Dremel is great if all you want to do is scour a pattern into the skin of a pumpkin, but none of the bits (that I've been able to find) are long enough to actually cut a hole in an average pumpkin. On top of that, even at the lowest speed, you end up with pumpkin paste and orange mist.

At least, IME. The best tool I've found is indeed one of those cheapo pumpkin carving sets with dayglow handles and rigid, roughly serrated knives -- usually one thick, and one thin. We got one this year that came with a rigid spatula that worked really well, too.

Even so, I wish Dremel would come out with an extra-long, pumpkin-specific bit.

Re:Why the 191 bit?

[anethema]

You dont break thru, You just take the dark outside rind stuff off.

When you just have the pulp showin the light shines thru much better.

When you do it this way you can make patterns you cant while cutting all the way thru. Stuff can just be floating.. It can look really good.

Extremepumpkins.com rates this poorly

[morcheeba]

From What tools don't work well [extremepumpkins.com]:

Dremel tool / Roto-sip - Man, I thought these two would be great at carving. I even bought a "carving" tool for my dremel. I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I never considered the fibrous nature of the pumpkin. As you try to carve a straight line using a spining carving tool, it will slide through some spots and then snag a fibrous spot and jerk to one side. These two tools just don't work. Use a jig saw for carving and you'll be much happier. The in and out motion is much easier to use.

According to them, the best tools [extremepumpkins.com] are the Sawzall, Jigsaw, Router, and Ice Cream scoop.

Doesn't work so well

[neile]

My wife and I carved pumpkins last weekend. Ever the geek I bought a spiral cutting bit for my Dremel. My wife made do with a potato peeler (for the eye gouging end) and a knife.

The Dremel sucked for cutting out the faces. It, as others have mentioned, sprays orange rind everywhere, and is very hard to control. Plus you don't get a clean cut through the flesh. The edges wind up all fuzzy and gross instead of having that nice clean look that you get with a knife.

The Dremel was, however, very good at beveling all the edges back 45 degrees so the light could shine through better. It made quick work of the flesh behind the rind.

My wife's pumpkins turned out way better :(

Neil

I've used one of these

[silicon not in the v]

There's an alternate form [amazon.com] that is sold with different attachments as a tool for grinding down dogs' nails instead of having to use clippers. It's a total piece of s**t. It runs on 4 AA batteries. If it just needed to sit there and spin without touching anything, it might be fine, but if you actually press it against something--you know, to accomplish something useful--the tiny motor can't handle it. I was trying to grind my dogs nails for just a minute or two, and the thing got really hot and then stopped working. I took the batteries out, and they were too hot to touch. After the thing had cooled down, I put the batteries back in and tried again later. When I tried to grind the nails again, it just got hot and died again.

Basically this orange Dremel that runs on batteries it junk. Get a real Dremel if you want, but I guess they don't sell that pumpkin attachment separately.