Bosch Multi Tool- Any good?

[sitefive]

Looking to get one to try to plunge cut mortise holes for faster stock removal and also to do finer sanding jobs (use as delta sander) where large ROS is too big.
Seems like the bosch gop 250 seems like a good tool from their pro range,but its hard to get decent used one for under 50quid, However you can pick up a brand new PMF 190e from their green range for £53 which probably will do the same job.

Anyone have ever used them and can comment how decent they are actually? And should you get the Gop 250 or PMF 190e will be just as good? I have read that the cheaper stuff tends to die sometimes, but obviously it has the warranty so can return & get new one if that ever happens.

 

[Graham Orm]

I use one for work regularly. A great tool for getting into places where a saw wont. However, I wouldn't try to cut out a mortice with one though. It would take for ever and they are not precise enough and would wander.

 

[blackrodd]

As you say, a useful tool, for many jobs, you either have a frequent use for it or it would stay under the bench.
Not an accurate way for cutting a mortice I would have thought, probably easier by hand.
Regards Rodders

 

[paulm]

The cheaper green bosch one works fine, although it does sound a bit like a bag of spanners when going ! Wouldn't expect it to last as long as the blue pro one in regular use but then again mine hasn't expired yet and has had moderate use on various diy tasks last few years.

Agree on the mortices aspect, could be okay for cleaning up the sides of chain drilled holes perhaps on rough carpentry work, but using a router or just a chisel would likely be as quick and more accurate ?

Cheers, Paul

 

[Rich.ca]

Spend a little more and buy a Makita for £80, 3 years warranty and a reliable tool. I made the mistake of buying the Bosch and it died for no reason - buy cheap, buy twice

 

[mseries]

PMF190E has been fine for me so far. Don't use it much but was a doddle undercutting door jambs with it, trimming already laid flooring. My Dad got the cheap Aldi one and it's fine for occasional use

 

[Eric The Viking]

I've had the battery blue one (GOP?) for five or six years. It only gets occasional use but when it is used, it's usually hammered hard.

I recently stripped it down and cleaned it thoroughly, and re-greased the oscillating mechanism (which is a solid casting and good bearings - quite decent considering). The batteries are holding up well - they usually get used from fully charged to flat in one hit. I have three and rotate them - they'll last for about eight hours' sanding that way.

• I find it really good for cutting out for socket boxes in hard brick (I have an original SDS 'box sinker' but although it's really good it struggles in heavy bricks). I most recently used a carbide-tipped straight blade from Saxton blades, which has been brilliant.
• It's very good for sanding and cutting plumbing in places where you physically can't get a hacksaw.
• It gets used for sanding a lot, as it's not just handy but very controllable, but usually old paintwork rather than wood.

I hardly ever use it on unfinished wood, as there's almost always a better way of achieving the same thing.

I think they're of rather limited use on wood. If you look at the tooth form on the wood blades, it's asymmetric, which is a bit silly, given the thing oscillates back and forwards. It's rather similar to the Japanese Hassunme pull saw I have, just not as sharp! The other types of tooth form are symmetric, but don't work as well.

I don't think it would work well for mortices as it does wander and is difficult to start straight -- for chopping into floorboards that's rarely an issue though.

E.

PS: Just had a look at the reviews on the Axminster site. I don't think they're being entirely fair: The battery life is indeed short, but the speed you run the tool makes a big difference. You usually don't need it going flat out and if slowed down the battery life becomes quite reasonable.

 

[sitefive]

The cheaper green bosch one works fine, although it does sound a bit like a bag of spanners when going ! Wouldn't expect it to last as long as the blue pro one in regular use but then again mine hasn't expired yet and has had moderate use on various diy tasks last few years.

Agree on the mortices aspect, could be okay for cleaning up the sides of chain drilled holes perhaps on rough carpentry work, but using a router or just a chisel would likely be as quick and more accurate ?

Cheers, Paul

Im looking to get it for just cleaning out the stock from large mortise holes where it would take ages with just a chisel , also couldn't you possibly get it going exactly where you want by clamping a ''guide'' scrap wood on the line where you need the cut and than just cutting against it that way so you dont cut out by accident more than you need?

 

[sitefive]

I've had the battery blue one (GOP?) for five or six years. It only gets occasional use but when it is used, it's usually hammered hard.

I recently stripped it down and cleaned it thoroughly, and re-greased the oscillating mechanism (which is a solid casting and good bearings - quite decent considering). The batteries are holding up well - they usually get used from fully charged to flat in one hit. I have three and rotate them - they'll last for about eight hours' sanding that way.

• I find it really good for cutting out for socket boxes in hard brick (I have an original SDS 'box sinker' but although it's really good it struggles in heavy bricks). I most recently used a carbide-tipped straight blade from Saxton blades, which has been brilliant.
• It's very good for sanding and cutting plumbing in places where you physically can't get a hacksaw.
• It gets used for sanding a lot, as it's not just handy but very controllable, but usually old paintwork rather than wood.

I hardly ever use it on unfinished wood, as there's almost always a better way of achieving the same thing.

I think they're of rather limited use on wood. If you look at the tooth form on the wood blades, it's asymmetric, which is a bit silly, given the thing oscillates back and forwards. It's rather similar to the Japanese Hassunme pull saw I have, just not as sharp! The other types of tooth form are symmetric, but don't work as well.

I don't think it would work well for mortices as it does wander and is difficult to start straight -- for chopping into floorboards that's rarely an issue though.

E.

PS: Just had a look at the reviews on the Axminster site. I don't think they're being entirely fair: The battery life is indeed short, but the speed you run the tool makes a big difference. You usually don't need it going flat out and if slowed down the battery life becomes quite reasonable.

Thanks for your input! I almost got one used battery GOP with 3 dead batteries for cheap, but than started reading that they suffer a lot from dying batteries and that the corded one has got more power as well. So im really more for a corded version now even it isnt as practical

I don't have much budget for this as I just need it for few tasks and can't justify spending more than ~50 for one.
If you had a choice would you get :
-used Bosch Gop 250
or Brand new Cheaper version PMF green stuff?

 

[Eric The Viking]

You won't find out about the build quality unless you strip them down and look. If you only want it for bench use, being mains won't matter. I use mine for plumbing and DIY, and it being cordless is wonderful.

On batteries: I have an impact driver and a drill/driver in the same system. The impact driver has the longest battery life by far (with the right screws - looking for a replacement for Paslode at the moment, which were brilliant, but the importer tells me are no longer available). The drill/driver is next, and it's my day-to-day low precision drill/driver. The GOP has always had a short battery life, but as I said, even for sawing, the tendency is to run it too fast, (because you can, I guess). Slowed down to a sensible speed the battery life is acceptable. The mass of the cutting tool matters too, as the motor has to accelerate it, slow it and reverse it, then repeat.. I often use the big semicircular things, and the battery life is a lot shorter, but it's being asked to shift significantly more mass, never mind the actual cutting. The semicircular things are better for keeping to a straight line, and clear sawdust or grit slightly better, otherwise I don't find them very valuable. They also have much shorter reach than the straight ones. People who do a lot of trim cutting, for example trimming the bottoms of doors) would probably disagree.

Honestly, you'll save yourself a lot of wasted time and effort by learning traditional methods with sharp chisels. These GOP tools don't cut nicely into corners, so you'll always have to square those off with a chisel anyway, and they don't cut with the grain very well either, because all[/u] the available tooth profiles I've ever seen (Bosch's, Saxton's and all the rest) are actually wrong for that, in softwood at least. It's a bi-directional tool, but the tooth profiles aren't: BZZZT!

The 10.8V system isn't going to be dramatically different between suppliers. It's the same battery pack for many of them (e.g. Milwaukee and Bosch), just with a different clip on bottom cover that matches the drill's plastics. I think Makita may be "very similar" too.

There are only three actual cells in it (each cell is 3.6V on average), used in series but probably charged individually (if the charger is properly designed). They also need a 'clever' charger, as the charging cycle has to be very carefully managed -- one reason why the tools have a low-voltage cutout, too. It may be that some of the cheap manufacturers use reject cells from the big brand's production, but honestly I doubt it.

The system hammers the cells and there's little slack. They deliver quite huge currents for their size - unheard-of outside the space industry as recently as 20 years ago. Mine have lasted pretty well, going for long periods with no use then intensive work. I think one of the three packs I have is now tailing off, but the other two are holding up well, and it's not the oldest either.

It is important not to let them discharge too much. I rely on the low voltage safety cutouts in the tools, and it's tempting to squeeze just that little bit more but you mustn't - the penalty is early failure of the battery pack (the weakest cell of the three becomes reverse voltage biased and dies, then the pack is useless).

For what I use the system for, it's great. I suspect there's a good reason why Makita haven't yet brought out a 10.8V multi-tool (GOP equivalent), which is that they are struggling with the power consumption. The oscillating system soaks up a lot of power - it's mechanically pretty inefficient, which is bad news for a battery tool. I've re-greased the gearbox of my Bosch recently, and checked the bearings at the same time. All was OK, but it still heats up in use, which is power and battery life being wasted (it's also pretty noisy).

Yo seem determined to use one for mortices. Others have said this isn't a good idea, and I agree with them. If you want to experiment, Lidl has been known to sell mains ones cheaply (around thirty quid). I'd get one and experiment rather than spend a lot more and be disappointed. It's one of those rare situations where a cheap tool may be more sensible than an expensive one.

E.

PS: They're not idiot proof either. If you do get one, don't try it on something important: practice on scrap or prepare to be expensively disappointed! My first efforts were embarrassingly rough.

 

[Mark A]

After owning both the green PMF190 and the blue GOP250 I'd personally suggest the latter of the two: £40 is a small price to pay for a considerably superior machine.

- More powerful
- Improved speed control
- Longer flex
- Feels better quality
- Quieter (perhaps the most important difference)

Regarding using a multitool to cut mortices: I've experimented with this and it *can* work, providing you leave enough material around the edges for a chisel to tidy up. I'd also say it's best suited for the sort of jobs which need big mortices with lots of waste to be removed.

Most of my tools are in storage (have been for the past 15 months ) so I can't do this myself, but it would be very interesting if another member had a go at morticing with a multitool, before reporting back with their findings.

Anyone up for a challenge?

 

[Petey83]

I've got the 18volt Makita version and it's something that gets infrequent use but when i do need reach for it it's because nothing else could do the job as easily or as well as it can.

As others have said it's not the most precise of tools so keep this in mind when you think about what you want to use it for. As a delta sander it does an admirable job.

my main bit of advice would be to maybe consider buying cordless as most the time the jobs i use it for are short duration and in places where having to worry about a cable would almost defeat the purpose of the tools versatility. Obviously if you want it for workshop use only then ignore all of this

 

[John Brown]

I have had the Bosch green corded one for some years. It is noisy, but I haven't had any problems with it. There are times when it's hard to imagine how I got by without it. I can't make any comparisons with Fein/Makita/Parkside as I've never used anything else.

 

[skeetstar]

I looked at these tools for years and thought they were just a gimmick looking for a role. Then I had to do a job that, as far as I could see, a Multitool was the only option for- cutting a cat flap into a heavily profiled PVc Door. I bought the Bosch corded green one and it did the job. Then a few weeks later I was in my local builders merchant on a tool demo day and saw the Fein in action. I gave the Bosch to my Son in Law and bought the Fein.

The Bosch did all I asked of it over 2 months or so of ownership, but the Fein is quieter, has much less vibration, has more accessories if that is your thing and just feels like it will last for ever. The price you pay for all that is weight, it is pretty hefty, still one handed use though.

It gets used for all sorts of small cutting jobs, and given the choice I would go Fein every time.

They are not great as sanders but they can get you into some awkward spots if needed.

PS when I got it I thought that it would be great for cutting mortices - it isn't.

 

[Eric The Viking]

The thing about sanding with them is that different parts of the pad go at different speeds. If you can use that to advantage, great. what you can't do is plonk them roughly in one spot - in the middle the thing is hardly doing anything at all.

I'm having a torrid time presently cleaning up a lot of damaged plaster. for that, especially taking the 'curse' off the cracks in the ceiling, it's great. I agree that it's not as good as other sanders for many things though - I have a couple of big Makitas, belt and orbital, which both get a lot of use.

 

[RogerP]

.....
The Bosch did all I asked of it over 2 months or so of ownership, but the Fein is quieter, has much less vibration, has more accessories if that is your thing and just feels like it will last for ever. The price you pay for all that is weight, it is pretty hefty, still one handed use though..........

The Bosch Blue is vastly better than the Bosch Green. It would be interesting to compare the blue Bosch with the Fein.

 

[sitefive]

.....
The Bosch did all I asked of it over 2 months or so of ownership, but the Fein is quieter, has much less vibration, has more accessories if that is your thing and just feels like it will last for ever. The price you pay for all that is weight, it is pretty hefty, still one handed use though..........

The Bosch Blue is vastly better than the Bosch Green. It would be interesting to compare the blue Bosch with the Fein.

so what are the main differences between the blue and green?

 

[pcb1962]

so what are the main differences between the blue and green?

Green are domestic/diy tools - plastic gears, low duty cycle motors, designed for light/occasional use
Blue are pro quality tools, designed for day in day out use by tradesmen

 

[RogerP]

so what are the main differences between the blue and green?

Green are domestic/diy tools - plastic gears, low duty cycle motors, designed for light/occasional use
Blue are pro quality tools, designed for day in day out use by tradesmen

... best go to a tool shop and compare them side by side. You''ll instantly see the difference without even plugging them in.

 

[sitefive]

alright thanks everyone for advice, specially Eric The Viking

Bought from Fleabay Bosch Gop battery operated one, with 2 batteries and L-boxx for 50pounds shipped, think I can sell the lboxx alone for £20 back on ebay if I wanted Lets see how decent it actually is.

I did went to shop few days ago and checked it out, they didnt had the green stuff tho to compare , felt really good and solid.