Nutz. So I finally have something moderately productive to do with this new $35 gadget. I've got a 3+ inch deep dado in a 4x4, the side of which were cut on the bandsaw. And rather than chop out the waste, I figured my new multitool would make short work of it. It zapped thru the first half inch like the hot knife thru butter, then the blade loosened. OK, I mustn't have torqued it enough. So for the next 30 minutes, there was more in and out than I had on my wedding night. A few seconds of cutting then the blade came loose. I finally resorted to the old hammer and chisel. Multimaster? Not.
Any tips from any of you guys who went for the same deal?
...$35 Multimaster...er...yeah. I bought the real thing when it was expensive and some of the situations that it's handled for me in the field have made it worth 4 times as much.
I bought one just to see if it worked. Used it the other day to cut out drywall for electrical boxes, worked great. Then tried it on some baseboard I needed to trim for wider case molding, worked great except the blade did loosen. I did have to tighten it a few times. Would have been better if the designer would have used the metal dowels to hold blade in place. But for
You have really honk the bolt down double-tight (spot welding helps). A long-shaft allen wrench might help. *Use less pressure - let the tool do the work.
Perhaps the depth of the cut was so great that the wood was grabbing the blade. You're holding the tool. Something's got to give.
If the motion of the blade is constrained by its knocking against an edge or the like then the blade on the original Multimaster comes loose too. I've had that happen more than once. Fein recognized the problem and changed the blade mount on the second or third generation to one that is star shaped. There is an adapter that has carbide teeth on the back to bite into the platen and prevent such loosening when using newer blades, but it would only work with Fein brand blades, not Harbor Freight which I Ibelieve have the round hole--the adapter is available for about ten bucks from Woodcraft. If you're willing to use only Fein blades you can have it spot welded so that there's no possibility of it moving, but a three pack of Fein E-cut blades costs more than the whole Harbor Freight tool so you may not want to do that.
The real trick though on deep plunges is to make sure that the cut is always wide enough to allow the blade full movement. That means cutting it a half inch or so deep then moving to a different spot until you've cut the whole width a half inch or so, then coming back and cutting another half inch or so until you're done.
If you've got some reaction wood that is binding the blade you may need to make a clearance cut as well, taking out little wedge shaped pieces, but that's rare.
Incidentally, if you decide to get Fein blades it pays to shop around--I don't know what gives with the pricing but it's bizarre. What's expensive one place is cheap another and vice versa (with "cheap" being a relative term--Fein blades are all ludicrously expensive for what they are).
I cranked down on that sumbitch as hard as I could, but I'm getting to be an old guy. I was thinking of having SWMBO come out and yell at it some. As someone noted, ya gets what ya pays for. I'll reserve this for thinner stuff and break out hammer and chisels for this piece of work.
I'm surprised the shaft is not keyed in some way. A couple of opposing parallel flats on the shaft end with similarly keyed blades and washer or cupped washer would seem a simple solution.
You could put dowels in the holder at different locations and holes in the blade that would allow you to turn the blade and lock it to a desired position. Not the entire 360 degree but points in between.
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