Nonetheless, I decided to build the first one, work out the design, and then hire a professional furniture maker to make them as needed.

My problem is that I do not own any wood working tools that I need to make these display stands. In addition, up until this project came along, I had very little interest in wood working as a hobby. For this reason I would prefer to not spend hundreds of dollars buying power tools that I will only use once for this project.

This is why I am considering getting a Dremel since I saw it in an infomercial. It has been advertised as being able to perform the functions of many tools including a rip saw, router, scroll saw etc.

I learned that there are several competing rotary saws, like the RotoZip, when I went to price them at Lowes. One of Lowes’s employees told me that I should get the RotoZip since it is more designed for heavy duty wood working ,while the Dremel was for more light "arts and crafts" use.

My questions:

1.) Can the Dremel, RotoZip, or any rotary saw type tool adequately perform the task I need for this project?
2.) Is there another alternative or solution?

You obviously want to _market_ these display boards. Now this is great (I wish someone would do it for me), but you're not going to manufacture them.

Forget building a prototype. You need to have someone make it for you, and this is for two reasons:

- It needs to be a good piece of work. It's not easy to make this sort of highly visible piece if you're not experienced in doing it. You'll never do it as your first ever project with no more than a Dremel.

- You need to work out the production engineering and the costings. There's a huge difference between making a one-off and and making them in dozens. You choose different manufacturing techniques because they use less effort / less timber / less tooling. You need to use materials that you can obtain in sufficient volume, not just that one nice piece of timber on the shelf.

You also need to know the manufacturing cost before you can sell these displays. Knowing the cost means knowing the materials, the techniques, and the finishing techniques before you begin.

Talk to a maker who can deal with the sort of volume you're interested in, and have them make you a one-off first.