E-filing expert and educator Robert Munkel has been doing nails for 20 years, and he has been honing his skills on the e-file ever since a shoulder injury 12 years ago left him unable to perform hand-filing motions. "I hurt my shoulder pretty badly, and I had to switch to e-filing because my shoulder just couldn’t hold up to hand filing. I was even worried I’d have to stop doing nails, but I got really good at using the e-file, and pretty soon I was making sets even faster than before."

Munkel is an educator for Medicool and travels across the country teaching e-filing technique and safety classes. He primarily uses swiss carbide bits on enhancements (never the natural nail) and keeps his RPM at 15,000 for product removal and 10,000 for finish filing. He uses diamond bits under 5,000 RPM for prepping natural nails or blending product.

Munkel offers some techniques on his trademark skills with the rounded tip swiss carbide bit:

1. The rounded tip Swiss carbide bit is my workhorse, and I use it to remove the smile line and most of the product on the enhancement, taking about 80% of it off. The rounded tip keeps the client safe.

2. I hold the Swiss carbide bit at a 45° angle and set my RPM to 15,000. Then I roll my client’s finger at the same time as I create my smile line. I hold my bit parallel to remove the rest of the product, then I use my round tip Swiss carbide bit to clean up the C-curve.

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