Dremel Multi-Max Cordless
The Dremel Multi-Max Cordless is a fantastic oscillating tool that is battery operated to allow freedom for those delicate and odd jobs around your home and garage.
Ease of Use/Performance: 25/25
Convenience/Storage 23/25
Appearance/Design 22/25
How much I enjoy 25/25
Total: 95/100
The Cordless Multi-Max tool from Dremel continues the line of oscillating tools by the hand held power tool company that specializes in specialty and rotary tools. The Dremel Cordless Multi-Max is a variable speed oscillating tool that uses a 12 volt rechargeable Lithium-ion battery.
The Multi-Max tool is currently available in one kit containing the tool, two batteries and charger, a couple of oscillating blades, a sandpaper accessory and some sandpaper with instructions. The oscillating tool is handy for restoration, repair and other household do it yourself projects for a wide variety of materials.
The oscillating tool comes with a 3/4 inch wide wood cutting blade, a half round wood blade and a triangle sanding accessory with an assortment of sandpapers in three grades. There is not a lot of accessories but you can purchase many more including both wood and wood/metal saw blades, grout blades, scraper blades and sand papers in various grits.
The oscillating tool is great for flush cuts and doing odd jobs like sanding small hard to get areas, grout removal and just about anything else you could think of that uses a small blade for cutting or scraping in varying widths. The main features and uses of the oscillating tool is flush cuts and the variety of blades make these easy.
Wood and metal blades cover just about any material you could come across except maybe the tough wall plaster found in old homes. This is one material that does not work well with any blade I have tried to use as both the metal and wood blades teeth were ground flat on my plaster walls.
I have been using the Dremel oscillating tool around my house but I knew better than to try cutting through my plaster walls, I already did that with the previous review of the corded Multi-Max tool. I have used it for sanding some furniture and cutting wood and plastic PVC pipe around my house while doing some repairs.
The flush cut ability came in quite handy while installing some outlets from my basement to get a hole cut through the framing and flooring. I also liked the cordless ability while I was cutting PVC pipe in a manhole in my yard while installing some waste pipe.
I could have removed the pipe while making the cuts but it was much easier to finish the job with the plastic pipe merely moved out of position and remained in place on the floor of the sewer hole. My sewer line from my house went into the bottom of the sewer well along with the sewer line from the home next door and was directed to the outgoing sewer line toward the street.
When the neighbors sewer line was disconnected in conjunction with the home being purchased and agreements from our own home purchase I wanted to add the pipes to completely contain my sewer lines. I had to work inside this four foot wide hole that is about five feet deep trying to fit two couplings, two fittings and a couple of straight sections to make a bend from the one sewer line to the outgoing one.
Add to this the fact that I was adding a cleanout plug and having to fit everything inside this hole with me kneeling and moving around and you have tight working conditions and a tight fit for the PVC pipes. I did get things working correctly but a couple of the final cuts made while everything was in place was much easier than taking things apart.
Using flush cutting blades and the Multi-Max inside the hole without having to worry about cords made things much easier and the blade not moving back and forth like a Sawzall blade does make things more convenient. I did not have to worry about maneuvering around the pipe as much with the oscillating blade while trying to cut the pipe, yes I could have done it with my Sawzall but the oscillating tool made things easier.
Other jobs like adding in wiring to my home through the basement makes things tricky when you are trying to run wires from the attic to the basement and all the walls end on top of floor joists. Cutting at an angle in toward the walls interior from the basement is not easy but using the wood cutting blades and being able to get right next to the joists make things pretty simple.
I had this same problem while cutting a hole into my front porch, the top of the basement floor joist is even or just above the bottom of the porch joist that creates the corner that I am trying to run wiring through. This means to get a wire through the joists I had to drill a hole through a corner of the basement joist in order to hit into the joist for the porch which was tricky.
If I just cut a notch out the basement joist I could then drill through the joist for the porch and up into the porch to run my wiring through that. Drilling through the corner of a joist is possible but not recommended as it does present a slipping problem as well as makes things look nice.
Flush cuts are great, door jambs and installing door frames is made much easier with a tool that only oscillates back and forth by a very small amount such as the 1.5 degrees of the Multi-Max. Dremel has a good variety of blades for the flush cutting tool for wood and metal along with sandpaper for the sanding adapter along with some other specialty blades.
You can purchase a diamond grit paper for removing cement and mortar as well as a carbide rasp for a coarser grit along with a couple of sizes of grout removal blades with an edge along the half round shape to help remove grout from between tiles. Scrappers are also available for removing paint and glue from wood or metal such as cleaning off layers of paint or even removing floor tiles and carpeting.
There are a lot of uses for the Multi-Max oscillating tool and a cordless version that lasts for about twenty minutes of straight cutting time is pretty good. I tested the two batteries I received and averaged about twenty two to twenty three minutes of run time before the battery drained enough that you could tell the tool was slowing down.
The variable speed tool was set to maximum and just set down with it on, my cats were very annoyed and curious, without any load on the oscillating tool. Of course using the tools against materials and cutting or sanding will drain the battery more than just letting it sit and vibrate but it is a fair test.
The Lithium-ion batteries of the Multi-Max lasted for twenty two to twenty three minutes for the several tests I did using the two batteries. This is a good amount of time for the smaller batteries and when you include two in the kit you do get a good amount of working time for these odd types of projects.
The cordless tool does offer the ability to work without having to worry about cords and plugging in your tools and for this type of tool makes a lot of sense. Drills and oscillating tools along with things like circular saws and reciprocating saws are the obvious tools that having a cordless version that just means a more convenient tool for home repair.
One handy feature of the Dremel tool is the use of a slot for the blades but not the sanding accessory so you do not have to remove the bolt that holds the blades on the tool. This unique design for the Dremel oscillating tool makes it different from other manufacturers so the blades are not interchangeable with other oscillating tools.
Dremel does make an adapter that adapts Dremel Multi-Max accessories to fit other oscillating tools but not the other way around. Until they do come out with an adapter to use other oscillating tool accessories with the Dremel tool you have a wide variety of tools from Dremel for a wide variety of jobs.
I was very impressed with the overall build and durability of the Dremel Multi-Max Cordless and the tool compares very well with the corded version I reviewed recently. If you would like a cordless version of an oscillating tool I highly recommend the Dremel Multi-Max as a great home repair and remodeling tool for flush cuts and much more.