Albert Dremel developed the now famous rotary tool and started the company in 1932 to make blade sharpeners. It would be 1935 before the company produced the Moto-Tool which is mostly recognizable as an ancestor of the modern Dremel.
Dremel achieved such dominance that today the name is synonymous with rotary tools in the same way Xerox means photocopy and Crock-Pot is any slow cooker. Sure, there are knock offs you can get from the usual cheap tool outlets, but generally, people reach for a Dremel even when it isn’t really one. Today that tool might really be a Black and Decker or a Dewalt or even a cheap brand like Wen or Chicago Electric. But in the first half of the 20th century, you might have reached for a Handee.
A Whole Shop Full of Tools
The Handee was a product of the Chicago Wheel and Manufacturing Company who, in 1937, billed it as “a whole shop full of tools in one,” as you can see in this ad. While $10.75 might sound like a price for a Harbor Freight cheapie tool, adjusted for inflation that’s around $200 in 2020 money. At least for that price you got three free accessories out of the over 200 available.
I didn’t remember the Handee and I wanted to see if I could figure out what happened to it and the company who made it. After all, with the Internet at your disposal, how hard could it be? Turns out, I did learn a lot, but in the end, tracing down a company like this from the old days isn’t always as easy as you might think.
The tool seems to have a long history and I’d later learn they claimed to make them since 1933. The 13,000 RPM of the 1937 model is pretty respectable. (A modern Dremel ranges from 3,000 to 37,000 RPM.) By 1952, the tool was up to 25,000 RPM and came with 51 accessories for $27.50 (about $270 today).
They show up some on sites like eBay, so it would appear they were pretty common in their day. Also, the prices indicate there is an ample supply or — perhaps — not much demand.
Old Money
Tracking down the origins of a company like this can be tricky. Volume 76 of “Iron and Steel” reports:
The Chicago Wheel & Manufacturing Company…manufacturers of corundum and emery carborundum wheels, etc. advise us that the business of the year 1899 surpassed that of any year since they started business. Mr. Miller recently bought out the interst of Mr. Snider, who had long been associated with him.
So you can surmise that the company had been around since 1898 or probably earlier, depending on their penchant for hyperbole.
However, that little bit gave me something to look up in the “The Book of Chicagoans” from 1911. The Mr. Miller in question was Henry Edward Miller. He became a manager of the Chicago Corundum Wheel Company in 1888. In 1895 he and four partners bought the business and changed the name.
Where Are They Now?
The last reference I can find to the Chicago Wheel and Manufacturing Company is in an article in a 1967 Popular Mechanics. The last ad I can find was in a 1966 edition of the same. The Handee — “the ideal gift” — cost $26 and went up to 28,000 RPM. That ad claimed the tool had been made since 1933. It makes you wonder if Dremel, founded in 1932, had seen their tool or vice versa since they were starting at about the same time.
When you look through old magazines, you have to wonder what happened to all those companies, especially one like this that seemed to be a pretty big concern. You like to think everything is on the Internet, but in this case, there’s very little trail left of this company. Sure, we can point at a few addresses they kept over the years, and trace their ads in a few magazines, but that’s about it.
Did the company get sold? Go out of business? Maybe a Hackaday reader knows the whole story. Or, if you had a Handee, tell us about it in the comments. Meanwhile, if you want to upgrade your cheap Dremel knock off, go ahead. Or build your own, but beware: getting some motors over 12,000 RPM is going to take more than the provided 7.4V.
If this piqued your interest in old school tools, one of the pages that you’ll want to spend some time on is http://www.flamingsteel.com/my-vintage-tool-collection.php. This is where the main image for this article comes from, and is packed with vintage tools going way back.
When I was in high school, I worked for my dad at a place that was a factory service center for Rodac tools. Many of Rodac tools were knockoffs of Chicago Pneumatic tools. The two companies competed on features. There first dial piston online sander was Rodac, and CP copied that design.
Today no one has heard of Rodac. They were bought by Ingersoll Rand, only a few of the Rodac designs are still sold.
(Rodac got in trouble copying the CP 734 impact wrench a few months before the patent on the hammer cage was over. There ended up being two externally identical versions of the Rodac 734 knockoff, one with the hydraulic hammer cage, and one with the steel hammer cage).
So Chicago Pneumatic wasn’t just a name pulled out of the air by Horror Fraught?
Chicago Pneumatic is really a very high quality tool brand. Probably best for shop mechanics.
Snap On has a good reputation because the single line trucks. Their tools are expensive, not because of super high quality, but they will offer credit to anyone.
Doesn’t “Snap on” refer to their ability to snap on first use?
Harbor Freight sells “Central Pneumatic” brand compressors and tools. Not as nice as Chicago Pneumatic, but they work well for me.
I’m pretty sure HF chose their names very carefully, purely to cause exactly this confusion: they carry Chicago Electric, and Central Pneumatic, _not_ Chicago Pneumatic, if I recall correctly.
Correct, Harbor Freight does sell “Chicago Electric.” Confusing.
Its really unfair but Chicago Pneumatic is actually a very high end US based air tool brand. Chicago Electric was an obvious attempt to ride those coat tails.
In the jewelry world, most people use Foredom rotary tools. They’re pretty robust and produce a lot more torque than a Dremel. They’re also larger/heavier, and universally used with a flexible drive from the motor, hanging over the workplace, down to a handpiece that has collets or a chuck. They’re definitely a mid- to high-end Dremel competitor that’s still going strong.
They’re nice tools, if you can ‘Foredom!
B^)
My grandfather was a jewelery designer, and he always used a dentist’s drill that he had machined a set of collets for. Always been jealous of that rig.
This was fine work, though, and not the grinding-through-a-PC-case type of things that folks tend to do with Dremels, branded or otherwise.
I have an older Dremel, it has a steel storage case, but unlike the Handee in the title photo, the case has a Styrofoam mold to hold the tool and bits. I’m guessing it is from the 1960’s-70’s.
Doesn’t Bosch own Dremel now?
Yes, according to https://hackaday.com/2019/07/22/a-drop-in-upgrade-module-for-cheap-rotary-tools/
“They cost just a fraction of the real thing, and even use the same bits as the official Bosch-owned version.”
So, I have a HANDEE 3000 Just like the one pictured above in the article … anyone out there know how to turn it on? I can not find any on / off switch and I have no instruction booklet Any help would be welcome…
“Today that tool might really be a Black and Decker…”
That’s not really so new-school either, my first rotary tool was a Black and Decker some 30+ years ago.
I’ve found that the Black & Decker rotary tool works a lot better if you swap the collet for a genuine Dremel part; I had one that just threaded right on.
Like a little old school drill chuck. Yes, but here is a trick to center the bit and get less wobble. Open chuck a little blow into it to remove dust, then gently tighten it to the bit. Now holding the motor firmly in one hand with the lock button pressed rotate and “stir” the bit till more slop is evened out and it gets gently but securely tightened. Now give it the force of full grip on the chuck not the bit and tighten it and et-voila! It will be centered much better than just sticking the bit in and tightening it willy nilly.This works on a drill press too!
Not a hack!
(but certainly a type of tool found in the shops of many hackers!)
B^)
Miller was the patent inventor to the “Portable motor driven power tool” GB1136679 A
Who later on went to make his fortune brewing beer.
B^)
Dremel is really a success story in marketing and finding the right product for your market. Dremel tools have absolutely crap bearings and collets, not much better than the bottom of the barrel imports, but they were just good enough for the usual home gamer and with a low intro price that gets you into the dremel ecosystem of medium/low grade tools where they make most of their profit. But they have crushed the competition and like the article mentiones they have absolutely crushed the competition with their approach. Impressive really
They used to be better-made though. I’m still using the one I bought as a teenager in the mid-1970’s, and they’ll pry that thing out of my cold dead hand. Back then it wasn’t only the bearings that were better. First, it had the small pin-chuck type bit holder instead of the more modern miniature drill chuck. Not as nice in some ways, but it gets into tight spaces that newer Dremels and clones won’t. Also, it had a crude speed regulator – I think it worked using the back-EMF of the motor to change the phase angle and apply a greater average voltage as the motor slowed under load. It’s SO much nicer to use than a tool that doesn’t have that feature. I suspect they eliminated it because people were abusing it and burning the tools out. Anyway, I agree that modern Dremel tools are mediocre at best, but back in the day they were pretty good IMHO.
“and they’ll pry that thing out of my cold dead hand.”
Nahhh, they’ll just use another Dremel with a cutoff bit!
B^)
You can pry those chunks of shattered cutoff wheel out of my bleeding eyeball!
(Wear glasses folks. True story is that I caught it on the cheek, but that’s just dumb luck.)
Can’t they use a BLDC type motor in these? I have a German made B&D tool about 18V DC, it’s better than a Dremel. I run it on a regulated power supply. It doesn’t rev down when under load. It has permanent magnets not series windings. Dremel used to make a PM type years ago then went back to the series design which revs way up and slows way down under load. Now we have high density magnets. The sound of a brush type series motor running on AC instead of DC is annoying at least and not efficient. These tools are used close up to your hearing and the whine is harmful. The BLDC type should have a quiet sound profile.
I used my grandfather’s Handee tool in the 90’s. Worked just fine. Really liked the twist turn on/off.
In my day $200 would have been considered excessive for a handee.
*rim shot*
I have several B&D RX rotary tools. They don’t seem to make them anymore. Much more torque than a Dremel and most Dremel tools and accessories can be used. The downside is that they seem to destroy their front bearings quite quickly so I bought a bunch of cheap generic sealed bearings on Ebay and I replace the bearing every so often. A hack on the RX tools is to buy the cheaper 3 speed version and remove the speed control detents. Then you have the more expensive variable speed version!
Somebody gave me a Gessein jeweler’s drill with a flexible shaft and a chuck a few years back. What a great bit of kit!
Proxxon.
Indeed. Nice small tools for affordable price.
Proxxon industrial wrenches ratchets and sockets are fine too.
The ultimate rotary tool is a dentist drill. Incredibly high speed – 10,000 RPM and very light weight. We used them to modify prototype PCBs.
I would guess you’re talking about an electric dentist’s drill, not a pneumatic one. About 40 years ago now I designed and hand-built 10 dental drill tachometers. So I know that those are normally run at a top speed of 180,000 RPM, and are capable of 300,000 RPM when given enough air.
I picked up a dentist drill set on eBay for $110USD. The small tool is capable of over 400krpm. I also purchased a “low speed” handle that tops out around 150krpm IIRC. Both a pneumatic powered and a dream to use. I even use them as toolpost grinders in the lathe for making accurate parts for my high-power rockets.
Didn’t you mean, 100,000rpm? 10,000 seems a bit slow.
WEN tools is still around. Started in 1951. In the 80’s dad had a WEN electric disc grinder he used in auto body repair, and a WEN electric chainsaw.
One day the grinder just quit. Since the chainsaw was rarely used (not at all convenient to trail an extension cord across 2 acres) I suggested that the motor from the chainsaw might work in the grinder. The armatures were physically identical!
One armature swap later and the old grinder was whizzing along with a heck of a lot more power than it had originally, but in the opposite direction. After throwing the disc once, dad just made sure to tighten the nut *extra tight*. Never came loose again. Sold it on a yard sale some time later, of course with the tale of the armature swap, and admonition to keep the nut really tight.
Ah. Dremel. Avoid if possible. I once needed a drill press for one to make holes in a pcb. The crap thing was mostly made of plastic and the side play was more than trice the width of the 0.8mm drill used. Total waste of time and money. There and then i foud out that proxxon is actually cheaper and better build. Never looked back.
Agree, I have my Proxxon for more than 20 years now, also easier to get in Europe in those days. The dremel drill bits etc however are good.
The Dremel tool really needs a motor speed controller.
You end up spinning the bit too fast just to get the right speed when it touches the piece.
As I posted above, they used to come with speed regulation, back in the 70’s. And yes, it’s a serious pain to use one without that feature – that’s why I’ve kept mind and take care of it. I think they abandoned it because people were using the tools too hard and burning them out while they were still under warranty.
One of my cheap knockoffs has a 0-6 speed control and it may as well just have a switch, because it has no grunt on anything but 6. IDK, maybe if I was doing some fine polishing I’d want it on 2 or 3 so the buff wheel doesn’t fly apart, but for any grindy cutty stuff it’s 6 or nothing.
What no reference to foot pedal (treadle) driven rotary tools? So Green and get awesome calf muscle tone assuming ankles hold out.
I saw in a museum, the equipment from an old dentist office.
The drill was foot powered.
By the patient.
Way back when dental assistant meant hot babe with awesome gams?
I’ve used all three, a Foredom in school (Did not like it.) An old dental drill, pantograph type delivery and fast. And a Dremel from around the middle Seventies. Of the three, if I had the space, I’d prefer the Dremel. I do own a Harbor Freight knock off. Which took some getting used to.
I have a Sears from 1990, which seems to be an actual Dremel rebadged. Worked fine until two years ago, apparently a plastic coupler to the shaft eventually wears out. I’ve yet to find a replacement, Amazon sells a few, but third party sellers in Canada and outrageously priced.
I did buy the optional chuck at one point, so much easier than the collets.
Maybe ten years ago I bought a cheap knockoff, when it was on sale. I was mostly interested in the accessories, including one of those extensions. But, there is eniugh variation between the Dremel and the knockoff that the chuck doesn’t fit the knockoff, and the extension doesn’t fit the Dremel.
I have a rotary tool that is very old, I don’t remember the maker, I can check later. The body is about 4″ long, brown, the collar slides down to loosen the not on the collet. The nut is round, and knurled with one hole for wrench to fit in.
I knew a descendent of Mr. Miller, probably his grandson. His father had been forced to sell the Chicago Wheel company in the early 1970’s due to illness. I cannot remember the buyer. Chicago Wheel also manufactured an early electric drill in the 1940’s.
We have one of these that was in the family stuff. No user manual. Can anyone explain how to open the chuck to exchange bits?
There’s a circular wrench that’s placed over the chuck and locks it. On the chuck end, there are 4 small holes, that you can fit a bit into. You can turn the bit and loosen or tighten the chuck. …I don’t know how to send an image, or I would…
Thank you. Those tools are missing from the box so I guess it will just be for looking at :)
I’ve just inherited a Handee with the metal box and a couple’a’dozen tools, I believe it came from a silver smith (long dead) and still has the US two-pin plug, now, I’m wondering if I can just whack a UK three-pin on it and fire it up at 240v, or will I need a converter/transformer? Keen to get started I have stuff to cut, grind and polish!
Get an auto transformer, there are versions that have a USA socket in the housing.
I just came into possession of the Handee 12 in 1 workshop accessory its a drill press, lathe, saw, router and some other stuff. I can’t find any information about it or anywhere that is selling it or the attachments for it. Does anyone know anything about this multi purpose set up? Trying to find out if I have all the parts.
I just found one a while cleaning a friend’s father house after pasted. It in an old cigar box all the tools with and a home holder for the bits, and it still works to look like new. The family built the use in 59 and t stated in the family. Lot items from the 40s, 30s and 20s. The uncle was big modding the house and electronics. Big work table with a lot of vintage tools I with could have got. Vintage 70s stereo gear and short wave radios I got. The Handee looks like there had the case but at best did like it. Moving it to an old dermal case. The bits are in great shape some look never used and from they are there plus extras.