Whether you’re a jewellery maker, model maker, or just a general DIY tinkerer, the contents of your tool box are an essential part of your craft.  Many crafters have a tool box overflowing with tools, some of which they simply cannot live without, others that have never seen the light of day. In this review we are going to tell you about a tool we have added to our “cannot live without” category... (not only that, it comes with its own little tool box!)

The RC12 Single Speed rotary Tool Kit
This tool is not just one addition to your tool box, but thousands (or 44 in this case). With the correct attachment you can turn this tool from a wood sanding tool to a glass cutting tool, or (if you are feeling a little more adventurous) it is even widely used as an industrial nail file in
human and pet nail salons worldwide. The rotary tool really is a quintessential part to the hobbyist hobby tool kit.

The RC12 is the entry level rotary tool made by Rotacraft. It is a hand held miniature power tool which offers the user 18,000 rpm of pure crafting bliss. As with many good rotary tools the attachment being used is what really defines the drill. This being said, without the correct base unit to use your attachments, with you could soon find yourself with another tool that you simply  don’t use. However, get the correct base unit and your crafting capabilities will go through the roof. The RC12 features a small sleek design which comes with a built in  “pen grip”. This grips offers support for natural hand placement, and combined with the ergonomically designed housing it allows intricate crafting to be performed with ease - this could include engraving those precious stones for that next

The RC12 comes with a 12 volt plug in transformer adapter allowing it to be plugged in to common household sockets. With a wire of length of just under 2.5 metres the user has ample space and flexibility when using the tool. The RC12 is a single speed rotary tool; this means that the user is unable to determine the speed produced by the unit.
 This being the case the more delicate of tasks (say for example drilling glass) would require a variable speed tool as these tools allow the user to determine the speed produced offering heightened precision for those tasks.

The RC12 comes with an additional 44 accessories.  There are 4 Collets included in this pack (1mm , 2.35mm, 3mm & 3.2mm) this allows for accessories from other brands to be used with this tool. As well as the collets you get 40 different accessories which can be used in a broad range of applications.

The accessories included are:

4x collets (1mm , 2.35mm, 3mm & 3.2mm)
4x Drill Bits (1mm , 2.35mm, 3mm & 3.2mm
2x Large Polishing Wheel
2x Small Polishing Wheel
1x Polishing Wheel Shank
6x Diamond Points
10x Grinding Stones
1x Mandrel
3x Cutting Wheels (22mm diameter)
2x Sanding Drum Mandrels
6x Sanding Drums
2x Wire Brushes
1x Nylon Pencil Brush

As you can see from the list above, this tool can be used for cutting, sanding, polishing, grinding and so much more (In fact I think one of the only things it cannot do is make the cup of tea after you have finished!!)

One thing to consider when looking into purchasing a rotary tool is it’s purpose; there are thousands of accessories out there that will fit this tool, all of which designed to do a different job. As mentioned above, if you are looking to do some of the more advanced tasks like glass burring, then this entry level unit is not for you. The RC12’s inability to allow the user to determine speed means that tasks which require a gradual increase in speed cannot be performed with this tool. However, if you are looking to add that finishing shine to the beads on your new piece of jewellery, bring back new life into a old piece of furniture (or even up cycle some old furniture into a wonderful new piece) then this tool will make these jobs so much easier and less time consuming.

The durability of this tool is outstanding - I have been told about 1st generation Rotacraft RC12s still being used in a professional capacity after 5+ years of hard grind (excuse the pun). I have had mine for 3 years and it has been through some wars (the biggest of which was its brief stint on a building site where it was outperforming £500 worth of power tool) and despite losing a little torque I still use it now. I have since upgraded to one of the more advance models but still use the RC12 for polishing my golf clubs or sanding down freshly made furniture (that is when I can get it off my partner who uses it for her jewellery crafting). It’s easy to go through the accessories as they soon wear down but this tool will last through a large number of replacement drill bits, and even if this workhorse does start to slowdown,  I have found that simply taking off the case, giving it a little clean and lubrication restores it to full working potential.

The RC12 is currently on sale at www.hobby-tools.co.uk for £19.99, (RRP: 29.95), this comes with the 44 additional accessories as described above and an aluminium tool box (pictured above).

Members of The Professional Crafters Guild will gain an additional discount by quoting their special discount code and adding their registration number at the checkout.
http://www.procraftersguild.com