How to carve rocks using a dremel

First you’re going to need to gather your rocks and a Dremel with a diamond carving tip and several different sizes of a grinding tip.  All of these tips were included with my Dremel so check your drill bits before you purchase any. You’ll also need a cup of water and a towel. 

Start with the diamond carving tip set on a slower speed. The slower speeds will give you a lot more control.  Outline the shape of your design using light strokes. If you press down hard you will wear out your bit and it the carving will be more uneven. 

I found that the smoothest carvings were from using the dremel tool at a 45 degree angle rather than using the tip straight up and down. 

You want to make a rough outline of your shape and any shading you want done with this tip. It cuts deeper and better than just using a grinding tip.

Once you have your rough outline done, switch your drill bit to a grinding tip.  You want to use the grinding tip to even out all the carvings. Simply go over the carving with the grinding tip a few times until you’re happy with how it looks. 

A lot of tutorials online suggest pouring water over the rock while you’re using the Dremel to keep the bit cool and help it last longer. 

I tried this and honestly it made the carving really hard to see. I found that taking a break every minute or so to dunk the rock in water and then dry it with a towel worked the best. It gives your eyes a break from doing small work and helped give the tip and the rock a time to briefly cool down. 

How to write on the rocks – All of the lettering was done using the diamond drill bit. Honestly it’s easy to make mistakes. I recommend going very slow when writing and only make one pass. If you want to go over it again you can but I found that most of the mistakes were done when I tried to go over the writing several times. You can also use the diamond bit to drill a hole straight through any of the flat rocks.  Just be warned! It’s a messy job.

To drill a hole in a rock you do have to keep it very wet and use constant pressure on the Dremel.  It will be messy and dust from the rock will go everywhere.