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The Dremel Series 300 Multitool is very much like a small hand-held mains powered drill (in fact one of the jobs it can do is drill). The core unit takes a wide range of different tools, attachments and accessories. The review unit is packaged for Dremel's "Hobby" line and comes complete with twenty five different tools for a number of tasks.

The Dremel is provided in a soft blue zip-up case that also contains accessories, manual and a fold-out poster style guide to a wide, but not comprehensive, range of cutters, engravers, sanders and other miscellaneous tools. The manual includes a short section on safety and an introduction to the variaous elements of the tools itself.

See also: DIY

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One omission I think is the lack of a description of the accessories actually included with the product and from a hobbyist perspective any information on how those accessories should be used. The only information appears on the back of the packaging where each item is identified by part number. You are very much left to your own devices to realise that part '405' has to be used in conjunction with part 402. Through some detective work you can take these numbers and manually search for them in the accessories page of the Dremel web-site. Here's the list I put together:

• 4 templates (three with shapes and one with letters)
• a high speed cutter for hollowing or shaping soft materials
• an aluminium oxide grinding stone. Used for sharpening, deburring and general purpose grinding of most materials
• two polishing disks and a 'mandrel' (post to hold the disks)
• a block of compound to be used with the polishing disks
• five 'cut-off' wheels. These cut along the edge of a sharp disk used to cut or slot various materials
• nine sanding disks. These are used with the same post as the cut-off wheels.
• three sanding cylinders and a spindle

Pumpkin Carving

It's almost Haloween and Dremel thought it would be a good idea to let you all know that you can use your Dremel to carve your very own pumpkin.

If you do give it a go then please let us know how you get on!

These should generally be considered very much as a sample of what's available and it's very unlikely what you'll find here will be a perfect match for your hobby. For any serious use you'll need to stock up on what you need. The sanding disks, for example, only seem to last a few minutes before needing to be replaced. Although the kit is provided with nine such disks they are in fact sold in packs of 36, indicating I think how many you're likely to get through.

The tool measures around 195x50x50mm (LxWxD) and weighs around 500g. It tapers toward the front and the intention is that you wield it somewhat like you would a heavy pencil. This does take some getting used to but you fairly quickly adapt. Controls are straightforward. Once you've fitted your chosen tool there's a single multi-position control that selects one of a number of speeds between 10,000 and 30,000 RPM.

The Dremel concept is very good and the range of accessories extensive. When configured for a particular use it's generally easy to operate. The excellent technology is let down a little by the lack of documentation. The manual itself should introduce the tools provided and should point the user to the Dremel web-site. The site does offer a number of useful resources including training videos, project notes and a fledgling community area where users can share their own project ideas. Currently this contains a handful of projects but could be extended further as could the community concept to provide discussion forums where users could ask for help and share ideas less formally. I've marked the Dremel lower than I would have liked for "Ease of Use" primarily because of difficulty in working out how to configure the tool for a specific purpose.

The Dremel Series 300 is a great craft tool with a wide range of attachments and accessories. The Hobby package I've reviewed here is available from Amazon for £40.49 including delivery (RRP £44.99). As mentioned the accessories included are however very limited and unlikely to be sufficient. I notice that you can get the Dremel with 30 tools for £35.99.

If you're buying this for yourself then I'd suggest spending some time on the Dremel site to decide what tools you need and buying those at the same time. If you're buying as a gift then I'd recommend adding a wider selection of tools. Dremel do have a 100 piece set for only £14.68