The rotate tool starts like this
And will turn like this if I change the pivot point of the part by 45 degrees
I want to achieve this effect with the scale tool, as no matter what I try it will still only extend from the flat edges of this square shape
So the exact same way that I changed to orientation of the rotate tool by 45 degrees, I want to be able to move the scale tool by 45 degrees and then edit the part. Does anyone know how to achieve this?
Try using Ctrl + L which I think is what you are getting at?
This resets the modelling tools to world orientation - give it a try and see if it fixes the issue.
I’ve tried that already, and using CTRL+L only actually applies the world orientation when using the rotate tool. The scale tool does not change orientation because of it
Oh I see you might have to try blender if you want to achieve more indepth modelling not too sure about that one 
I had 2 parts in the same position, one rotated 45 degrees, the other, made impossibly small. (small enough to be hidden inside the part and not be visible)
then I was able to scale them in funky ways once I unioned them.
If you need to achieve this using meshes or are going to need this for a lot of things, I recommend using blender. 
the scale tool can’t scale the faces of mesh
