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12 Ways To Use Oscillating Tools For Your Next DIY Project

An oscillating multitool is a saw, scraper, sander, and grinder in one handy power tool. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

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man opening heat register through floor with an oscillating tool
Stefania Pelfini, La Waziya Photography//Getty Images

If you don't own an oscillating multitool, buy one and you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. It's a saw, scraper, sander, and grinder in one handy power tool. Oscillating tool uses are varied, too, because the multitool can complete jobs in inaccessible places, speeding difficult projects to completion in the process.

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And the variety of attachments for these tools keeps growing, allowing even more versatility, especially among different materials: steel, aluminum, carpet, hard tile, soft tile, hardwood, softwood, and various plastics.

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1

Trim Cut In

oscillating tools
Bosch

Before the advent of the oscillating tool, adding or modifying interior partitions involved more demolition than construction. Now, you can make a surgical cut along anywhere on the wall, but especially along baseboard and other trim surfaces.

2

Undercut Doorjambs

oscillating tools
Bosch

The only neat way to install new flooring in an existing space is to cut the doorjamb and trims to make room for it. That used to require an expensive (and dangerous) flush-cutting circular saw or laborious cutting by hand. The oscillating multitool makes short work of it.

3

Flush Cuts

oscillating tools
Bosch

The offset shape of the oscillating tool's blades makes flush cuts a breeze. Here, copper tubing is being cut, but bimetal blades will allow you to make the same cut in steel, say, if a nail is poking out somewhere and you need to remove it without disturbing the surroundings.

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4

Grout Removal

oscillating tools
Bosch

You may want to cut out and replace the grout in a bath area just to freshen it up, or you may have a major bath remodeling or repair that occurs when you replace a shower valve for example. An oscillating tool's carbide-grit attachment can cut both grout and even the tile itself if necessary.

5

Cabinet Installation and Modifications

oscillating tools
Bosch

Whether you're installing cabinets; modifying them to accommodate a new sink or dishwasher; or installing new hardware, such as a slide-out pantry, the fastest way to cut slots, squares, and notches is with an oscillating tool and a saw blade. The ability to offset the tool axis relative to the saw blade is a distinct advantage that speeds and simplifies the cut.

6

Window Repair

oscillating tools
Bosch

You can improve the function, appearance, weather tightness, and energy efficiency of old wood windows with an overhaul that includes sanding, cutting slots for weather stripping, and removing layers of old paint. An oscillating mutlitool's sanding, grinding, and saw-blade attachments provide for all of these.

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7

Thin Plank Flooring Install

oscillating tools
Bosch

Installing thin plank flooring is a test of wills. You need to make cutouts for floor registers, among other things. The easiest way to handle this job is to lay the flooring over the duct termination and plunge cut through one piece of flooring at a time using a half round.

8

Paint Prep

oscillating tools
Bosch

At the most basic level, preparing to paint requires four steps: 1) cleaning to remove dirt, grease, and mildew; 2) scraping to remove loose paint; 3) sanding to smooth out the areas roughened by scraping, and 4) filling and hiding blemishes such as nail holes and cracks. Finally, you can prime. The triangular sanding head on an oscillating multitool helps you smooth rough wood in corners, sand down wood filler, and smooth over jagged edges of scraped paint.

9

Unusual Sanding Jobs

oscillating tools
Bosch

Doors, shutters, and furniture, among other things, have narrow edges and the long narrow shape of an oscillating multitool, combined with its triangular sanding pad, makes it particularly well-suited for smoothing these surfaces.

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10

Drywall Cutouts

oscillating tools
Bosch

A clean, simple way to make a cutout in drywall for a switch box or outlet receptacle is to use an oscillating multitool with a bimetal or carbide-grit blade that will not only cut the drywall but will withstand impact with a drywall nail or screw.

11

Caulk Removal

oscillating tools
Bosch

The smooth scraper-blade accessory allows an oscillating multitool to peel caulk right off a surface.

12

Thin Set Removal

oscillating tools
Bosch

A tile pops off the wall, what do you do? You use the carbide-grit grinding pad to remove the thin set mortar from the wall and from the tile. Reapply the thin set to the freshly cleaned surfaces and reset the tile.

Headshot of Roy Berendsohn
Roy Berendsohn
Senior Home Editor

Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.

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