multitools

First, a patent has to cover a novel and innovative idea and many things don't qualify, perhaps because someone else has already published the idea, perhaps because they are not different enough from something that already exists.

Second, patents are expensive and time consuming to get, particularly if you want to cover more than one country, and are very expensive to enforce, so not every manufacturer chooses to use them. It can be good enough to get in first and become the recognised name.

Third, they are very difficult to make watertight, so the usual approach is to have numerous patents each covering one small aspect of the design, rather than the overall concept. By doing that, the manufacturer ensures that if one patent is circumvented, another still makes the device difficult to copy.

Colin Bignell

I'm surprised you found it worth getting it out of the box for that - it only takes seconds with a padsaw.

Fein invented them and had the patents for many years. However these expired relatively recently, and hence the range of copies that now exist.

You probably have not cut the blade short enough - it needs to be equal to the board depth at the lowest point of the stroke.

Depends on what you expect - I find it quite quick enough to be useful on normal boards. You may however find it a bit slow cutting a 3' square section out of chipboard for an access hatch however.

Indeed they do. You can also take patches out of plasterboard with angled plunge cuts that enable the removed bit to be glued back in with hardly any visible damage.

Yes there are wood and HSS blades. Even the latter are not really designed for cuts through thicker metals. Also note that modern screws are case hardened, and again not ideal for cutting like this.

This is one of the difficulties in comparative assessment - most of us have only used the one, so find it hard to be objective.

Buy in bulk - much Cheaper per blade even if going for fein originals.

Also have a look at these:

See:

That was something that had not occurred to me: the archetypal model may have been in industrial use only.

But wool stains and I have young children ;)

When I composed the original message, I typed something like "though to be fair, it is no great hardship to use a jab saw" but I deleted that before sending! I think the beauty of the multitool is you can control the depth of cut better, whether that's through the floorboard but not into the joist, or through the plasterboard but not into anything behind it.

Thanks, I had wondered who the original manufacturer was.

The problem is when you do not know how thick your floorboard are!

My floorboards are 16mm thick and I cut the blade to the appropriate length. It was a while ago and I don't remember now; I wonder whether at the top of the stroke the blade came completely out of the board and the bouncing was caused by the blade trying to enter again on the way back down?

Very clever. I had not thought of that, thanks.

I had not realised the screws were hardened. I don't know how old the screw was; it was not one I had put there. Like I said, I realised there were other (better) ways to remove it but I had just bought the tool and was (too) eager to try it.

Fein invented them & the patent ran out, so all the copies emerged.

My experience exactly.

Just more durable I guess.

Check out 'Faithfull' brand. They fit my Bosch PMF180 and are pretty cheap. Think I got my last lot on EBAY.

If they are not T&G, then you can slide something down a gap over a joist to measure.

Possibly... the other way with a jigsaw is to use the blade fully length but keep the machine up on its nose.

I have done that on a ceiling in the past to make an access hole for manipulating a wire through...

The modern parallel sided ones have to be. Traditional tapering wood screws usually are not.

Aha, but when you have a new tool, you're just itching for places to use it. I would automatically use a padsaw/leccybreadknife for that job, as that's what I've used for years, but a multitool would be great for carving out a timber stud to accept the side of a back box, for example.

Yup done that a few times... wanted to stick a battery maintained light in flush with the ceiling, so cut round the shape to make a hole, only to find a ceiling joist in the way. Couple of plunge cuts soon sorted that!

Don't buy plain, pale coloured, carpet. B-)

The blades are expensive so if you are getting four more blades and the sanding sheets for an extra =A325.79 that may well be the better value. Do both come with a blow moulded case?

Just checked what I got with my 6 months. B-)

I looked at Homebase's web site following an recommendation earlier in this thread. I think they are selling the same set as Amazon:

The Amazon page could be a bit misleading if you read it quickly because the description shows lots of blades but you only get two of them.

I have not used the sanding capability of my multitool but then I do have a delta sander. If I did not, I suppose I would find it quite useful.

Does anyone know whether there is any difference between the performance of a delta sander and the sanding attachment on a multitool?

I only use mine with the oblong plunge saw blade, so in my case, even the two blade packages would have been sufficient, but it depends what you would like to do.

I see the Amazon page mentions a groove cutter to remove silicone and I know there are attachments to cut through tiles, so if you plan to do these jobs, buying a kit with more blades now will save you money in the long run as they are so much more expensive to buy separately. In fact, I half wonder whether it would be cheaper to buy a new kit with attachments that buy just the attachments!

BTW, you mentioned a faithful set; where was that ebay or amazon?

Can you do that? I would be worried that if I cut a joist, the ceiling would fall down!

IME Lights can be awkward because you want them near a joist to screw into but stud detectors to find those joists are useless.

Depends how deep you cut, how high the joist is and where along the length the cut is. I'd be a bit more cautious in the bottom of a joist as that is in tension and wood isn't very good in tension.

Co-incidentally I had occasion to use a delta sander last week and was all set to use my new toy, the Bosch multi tool, but then I noticed the dedicated delta sander had a connection for dust extraction so that won the day as I was working indoors

to use my new toy, the Bosch multi tool, but then I noticed the dedicated delta sander had a connection for dust extraction so that won the day as I was working indoors

The Bosch also has vacuum cleaner connection.

Matt