A certain type of person just loves to make things at home. That’s how 3D printing is expanding in popularity, and it’s also where companies like Dremel find a lot of sales. Well, that, and the fact that they make some incredible hobbyist tools.

The newest bit of kit to issue forth from the American company is the Dremel 8260. The bland-sounding name conceals the fact that this rotary tool represents two firsts for the product lineup.

Do it with a Dremel

A rotary tool, if you’ve never used one before, attaches a series of different heads that all spin really fast. Used for anything from grinding to sanding to carving custom pieces for projects, they’re handy as heck. But, as with anything that spins at up to 30,000RPM, you need to know what you’re doing.

The Dremel 8260 is the first from the company to include a brushless motor. That means it spins faster, has more power output, and also offers increased battery life. That’s double the uptime, in the case of the battery, and an increase of 20% for the former two categories.

Dremel says this is also their very first smart device. By which they mean, they added Bluetooth to it. And not just to say that the device comes with Bluetooth. There are a few smart notifications like battery remaining, overheating and stall warnings — all of which users should be cognisant of. The attached app also offers advice on which attachments and speeds are needed to slice through specific materials. Because that’s handy information to have, unless you like having high-speed discs splinter around your workshop. In that case, as you were.

The only downside for South African crafters and hobbyists? The cordless Dremel 8260 is only confirmed for launch in the US so far. It’ll get here, but expect it to cost more than the R2,800 ($170) it’s launching at in the States.