Within a week of use, device became so hot during unloaded operation that I could not hold it anymore. I ordered a replacement from Amazon, and the replacement tool would not turn on, until turned up to "10" on the dial, at which point it turns slowly and started smoking.

Proxxon used to be a good tool, but now it's just a liability.

I bought this tool after faithful Dremel died after years of use. I used the proxxon probably 6 - 8 times after which it died on me, i'm very disappointed

I was careful never to cover the vents while using and always used it for short amounts of time .. didn't really help. $80 went up in smoke :(

I ofcourse had to perform a autopsy to see what really happened . I opened up to tool to see what was wrong and noticed one of the resistors had burned out on the circuit board. What as shame cause the motor was just fine . For the price you would expect it to be built well and last a lot longer.

I am replacing this now with a dremel or the cheaper black and decker rotary tool

I really liked it, as I have some cheap dremels around, they usually sound horrible after using for awhile. This, on the other hand is really quiet, sturdy and well aligned. Product is easy to use and hold. You would appreciate the quality when you lay your hands on one. Highly recommend to people using it for art work or small scale projects. One thing to note is that the one I received has very bad scratches on the exterior of the plastic box that keeps the dremel, also there are some minor ones on the dremel itself. Cant help to think that it is a return set? However it worked fine, so I dropped the hassle of exchanging.

This unit died just after 3 days of light use and with the speed around 10000 rpm. I still have the dremel 4000 and i have put this tool through the extremes and it just keeps on running. I also had a Power Smith that is somewhere still around but needed something with more power and control. The tool feels great and runs smooth for a while and that's it! Also none of your dremel attachments will fit. Oh! They said they used a special motor and there's no need to change brushes, but I took apart mine and guess what, BRUSHES! and there's no way to replace them. I always thought this thing had a brushless motor.
Save yourself the trouble and buy the one brand that's reliable and you could get any attachment for a few bucks more, DREMEL!

I really want to like this product. When it works, it works great.

However, I've now burned through two of these with little effort:

1) First one died within a month. I was cutting through a bit of metal and the thing just stopped at one point. Turned it off and back on: nothing. Turned the RPM up and got some slight movement for a few seconds before it stopped rotating and smoke started coming out of the back. Was still within the Amazon return period, so was able to get a replacement (chalked it up to being a lemon).

2) I've had this second one for about 7 months and have used it for light work on about five different occasions. Yesterday, I was using the drum sanding band and it conked out -- same scenario as it did with my first one.

For both of these, I was doing light work... running it for 30-60 seconds at a time. Really disappointed that this is so poorly engineered and am now going to try to go through Proxxon directly to see if this can be sorted under their 2-year warranty. We'll see.

Overall, nice li'l rotary tool... when it was working. Can't recommend it though.

UPDATE #1: Talked with a nice fellow from Proxxon and am sending it back today for repair under their two year warranty. Need to send the tool back with a letter explaining what happened, your sales receipt, your name/address for return and send to:

Prox-Tech, Inc.
Attn: Service
2555 Tate Blvd SE
Hickory, NC 28602

UPDATE #2: Received the repaired tool back. Pack list said it was a "circuit board". Total turnaround from day shipped to day received was 2.5 weeks (that also included both xmas and ny holidays).

Update #3: It's been about a year since the repair and it's still working great (occasional use).

Update #4: Died again in a puff of smoke after about 30 seconds of use one day. Changing from two stars to one star -- seek a different rotary tool; this is junk.