Sharpening oscillating saw blades (AKA multitool) with a hand drill

[gellfex]

A while back I mentioned sharpening oscillating saw blades with a diamond disk in a drill on the job site, and was mocked for wasting valuable work time. I hit way too many nails and such, and cut plaster with aggregate, to be pitching every blade I wreck. I was sharpening one the other day and wasted valuable work time videoing it. Your teeth won't look like they came from the package, but will cut just fine,and when they're dull, take another minute to resharpen rather than another $15 for a new blade. You can even dress them to make an arc shaped blade with better tooth contact the way some blades like Bosch come. The 'V' wheel comes with 2 other cylindrical grinding wheels for $10 from HF. Not a big investment to see if it works for you. I found the Makita angle drill had the best geometry to hold and grind.

[10KPete]

A man after my own heart! Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do with out! Too much disposal going on.

[Mike279]

I broke down and bought carbide toothed blades for mine. The tooth size is pretty small and not overly aggressive. They cut through nails and hard abrasive things pretty well. They last pretty well compared to regular blades but do break a tooth now and then. They will still cut with a couple less teeth so you have fair warning a blade change is coming. I usually buy three packs to get a better price. I do have stack of regular blades for jobs I feel won't have nails or abrasive problems to speed things along.

[gellfex]

Was sharpening a totally trashed blade and videoed it. 1 Minute to turn garbage to like new. Doozer mocked me saying he'd fire me for wasting time. At $15 per blade I figure that's about $900/hr in productivity!

[Dan Krager]

This widget seems like it could get the job done in well under a minute....I've been tempted even without the pressure of productivity.
DanK

[gellfex]

This widget seems like it could get the job done in well under a minute....I've been tempted even without the pressure of productivity.
DanK

I've seen that but the shape of tooth it makes looks pretty horrible, very weak, narrow and skinny. I think there's a reason why a 'sawtooth' waveform is a thing, historically they could have made saws with square files instead of triangular files, but they didn't.

[aribert]

A while back I mentioned sharpening oscillating saw blades with a diamond disk in a drill on the job site, and was mocked for wasting valuable work time......

A key phrase - AT A JOB SITE! I broke a small diameter drill bit and then two backup bits while working on a rental. Home Depot is about 2 miles away. I used a 4.5 inch angle grinder and free handed tips on my damaged drills (I was drilling pilot holes for "#8" sheet metal screws into/thru a multi-cavity aluminum extrusion). I was back at work in less time than it would take to arrive at the orange box. Might have drilled a bit oversize after the field resharpening but the "#8" screws did not seem to mind. At a job site the goal is to get the job done - pretty, in how one achieves the end result, does not always count.

Back on topic, I've never considered resharpening a multi-tool blade - if the need arises, I would (now) consider doing the same.

[gellfex]

A key phrase - AT A JOB SITE! I broke a small diameter drill bit and then two backup bits while working on a rental. Home Depot is about 2 miles away. I used a 4.5 inch angle grinder and free handed tips on my damaged drills (I was drilling pilot holes for "#8" sheet metal screws into/thru a multi-cavity aluminum extrusion). I was back at work in less time than it would take to arrive at the orange box. Might have drilled a bit oversize after the field resharpening but the "#8" screws did not seem to mind. At a job site the goal is to get the job done - pretty, in how one achieves the end result, does not always count.

Back on topic, I've never considered resharpening a multi-tool blade - if the need arises, I would (now) consider doing the same.

Yeah, I've used a 3" belt sander to sharpen drills and chisels! Pick up the $10 3 pack of diamond wheels, no doubt they'll find a use on any jobsite. None of us would pitch a $15 drill when it got dull, I don't know why pitching these blades is shrugged at.

[Paul Alciatore]

I don't care what Doozer says, I say "Bravo!"

Back to work in record time and great productivity to boot. Bravo!

Was sharpening a totally trashed blade and videoed it. 1 Minute to turn garbage to like new. Doozer mocked me saying he'd fire me for wasting time. At $15 per blade I figure that's about $900/hr in productivity!

[RB211]

I use that same diamond cutter for grinding Tungsten rod, but it's chucked into my die grinder for that.

[gellfex]

I use that same diamond cutter for grinding Tungsten rod, but it's chucked into my die grinder for that.

I figure running slow and cool is better for both the cutter and the blade, and it works fine on such thin metal. I was messing around dressing a carbide lathe tool with one of the cylindrical ones that came with it in a die grinder.

[polaraligned]

Gellfex, that is awesome. I need to get one of those diamond wheels so I can sharpen mine on the jobsite. I learned more valuable info looking at your one minute videos than looking at any of Doozers long drawn out videos.

[Bob Engelhardt]

... I learned more valuable info looking at your one minute videos than looking at any of Doozers long drawn out videos.

Snarky