I have a Dremel with a long flex shaft that I bought new in the 1980s. I've used it in all sorts of applications including cutting the steel straps that held the gas tank on to my Oldsmobile so I could drop the tank to performing surgery on my own thumb. It is an invaluable tool, and I use it frequently to this day.
Maui
Wait... surgery on your thumb?
A Dremel is great for relieving the pressure after you break the blood vessels under a fingernail. Use a small drillbit, like the smallest ones in your drill index, and remember, it's not a 2 x 4 you're drilling! The 'relief of pressure' sensation is immediate, no-more throbbing digits. It's worth having one for that alone.
I have several. My first/oldest is a Sears L'il Crafty die-cast motor housing which uses a finger-tighten collet instead of a wrench. It's probably old-enough for Social Security, and while I don't use it much (newer rotary tools) it's helped me out innumerable times during my ownership. I got it for Christmas when I wanted to do mods on my Aurora HO "Model Motoring" slot car set, the one that had Sir Stirling Moss's picture on the lithographed box, and an XK-E and a 1964-1/2 Mustang coupe powering out of a turn, back when the XK-E's and the Mustang were new to the market.
Two of my other rotary tools are Dremels, corded, and the cord doesn't bother me a bit. I have the helix-sheathed extension cable for remote use others have spoken-of, but I don't use it.
I like the multi-speed switch model, to tune the speed/use to the job.
I prefer the fiber-reinforced cut-off discs to the cheaper thinner discs, which are very-prone to shattering if you're not very-careful about side-loading the disc. Eye protection!
The Harbor Freight brass bristle brushes shed them like a molting porcupine, and your clothes will wear them well, leaving you looking like something out of a Monty Python movie, and drawing the wrath of your spouse when her clothes get 'pulls' in the knit fabric because you carelessly threw your stuff in the wash, and all those embedded wires do a number on knits.
I bought a cheap HFT rotary tool, I needed it for a job immediately, and I didn't care if the thing burned-up or broke, as-long as I was able to do that one job. Of course, it did the job, there are some things that apparently only a small rotary tool can easily-do. Years-later, it's still working, though the collet requires a wrench, and the little button to lock the armature isn't very-strong, trying to securely-tighten the collet will cause the armature to slip-out of the retaining pin. I've learned to just make it snug, not tight, and that seems to hold the tool bit shafts OK.
I refuse to use those ridiculous 'no tools needed' gimmicks for the bits which Dremel tried to foist off on an unsuspecting, gullible public (it's an "EZ Lock" to remove money from your wallet!).
One of my friends bought a bag of the felt cones to polish his Hyabusa custom wheels' edges and they turned-out great. It took awhile, a pro shop probably could have done it in a day, for $100 apiece. But what's the fun in that? Pic of the wheels (attach.) included. All that shiny work on the rear wheel is Dremel-polished aluminum.
One of the uses I find it invaluable for are removing those tiny M4 machine screws on vintage motorcycle master cylinders, by cutting a slot into the buggered phillips screws, and using a slot-head screwdriver to remove them. Make the slot a tight fit for the screwdriver blade.
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