sandingtools
I need to sand some rough spots on our old front door before repainting and am considering buying/using a multi-tool for this task (as well as some tricky flooring and drywall tasks later).
What's strange though, is that I haven't seen any demonstration videos where people are sanding a vertical surface. Do these tools require the surfaces to be flat and horizontal when sanding?
My dad has a Multimaster and it's truly awesome.
Like any tool, there are jobs it is good for.
There are quite a few tasks I've found where it would have been really useful - mainly in repairs and renovations, where you aren't ripping out whole floor boards or walls or anything. Those are things where a reciprocating saw, jig saw, circular saw or even a dremel tool (a cutting wheel is always the wrong angle.) won't work well.
He used it to cut out windows of my daughter's playhouse after we put up the plywood walls, and it doesn't do a great job on long cuts like that - he was cutting blind from the inside along the studs and the cuts aren't perpendicular to the sheet (but it's covered with trim).
While I don't use hand tools much, I certainly own a lot of hand tools. This happens when you sell them all day. Norm Abram at This Old House provides some pretty good tips on cleaning rust from tools.
His tips, summarized:
But once rust appears...
For seriously rusted tools...
Klein makes an excellent guide that covers nearly all hand tools they sell. Check out the free, downloadable PDF "Proper use and care of Hand Tools" available here.
Best Answer
If you're talking about tools like this, then you can use them vertically.
The manual for the tool I linked to doesn't have any mention of the words horizontal, vertical, level, flat or upright, so if they don't warn you not to, you can assume it's OK to do it.
One thing to note is that to sand a vertical surface, you're going to have to hold the tool more tightly than you would if you were working on a horizontal surface. This will cause more vibration to be transferred to your hand and wrists, which will tire them out more quickly. If you're doing a large area, this can cause repetitive strain injury; when I sanded some window frames a while back, it took a couple of days afterwards for my wrist to feel OK again.