20 Oscillating Multi-Tool Tips for Beginners

welcome to specific love with all the new diy-ers out there i wanted to get back to the basics and help them get their projects done faster and safer with that said let's talk about the oscillating multi-tool now i truly feel that one of these multi-tools is an underrated tool and that many many more people should own them and use them the first time i ever got to see one of these in use i was hoping to install some cabinets at a friend's house and a gentleman in charge brought out his multi-tool and easily cut into some trim and i sat there in awe of just how fast and how easy it was to cut it out and then he explained to me just how simple this tool really is i mean the tip of it literally just oscillates back and forth that's it it really just depends on the blade after seeing this thing in action i knew i had to have one now let's point out some of the features you can find on these tools now let's talk about the blades down here and some of the older models might require additional tools to take them on and off but the newer nicer models actually have a lever that they call tulips to add and subtract your blades relatively quickly now down here in the bottom you'll find an adjustment that'll adjust the oscillation speed of your blade on the top you'll have an on off switch and down here at the back a lot of times on the newer models they have battery operated or on some of them you'll have corded now here are a bunch of tips to make your multi tool work better for you now it's all about the attachments they come in many shapes sizes and designs and because of a large variety of these i'd strongly suggest buying a few of the cheaper sets figuring out which ones you can use the most and then start buying the quality versions now if this tool turns into one of your regular tools that you're going to use day in and day out i strongly suggest keeping some extra blades with you at all times even the better quality blades will have a tendency to wear out if you use them a lot so just keep some extra blades with you to be safe now most of the blades you'll find for this tool are made for wood or plastic or drywall if by chance you need to cut metal make sure you get the ones that say bi-metal it's a different type of blade and for example even though both of these blades look pretty similar if you were to try to cut metal with this one it would quickly dull it but this one should be able to cut through it now it doesn't matter if you have wood cutting blades or metal cutting blades heat kills these things so when possible try and focus whatever you're cutting across the full width of the teeth in other words if you have just a nail you're trying to cut try and move the teeth back and forth a little bit so it doesn't focus all that cutting on just a couple of the teeth of your blade so remember heat kills these things try and use the full surface now sometimes people will ask which bite is better the round one or the straight one which one is better well that's kind of a hard question to answer because each of these blades have a very distinctive use this round one is great for long cuts so say in drywall you need to cut out a section of drywall that's a couple feet long this one will be a lot easier to use just because of the way it's designed now let's say you're trying to get in a really really tight area well this one will actually be better for it so which one is better i would say they're probably equally as good which one of these would you probably use the most that's a better question and that would probably be this one now anytime you need to cut something around maybe like copper pipe or some pvc or even a wooden dowel try and use a blades that are a little bit extra wide at the front if you're using something narrow just remember because this is round it's going to easily try and jump off of the side here but if you're using it's a little wider on a type of blade it'll allow you to keep it on there a little bit easier and make that cut a little bit faster now a common question is how do i know if the blade is dull well a couple ways to look at it is it depends on how hard you're having to push in to make the cut remember because of the way this oscillates it should not take a lot of pressure to cut into your wood now of course sometimes if you've hit a nail or something along those lines you might have to provide a little bit extra pressure but you should not be trying to push really hard another way is if you're using to cut it and you hear the motor starting to ball down a little bit in those two cases this blade is most likely dull it may not even look like it's dull but if it's taking forever to cut then change out the blades now sometimes when we're cutting in a corner for example on this door frame here let's say we needed to cut behind the door frame but i didn't want to scratch up this wall a great way to protect the wall is maybe to get a thin piece of sheet metal or maybe a thin piece of plastic or if we absolutely have to a thin piece of cardboard even if this cardboard will not last very long it should provide enough protection when we go in here to make the cut that we can get all the way behind this door frame without scratching this wall now keep in mind when you're buying blades that sometimes specifically on older models they're not all a universal fit there might be certain ones that don't exactly fit on others in those cases there are adapters that you can buy so always keep that in mind if something doesn't fit look for an adapter and that will allow you to attach certain blades that wouldn't normally fit on there so is the oscillating tool just about cutting actually not there's a bunch of accessories that can go with it for example this right here is a sanding pad if you notice it's kind of triangle shape because this right here is good for getting in corners for example let's say you're trying to sand off all the old paint off an old chair so you can go in and refinish it this right here will be great just depending on the type of sandpaper you need you can attach it right there and allow you get right up in those corners and hopefully get all that paint removed easily now here's a tip about the sanding pads you can go out and buy all the specialty size little sanding pads for this but here's a great way to save a little bit of money now this setup uses a very similar setup called hook and loop that you might find on your random orbital sander so instead of going out and buying those specialty pads how about you grab some of the sanding pads from the sander especially the ones that you may have worn out the edges but the inside is still good and then you can easily attach it to it right like that and get much more use out of your sanding pads now let's say you're doing a bunch of remodeling and you get putty and you get glue stuck to your floor well you got to get that up before you put down the flooring here's a great way to do that this right here is called a scraper it's an attachment for your tool that'll allow you to get down and get under that glute adhesive and pop it up relatively easily so whenever you do a remodeling always get some scrapers [Music] now let's say you're out on location you're about to clean up the floors you realize oh no i forgot the scraper that's okay grab one of your other blades that's already dull or at least pretty much dull preferably one that is a little bit wide here at the front similar to a scraper you want to take it over to the grinder and you want to grind off all these teeth then on the top here you want to put a nice sharp edge and that right there should work well as a scraper now here's another great adapter for your oscillating tool this right here is great for removing caulking and joint sealant and because it's so long it should be able to get in those corners relatively easily so just think expansion joints windows and doors this would be a great tool to remove all that goo and stuff around it now another great use for that caulking blade is actually cutting foam this is great for cutting hard foam insulation or anything along those lines i'm going to use a pool noodle here which is actually more flexible and a little bit more difficult to cut watch out fast it cuts this real quick now imagine how fast you'd cut through regular hard foam insulation now if you're working in a kitchen or bathroom and you're trying to remove tile these are also great for removing all that grout in between each of the tile pieces now unfortunately i do not have the appropriate blade on hand to show you but it is very very similar to this wood cutting round blade with the exception of instead of having teeth it has a carbide grit going around the edge now it works great at getting all that grout out just make sure you don't gouge out any of your tiles while you do it now here's a cool little feature to look out for when you're buying blades if you notice these actually have little measurements on both sides now this right here is in inches and this is in metric so whichever you prefer it's easy to see now some blades have these and some blades do not but also keep in mind this right here is painted on and after you use this blade a few times it's a good chance that you won't be able to see these relatively easily but overall if you're starting out you can get a nice good measurement to know exactly how deep you are plunging it in now if you're ever trying to remove carpet or vinyl from a house it can be challenging especially sometimes when you have to cut it in the middle or make long strips for it so you can easily haul it off and in those cases you'll sometimes use a hook knife like this which will go into a utility knife and use it to cut the carpet into pieces but that still can be challenging now i've actually seen a few people take some of these hook blades and just install them directly into their multi-tool i'm a little leery of that for a couple reasons one it doesn't have a nice secure fit within your multi-tool in other words it will clamp down on it but it doesn't have all the little grooves that make it nice and secure and number two it doesn't fit every tool for example this right here will not fit mine so i created my own you can see right there i just took a dull blade and a grinder and i ground out one on each side and i took a file and made them nice and sharp now this right here should cut vinyl and carpet really well now i don't have any scrap carpet right on hand but i do have some hard thick cardboard and i'll show you how easy it cuts that [Music] that should make easy work of your carpet and vinyl now of course when you're using this tool always wear eye protection and in most cases you will need ear protection now i've also noticed when i'm using this tool it doesn't necessarily kick up a lot of dust but a lot of times when you're using it you're cutting materials maybe like paint or maybe into insulation by accident or you're cutting metals and you don't know what kind of toxins you're releasing into the air so i would strongly suggest wearing some type of breathing mask as well and for this next tip i would suggest going and watching a video by project farm they went into depth with testing a bunch of different metal cutting blades on nails and screws to find out which ones are better and which ones are worse i'll put a link to that video in the description below but i trust me it's very controlled setting that way you don't have to worry about people saying maybe you didn't put enough pressure you put too much pressure on certain blades very controlled and i strongly suggest you watching that now i hope you enjoyed all these tips for the oscillating multi-tool and if by chance you know of any others please put those in the comments below because we want to help out as many beginners as possible now right over here i'm going to have a playlist of a bunch of other tools and tips to help with those as well otherwise get down your shop and have fun building [Music] wow and then the what is the caulking toy

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Keywords: oscillating multi-tool, multi tool, multitool, oscillating tool, oscillating multi-tool blades, oscillating tool blade, top oscillating tools, oscillating tool hacks, multi tool uses, oscillating tools, cordless multi tool, oscillating multi tool, oscillating tool uses, how to use a multi tool, woodworking for beginners, beginner woodworking, tools for beginners, power tools for beginners, woodworking tips and tricks, oscillating

Id: 7RPJaSxMcoM

Length: 10min 43sec (643 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2021