Beginners guide to using the Cut-Out Tool/Router

hey what's going on guys in today's video we're gonna be taking a look at one of the biggest time-saving tools a drywall that can have the cutout tool so long gone are the days of having to measure out every plug and light trace it on to your drywall pre-cut it with a drywall saw almost every crew out there now is using routers if not cordless corded but um in this video I'm going to give you some tips and tricks and some just let you know how how a cutting tool really works so let's start off by talking about the type of bits we like to use in our routers we prefer the road with zip bits the ones we use for around plugs lights air vents are the X bits the 5/32 guide point X bit that's our go-to and if you get closer to here this is what the fit looks like so it's fairly big it goes really quick around boxes and plugs and it has this guide point and what that does is this rides around the metal or plastic and it doesn't cut in because it's smooth on the end so that helps you go around the plug in the box and then the blade a little further down is what cuts your drywall so where we use that is for our plugs or boxes we use it for our lights on the ceiling and in this case we also used it for around the air vent here for our windows and doors we like to use the Rotozip quarter inch drywall window and door bit and as you can see here it's quite a bit bigger than the 5/32 bit guide point as well but usually when you're going out windows and doors it's wood or plastic vinyl you don't want to dig into that bracket so the guide point allows you same thing to ride around the frame or the window without cutting it and you go really quick with the quarter inch bit so before I show you the runner in action I want to go around and show you how we mark them in our plugs and boxes so generally speaking the electricians when they install all the lower plugs they keep them all to the same height so in this house we know that the center is gonna be at about thirteen and a half and what we would do if we came into this room is hold our pencil or mark or up to the side of the stud it's mounted on draw a straight line and then do a little X so we know the box is on this side of the stud so when the drywall goes up we know at 13 and 1/2 straight up from that X there's gonna be a box there so for another example on a wall like this there was nothing in the top sheet to be measured so the top sheet goes on but then down below there's a few things we need to measure out so starting with the dryer the dryer plug I would put a line on the side here maybe one here to show that's a little bit bigger seven is our center draw seven we've got the attachments for those the washing machine same thing draw two lines we know Center is going to be seven same thing seven and then we have a plug at the bottom so I'm gonna check to make sure it's the same yep thirteen and a half draw a line on the side of a stud you put an X now that's all marked out so when the drywall goes up we know where everything is so that basically in a nutshell is how we measure out all the plugs and boxes another thing I wanted to bring up was with with the plugs most electricians nowadays know drywallers are going to use routers and a lot of them don't like it but that being said a lot of electricians nowadays they push their wires back before become they expect we're going to be using them but say a wire is out a little bit like this you see it just take the two seconds shove it in a little bit deeper and take note of that when you go to poke in your router just aim for some where you know the wires aren't going to be poked in here hit the side and go around that way it keeps everybody happy it doesn't take any time at all and yeah you're not gonna be a jerk so maybe watching the video up to this point you may have noticed that our routers so we haven't had the depth gauge installed this particular brand makes it pretty easy it's a nice one it just clicks locks in where it needs to be but we find the more you use it the better you get we just personally don't like having them on I recommend if you're new leave it on it does help but in certain situations too I wanna point out this particular smoke detector was installed really high up so even with the depth gauge on we wouldn't be able to cut that out so practice get good with the depth gauge but as you get better you'll find you don't really need it so we've gone ahead and installed this sheet of drywall here on the bottom and one thing I wanted to point out too to keep in mind when you're installing drywall there was a lot going on in this sheet there's plugs box a lot to cut out so if you were to put a screw right here when there's something to cut out right here it would end up busting the drywall because there's too much pressure so you can see on this sheet we tacked it on either corner and even on this side because there's a plug right here just didn't even sink the screws fully just enough to hold the sheet in place until we cut everything out and this will make it so the drywall doesn't get all busted up so the last thing I want to talk about in this video is the direction of cutting there is a right in the wrong way of cutting around plugs and in windows and door frames so if you're cutting on the outside of something because of the direction that the blade spins on the router I've drawn a clock here you go counterclockwise so for this one I would poke in and just personal preference I always go to the right I find the edge of the box and then poke in and then go around counterclockwise it'll just hug the box it won't dig in and it makes us he won't screw up on the door frame it's the opposite because you're cutting of the inside on this particular door so you poke in here and you go on the inside of the frame which would be clockwise and then that way the blade doesn't go running off while and you get a nice clean cut every time some professionals like the more you do it you probably could go both ways but it's just easier to follow those steps alright so after following all those steps we're ready to use the router so let's go ahead and cut out this plug [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music]

Channel: DrywallNation

Views: 1,648,202

Keywords: drywall nation router cut out tool fast efficient howto quaility house building new

Id: xuRsOr-3aJs

Length: 6min 58sec (418 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 18 2018