Make an Oscillating Tool From a Tooth-Brush

If you have an old tooth-brush lying around, you can make a mini Oscillating Tool.

Well, actually you can also make it from a tooth-brush you use on daily bases.

You'll have a 2 in 1 Tooth-brush/Oscillating Tool.

You can use it to brush your teeth and when needed, transform to a cutting tool. Crazy? Maybe!

I did not want to destroy my tooth-brush, that's why I made it with a help of a 3D printer, but I'll give you some tips on how to make it without a 3D printer.

You'll want to use a toothbrush with a metal rod.

First I removed the head.

I 3D printed an adapter for my tooth-brush.

It lets me use rotary tool's accessories with my tooth-brush.

It just slides onto the rod.

If you don't have a 3D printer, you can make an adapter from a dowel (just try to make it light)

Hot glue also works. When I was first testing this thing, I drilled a hole in the saw blade and glued it to the rod with some hot glue.

As you probably know, the hot glue can be easily removed with some alcohol.

Most of tooth-brushes are powered with 1 or 2 AA batteries.

To successfully cut something, we need to make the motor spin faster. Easiest way to do is by increasing the voltage.

I used an adjustable power supply.

If your tooth-brush will be used only as an oscillating tool, you can solder the cables directly to the connectors.

Alternatively you can make a power supply powered battery from "AAA to AA" adapter.

In my case I used a 3D printer to make a dummy battery.

I removed the sleeve from electrical terminals and cut off the fork.

After inserting 2 springs, I crimped paper binding pins to the cables.

Then I put on the caps to keep binding pins in place.

The spring will allow binding pins to move, so it will be easier to reach the contact.

And last, I glued the cable to the case.

That's it!

We have made a cutting tool that can transform back into the tooth-brush.

Does it cut?

Yes it does, but it's not very powerful.

It's best to use very thin saw blades.

Remember that by the end of the day it's still a tooth-brush, so it might break down by using it that way :)