I've been running a solid state relay to turn both my vacuum and my dremel off and it has been working great.
The relay I'm using is the same kind from MJPA here: http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=17288+RL


I didn't want to cut the plug on my dremel so I made a box with a receptacle so I could plug the vac and dremel into. In my pictures you will see the relay on the outside of the receptacle box. I don't recommend this because electricity that could hurt you will be running into one side of the relay. Although the relay comes with a plastic shield I put some tape over it as well. A safer way would be to enclose the relay.


The low voltage side of the relay requires an input voltage of 3.5-32v so the printer port has no problem triggering it as long as it puts out more than 3.5v. The negative side goes to the section #18-25 of the board and the positive goes to #17.

On the high voltage side of the relay is where you will attach your dremel. Basically one wire from the wall outlets power goes on one terminal and one wire from you dremel goes on the other terminal. Then the other wire from the dremel gets connected to the other wire from the power outlet. If you don't want to cut the plug off then you would just apply the idea to a receptacle box like I did.

If anyone is not sure if they have things wired correctly and would like me to double check their work before they plug anything in, feel free to post pictures here or PM me. I would be glad to help.

*Please note you are dealing with high voltages the could hurt or kill you. Do this at your own risk. Attached files

 

Wel done Shaun! Thank you for sharing this
Mark

 

Thanks 3D, I'll eventually get around to this.

 

I'll eventually get around to this also, nice tutorial, thank you

 

It should and its a couple bucks cheaper too.