Discuss.......

Looking at doing some head work so thought i would get the general opinion of the LCB crowd. What is better? Cost involved for replacement tools etc? cheap vs expensive? is it worth having both in the tool chest?

ATB

Advantages for the dremel , it's light and easy to work with but the stones etc cost a lot and don't last
Air powered die grinder has a bit more power especially a decent one, decent cutting tools last well, remove material well but do cost more . Needs a good supply of air and can get cold in use
I have a 110v Hitachi die grinder as well as a Dremel and air die grinders that beats using an air powered tool apart from the fact it's a bit baulky. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages

Small 240v disposable drill for £20, you will shag the chuck bearings.

Do not bother with grinding stones you need steel burrs then finish with mini flap wheels.

Air die grinder would be best but you need a lot of air !!!

I have both, and while the dremel is a fantastic tool for some jobs, I'd never consider it as an alternative to a die grinder. If you cant get enough air, then as suggested, cheap mains drill or an electric die grinder.

As above, not even worth comparing they are meant for totally different purposes, the die grinder is what you need for head porting.

If you're thinking of head porting I had this same problem a while back. And I ended up using my old mains drill with some tungsten burrs from Ebay. The burrs were cheap, only £10-15 for a set of 5 IIRC, but they did my ally V6 heads easily. The only problem with a drill is the size means you can only get so far into a port, which wasn't an issue for what I was doing as I was basically port matching. Otherwise, it saved me a lot of cost and I'm happy with the results. As for how long the drill will last though? No idea, but it was cheap so who cares!