Those of you who said you needed a variable speed multi tool now won't have to go to the big $$ brands for what you need. The variable speed HF tool is on sale for $59.99, #67537. The speed range is listed at
10K to 20K RPM (or wiggles per minute, WPM?) but I have no idea whether sub 10K is useful or not or even available in other tools. At
20% of the price of Fein this is an even better way to try out the system. BTW, my $39.95 model is still doing nicely. Plan to do some home made blade mods next week after unexpected nail encounters.
Have they improved the blade mounting system? Blades coming loose seemed to be the only common complaint of the non-variable HF multifunction tool....
$59.95 does sound like a good deal relative to the Fein. I don't see how Fein can get away with selling their multitools at prices in the $400-800+ range. In fact, I just saw on Amazon that the Fein FSC 2.0 (which includes maybe a dozen blades) has a list price of $1,022 and a retail price of $817.
Can it really be worth 10-20x the price of the Harbor Freight tool? We are not talking about a 500 pound cabinet saw or other large precision power tool. It really is just a vibrating motor on a stick.
Can even a pro carpenter justify spending that much for what is still essentially a non-precision rough-carpentry tool? At that price, it would be one of the most expensive tools on any jobsite for something that is not used nearly as much as other staples like a skill saw, drill/driver, contractor saw etc. Plus at that size and price, who would want to take the risk of it "walking off the job site" or otherwise getting lost?
I just don't see how that type of price differential can be justified except in perhaps a couple of niche situations where money is no object.
Saw an expose recently where a high-end audio company (Lexicon) was purchasing BlueRay drives (retail $500), replacing the case, and charging -- wait for it now -- $3,500.00. The engineers disassembled both models and found them to be identical.
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This is an even bigger rip-off than Monster Cables.
OK - although all of the catalogs and online prices mention the price as $79.99, it is on sale in the stores for $59.99
I bought one (they actually took $20 off the price of it so it was $39.99 and another $10 off another item if I in turn agreed to buy a $29.99 Inside Track membership which I guess they are pushed to sell -- so basically I got the membership for free).
Quality looks good. In particular, in addition to adding variable speed it seems to have "solved" some of the complaints with the earlier model, including:
- Raised 'dots' that engage with holes in the attachments, allowing for positive locking of the attachment which prevents the slipping that reportedly plagued the regular model which needed the screw to be wrenched down real tight to avoid slipping
- Pretty quiet -- quieter than a pad sander
- More ergonomic shape
In terms of actual use, I only played with it for a few minutes using it to test cut a 1x4 and to do some light sanding of a some pine. It worked nicely in that short trial.
For $60 it seems like a good investment and a great bargain relative to the Fein.
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