Download - TM3000C VS GOP 300 BOSCH.pdf
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ince 2009 there has been anexplosion of oscillating multitoolson the market. The tool is not
actually new. The German tool company
Fein
rst launched the oscillating tool in1968. It has been a winner for them forsome time and found favour in manyspecialised areas and among certaintrades. Perhaps due to the fact that Fein
had the monopoly on the tool,it didnt become an overnighthit. The tool was quite expensiveand the accessories were also very
pricey. But it was the only tool of itskind and nothing else could do what itdid. In 2009, the patent expired and bythe end of that year Bosch had a copy inproduction.
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Tool Test
P h o t o g r a p h s : J u d e W o o d s i d e
Independent university test ofpopular brandsby J u d e W o o d s i d e
Auckland University'sKen Birch conductingthe tests.
the tool,overnight
xpensivelso very
ool of itso what itd and by
copy in
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The Shed August/September 2012 13
taking small but rapid bites. The smallarea of action relatively means the toolcan be more precise and needs onlythe smallest kerf so the cuts are very
accurate.The oscillating action means that thetool cannot cut skin effectively which isone reason they are used in hospitals tocut off plaster casts. But they can plunge-cut into hardened oorboards equallywell. A multitool doesnt cut as fast asa circular saw but it will cut very neatlyand precisely where you want to cut. Anoscillating cutter can cut clean, squareholes directly into a surface with no pilot
hole. No other tool can do that.The battle of the oscillating tools has justbegun. We thought it would be a goodtime to have a close look at these tools tosee how they stack up against each other.
Tools, accessoriesFor the purposes of this test weassembled some of the most commontools. We were fortunate that Makitawere just about to release their rst
multitool the TM3000C and Bosch areabout to release a 300 watt successor totheir GOP 250 tool. To these we addedthe Fein FMM250Q, the SMART SMT250P and the Renovator Deluxe from
The Bosch PMF180E was a 180 Wattversion designed as a DIY tool. It wasan instant hit. Suddenly there wasa tool that could cut timber withoutdangerous saw blades. It could cutopenings into skirting and oorboardswithout any fuss, cut out grout fromtiles, lift lino and do a host of othertasks that hitherto had meant expenseor had taken many tools to accomplishand it was priced around $100.The original Bosch PMF180E wasintended as a home handyman toolbut the demand was such that it tookanother two years before Bosch wouldlaunch their 250 watt version intendedfor trade use. In that time a host of copyversions had proliferated. Here Dremel,Milwaukee and Bosch have cordlessmodels and Bosch, Smart Tools andseveral cheaper home brands havecorded versions. Makita is the latest
entrant with both cordless andcorded. Fein was not idle eitherand have just launched a 14.4Vlithium-ion cordless model.There are as many cordlessmodels as corded.
OscillatingThe secret to the tool is thefact it doesnt rotate; itoscillates back and forth
in a very small (2.8-3.2) arc. The smallteeth on the hardenedsteel blades can cutquite effectively,
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ecaliTm
facos
n .2teetstequi
BEST KIT
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The Shed August/September 201214
Brand Developers Ltd as sold throughthe Warehouse.Given their multiplicity of uses theynearly all come with a system of bladesand attachments. The basic kit supplied
with the machines all feature at least oneor two bimetal blades capable of cutting
wood or metal (usually non-ferrousmetal, thin sheet steel or nails) a deltasanding pad and some pre-cut sheets.Some kits are more extensive, notablyFein, Smart Tools and Renovator.
Of them all, Fein is undoubtedly the bestassortment including two delta sanding
pads and a large circular oscillatingsanding pad together with six packetsof ve pieces each of sanding paper in avariety of grits and a custom mouldingsanding kit.
Of course the offerings will vary withthe type of kit. In this case the Fein kitis their Top Plus kit, effectively the topof the range and the SMART systemis their trade kit, a midrange kit. TheSMART trade kit doesnt normally havethe sanding pad but they supplied one forthis test. Most of the others are suppliedas standard kits. The Fein and SMARTkits also come in basic kits, which varylittle from the other offerings.
All the tools come supplied with plasticcases. Bosch and Makita are surprisinglysimilar and adequate for their job,with room for the tool and the box ofattachments. The SMART and the Feincases are the most comprehensive withroom in both for the machine ttingsand several additional spaces for vacuumattachments and additional ttings.The Renovator case contains only themachine and its vacuum attachment.The blades are housed separately.
The Fein box has two cases for ttings and extras, especially vacuumattachments, and an additional space forthe aforementioned moulding sander.The Fein case is clearly the best designedin ABS plastic with a lot of attention tomaking the design compact and ef cient.The handle folds out of the way to makestacking easier.
All the tools weigh about the same,around 1.4-1.5 kg, and they have more
or less similar circumferences, makingthem reasonably comfortable to hold forthe average-sized hand.The Fein and Bosch each have a four-metre-long lead. The Fein lead is
Bosch GOP300 New leveraction clampingsystem.
Bosch GOP 250cutting wood.
The Renovatorcutting wood.
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considerably more pliable and less likelyto twist. Makita have the longest lead inthe test at 4.9 metres and the SMARTand Renovator have leads of 2.1 metreseach. The Bosch lead is attached to the
machine with a ball joint allowing it tomove easily, eliminating twist.
TestsSo what should you be looking forin a good oscillating multitool? Its ahandheld tool that, in the case of usingit for a detail sander, is likely to be heldfor a long time. In that case, excessive
vibration can be a disadvantage.Similarly noise is a factor. These arentthe sorts of tools that you would expectto have to use ear protection for. Ingeneral in New Zealand, the acceptable
background noise for a workplace is85 dB. Short period noise up to 92 dBis acceptable, too, but above that earprotection should be used.
NoiseWe measured the tools at a distance ofone metre while they ran without load.Sound is measured in decibels based on
a logarithmic scale where a 3 dB changerepresents a doubling in sound intensity.The Renovator was clearly the loudest at88.7 dB. The next loudest was the Feinat 86.2 db. Makita at 74.9 decibels wasclearly the quietest in the test. Noneof the machines was likely to cause earinjury in continuous use. The pitch of theRenovator was noticeably higher thanany of the other machines and at 88.7dB it is at level where earmuffs would beadvisable.
VibrationThe vibration levels in all the machineswere not excessive, even under load.
CuttingThe real test is in the cutting abilityof the machines and that is to someextent determined by the quality of theblades supplied. All the machines have asimilar weight and most manuals say tolet the tool do the work.We set up a jig to allow the tools to do
just that. The tools were attached rmlyto an arm that allowed the machines
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SMART Toolcutting at itspreferred angle.
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weight to drive the blade. The tools wereset to cut into a piece of 40 x 25 mm
rimu, clamped in a jig. The blades weretimed from the start of the cut to the nish. We timed at least three attemptseach and averaged the results.Some blades tended to wander in thecut and in those cases the blade wasstraightened and the test restarted.In one tool, the SMART, we found wecouldnt attach the blades at right angleswithout using the adapter provided. Thehexagonal tting permits the blade onlyto be tted at 60 degree increments.
BladesOne curious outcome of the blade testingwas nding that the bimetal blades in mostcases cut the wood faster than the speci cwood blade. In most cases the wood bladeshad slightly coarser teeth.The winner here was the Bosch GOP 250which took, on average, only 2.9 secondswith a bi-metal blade. Curiously, it tooknearly twice as long (4.75 seconds) with a
blade intended for wood but that was alsothe best in its class, bettered only by theBosch GOP 300. Curiously, here the BoschGOP 300 managed to cut faster with thewood blades than the bimetal, using thesame blades as the Bosch GOP 250.We did not have a wood blade for theMakita kit so we have only the bimetalblade result for that test. Similarly wehad some problems with the mountingof the SMART blades. The wood blade
worked well with the adapter in placewhich allowed the blade to be positionedat 90. But we could not make thebimetal blade cut when it was similarlyattached, so we resorted to using the
blade without the adaptor and set it up tocut at its preferred 60 angle.
The clear winner in the wood cut eventwas the Bosch, which excelled with botha wood blade and the bimetal. The Feinwas consistent but again proved the point
that its wood blades were a good secondslower than the bimetal blade in speed.
Nail cuts Another common use for these tools is incutting nails to release a window or door
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Fein test.
Nail test.
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Project
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frame. Builders often use reciprocating tools for this job butmulti-cutters can do it without damaging the timber of the
door or window surround. Thats what the bimetal blade isdesigned for, to be able to cut through timber with nails.In the nail test we measured the time the tool took to cutthrough ten 90 mm x 2.5 mm nails typically used in framing.
Winner
Clearly the standout machine was the Bosch GOP250. It excelled at every test by a wide margin. TheMakita is close behind in second place with theBosch GOP 300 third overall. The SMART didnt
perform to expectations in the cutting tests. Wetried this test several times, resetting the bladebut with very similar results. It appeared to workreasonably well when hand-held to cut timber but itwas also twice as slow at cutting nails as the Makita.Nevertheless, it outperformed the Renovator.Fein is still a contender in performance and qualityand with the comprehensive kit they supply;although this tool is expensive it is still good valuefor the money. The SMART system doesnt have thesame performance of either the Bosch or the Feinsystem but it is still a reasonable tool for the price.
We expected at the start of the test that we shouldsee little difference in the tools and that the bladeswould be the deciding factor and,by and large, this is the case.
Fein nail test.
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The Shed August/September 201218
MODEL BOSCH GOP250CE MAKITA TM3000C BOSCH GOP300SCE
Power 250 W 320W 300W
Oscillationamplitude
2.8 3.2 2.8
No Load Speed 8,000 - 20,000 6,000 - 20,000 8,000 - 20,000
Weight 1.5kg 1.4kg 1.7kg
Fittings 28mm Bimetal 28mm bimetal 28mm Bimetal
85mm Bimetal 85mm HSS 85mm Bimetal
28mm wood* 28mm wood*
Delta sanding pad Delta sanding pad
4x sanding sheets
Blade adapter yes yes yes
Tool mount Hex screw Hex screw Clamp
Warranty 1Yr 1yr 1yr
Price RRP $299 $320 $599
Noise 75.8dB 74.9dB 84.5dB
Cut wood blade(avg)secs
4.76 secs n/c 3.5 secs
Bi metal (avg)secs 2.9 secs 3.43 secs 4.55 secs
Nail cut (avg) 12.05 sec 15.77 sec 15.98 sec
Temp 31 33 29
Combined CutTests (secs)
7.66 n/a 8.05
*Blade not included in basic kit *Blade not included in basic kit
H P2 B H P E
OVERALL BESTPERFORMANCE RUNNER-UP
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FEIN FMM250Q SMART SMT250P THE RENOVATOR
250 W 250 W 250W
3.2 3.2 2.8
11,000 - 20,000/min 11,000 - 20,000/min 15000 - 21000/min
1.42 1.4kg 1.5
Trade Kit
44mm Bimetal blade (offset) 44mm Bimetal blade 32mm E cut wood/metal
80mm HSS seg saw 75mm HSS saw 32mm E cut wood
65mm standard set teethwood 32mm Long reach wood 32mm E cut wood
30mm HSS straight 32mm fine finish wood 10mm Ecut metal
52mm rigid scraper 63mmm fine finish wood 10mm ecut wood
63mm Carbide segment saw 20mm e cut wood
Delta carbide rasp semi circ 80mm wood/metal
115mm sanding pad 92mm semi circ tile diamond grout
Delta sanding pad unperforated 66mm grout remover
Delta sanding pad perforated 50mm rigid scraper
6 pkt of 5 sanding sheets delta rasp
dust extraction kit 8 pkts of 3 sanding sheets
detail sanding kit Delta sanding pad perforated
no yes no
QuickIN Clamp Hex screw Hex screw
3yrs 1yr 2yrs (trade exclusion)
Kit $699 Kit $449 Kit $239
86.2dB 78.7dB 88.7dB
5.28 secs 15.18 secs 7.53 secs
5.96 secs 11.6 secs 22.8 secs
31 sec 34 sec dnf 9 @ 41sec
33 38 44
11.24 26.78 30.33
ART T2 HE REN VAT
BEST KIT
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The Shed August/September 201220
We dont recommend trying to cuthardened nails such as those used in gas- red framing guns.This is a severe test of any blade but atthe price of these blades we reason thatthey should be able to cut at least tennails. One would reasonably expect a$30 blade to cut even more.This test was run with the technicianholding the machine. It wasnt possible tocreate a jig as we had done for the woodblades. Its necessary to move the bladefrom side to side to cut successfully.One blade didnt actually manage to cutten nailsin fact, the Renovator bladewas all but nished at six nails andstruggled on to take 41 seconds to cutnine nails. Again the Bosch GOP 250
set the pace, powering through ten nailsin just 12.05 seconds. Both the Makitaand the Bosch GOP 300 took around15 seconds and the Fein and SMARTmachines came in at 31 and 34 secondsrespectively.
SandingFor the nal test we took a look at thesanding abilities of the machine. There isno objective test that we can apply here
but we ran each machine for 15 minutes,sanding a piece of plywood that had beensprayed with three coats of lacquer. Eachmachine was set up with its sanding padand 80 grit paper.
The Fein, SMART and Renovator havesmaller pads (45 mm) than the Boschand Makita (52 mm). Both SMART andFein had the edge on the Renovator forsanding. The Renovator pad did not grip
the paper as securely as others and itappeared to be softer and more spongy.It was less effective at material removal,too. The Renovator pad clearly showedsome distortion after use. This was
Sanding test.
Measuring thetemperatureof tools aftersanding test.
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especially concerning since it was used for only 15 minutes.There was no discernible difference in the sanding abilitiesof the Bosch or Makita compared to those of the SMART orFein. All of them removed material at a slower rate comparedto a purpose-built detail sander. The larger 55 mm random
044BMT 44mm wide Bi-metal Blade Nail Buster ExtremeSuitable for timber with nails, non ferrous metals,54mm depth of cut.
Why is Titanium coating so good? It is designed to reduce frictionwhich reduces the heat build-upduring the cutting process,signicantly increasing the life of the blade.
This even makes the New Nail Buster Extreme Gold blade capable of cutting deckscrews, an application not possible with any other brand of blade.
Suitable for timber with nails, non ferrous metals, 54mm depth of cut.
035HCTThe Piranha Blade35mm wide and only 0.8mm thick withheat treated teeth, the SMART Piranhablade cuts timber like no other.
SMART SMTX shank suits: AEG RYOBI Bosch Craftsman Fein
Makita Icon Milwaukee Ozito Predator Rockwell Worx
The most universal ttingblades in the world...The NEW SMART SMTX shank
f
t
errous metals ,
he blade.
withnha
High PerformanceHigh Torque - Will cut 67mm deep
Variable Speed - Maximise bladelife
Alloy gearbox housingSlim Body Design
Rugged Carry Case3 high value sets to choose from
SMART MULTI-TOOL,The answer to all the awkward jobsfor every tradesman & DIYer
N E W
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Available from all leading building merchants in New Zealand
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Go to WWW.SMART-TOOLGROUP.COM to locate your nearest dealer.
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The Shed August/September 201222
orbit circular pad on the Fein sandedbest of all.
HeatWe also took the opportunity to testthe temperature of the tools at the endof the sanding test. We measured thetemperature at the gearbox in the head ofthe tools, reasoning that this is where thework is done. Once again the Renovatorscored worst here with a temperatureof 44 C. The SMART tool also warmedup at 38. The Bosch GOP 250 reacheda very modest 31 while the Fein andMakita recorded little more at 33 each.Unsurprisingly, the more powerfulBosch GOP 300 was the coolest at 29.T o be fair the Renovator is not marketed
as a trade tool.
AccessoriesFein have de nitely got the mostcomprehensive system of accessoriesavailable with several specialised tools.In particular, their detail sanding kitis very impressive but SMART Toolshave a very comprehensive range,too. The Renovator also supplies acomprehensive selection ofblades, but sadly they dontseem to deliver on
quality. While we didnt test all theseblades, those we did test, which shouldhave been the best performers, did apoor job overall.The Fein kit includes vacuum extraction,pro le sanding kit and the range of tools.Fein include 84 accessories with theirtool including 14 blades and sandingpads, and at an average retail priceof $30 each thats over $420 worth ofaccessories. The Renovator claims tohave 37 accessories. Both count eachpiece of sanding paper.Only two kits provided vacuum dustextractionFein and Renovator. Wedidnt test either but the inclusion is aworthwhile option if you plan to do muchdetail sanding.
InterconnectionBosch has recently developed theOscillating System Interface (OIS) as auniversal standard for multitool blades,allowing interconnection acrossbrands. The standard
features 12 points of connection toenable a rm grip on any connectionsystem.This has already been adopted by anumber of manufacturers and mostrecently by Makita on the machine wetested here. Bosch expects this to be aswidely adopted as was their SDS systemfor connecting bits in impact drivers andhammer drills.
AdaptorMost machines have an adaptor, whichwill permit other brands of blades to beused. Fein is an exception as they havea proprietary system which will notaccept other blades except those thathave been manufactured deliberately to
t them (although it is possible to get anadaptor to t other blades). The SMARTtool system blades will t a Fein.
Fein have de nitely got the mostcomprehensive system of accessoriesavailable with several specialised tIn particular, theiris ve
Bosc as recent y eve opeOscillating System Iuniver
s le to get another blades). The SMART
.ail sanding kit
mpressive but SMART Toolshave a very comprehensive range,oo. The Renovator also supplies aomprehensive selection of
blades, but sadly they dontseem to deliver
ace (OIS) as as andard for multitool blades,
allowing interconnection acrossbrands. The standard
too system a es wi t a Fein.
Disclaimer
The independent testingwas carried out by AucklandUniversity UniServices.We should make clear that thisis not a test conducted underrigorous scientific conditions.We have attempted to show thetool in use in conditions that
were ostensibly the same foreach machine with little humaninput. We would stress that, innormal use, the operator hasthe ability to move the bladeand apply pressure. We dontclaim that our test is a definitivemeasure of the ability of the toolto cutit is only a comparisonunder identical conditions.
Overall Best Performance:
Bosch GOP250
Runner-up: Makita TM3000C
Best Kit: Fein Top Plus