Just seen in the new Argos catalogue - Bosch (Green) PMF 180E - which appears to be a direct copy of the Fein Multimaster - except it's £70!
I might buy one & try it.
Just seen in the new Argos catalogue - Bosch (Green) PMF 180E - which appears to be a direct copy of the Fein Multimaster - except it's £70!
I might buy one & try it.
The main tool I am interested in is for plunge cutting when taking up floorboards. If it can do that, I might get one. Simon.
Oooh - well spotted that man!
Bosch seem to sometimes have a little foray into a new type of product with a green range, followed by a blue range a bit later - I guess they fear shooting themselves in the foot with their pro customers.
Would be very cool if the blades are interchangeable - the only thing I have against Fein is the price of the blades.
Looking through the online manual on the bosch website - it's certainly a single circular hole with an allen bolt through it - same as the Fein.
The holes look a little smaller - but that is hard to call since they fein ones have notches round the circumference.
If it will take the Fein blades then it could be interesting. The range Bosch are offering at the moment seems to lack some of the important ones like the carbide and diamond saws and rasps.
I thought the Fein had some kind of patented mechanism. Bosch green equals Aldi with a supplement for the badge.
Not unless you can patent a hole with a bolt through it.
So long as Bosch are paying Fein an agreed license fee they don't have much to lose. That may also dictate to an extent where Bosch can go with it (i.e. the license may stipulate no "pro" version, or limit the blades they can market so as not to tread on Fein's niche markets).
The price difference isn't significant. You can buy the equivalent real product for £87.
Where? I've not seen them at that price.
On Wed, 1 Aug 2007 20:59:02 +0100, "The Medway Handyman" mused:
Obviously very new to the UK, launched in July according to the Bosch press release web page. Seems to have been launched in Germany in Feb 07
Knowing Bosch the sheds will be full of accessories very soon.
Are Bosch paying Fein a license fee? I'd assumed they just copied it knowing that they are so much bigger that Fein it didn't matter.
Only launched in July in the UK. My local Argos don't even have them yet, I'm waiting for a txt to tell me they are in.
Knowing Bosch marketing the sheds will be full of accessories soon. They are very good at that.
No you can't Andy. It's £87 +VAT which is £102. Its not variable speed & it doesn't seem to have a case.
I suspect the Bosch is just as good as the Fein. Fein are simply profiteering because they had a new idea. No excuse for the rip off prices, its a good thing Bosch have entered the market - it will force Fein to adopt realistic prices.
On Wed, 1 Aug 2007 21:56:11 +0100, "The Medway Handyman" mused:
You don't half talk some s**te at times. I got mine, the TOP version, from Fein themselves for 165 quid all in. It has easily paid for itself many times over. IMO the price is very realistic. My Makita 24V SDS was a very realistic 470+VAT when I bought it, they are now a very realistic half of that. Everything is realistic, you can either justify it or you can't, I can.
Not your typical Bosch MO though is it?
Too expensive. Amazon.de list the Bosch for 99 euro, the basic Multimaster (single speed, no toolkit, comparabel set to the Bosch) for
156 euro.Given the _excellent_ build quality of the Multimaster, and the green colour of the Bosch, I'd want to be paying a fair bit less before I started to see it as a "bargain". Call it 75 euro / 50 quid and I might get interested. Make it a Ryobi-trade tool for 30 quid and, given the low and irregular level of use they get, everyone should have one.
The tools will swap - it's just a hole and a bolt. I already run all sorts of odd lashups in my Multimaster.
Please report if you do! I guess this might not have the "quick change" clamp of the newer Feins.
Being a real cheapskate I wondered about buying a Fein blade and seeing if I could make an adaptor to fit it to my Wickes delta sander.
It's been that price (+VAT) for the basic kit for years The 160 quid+ so often banded about is for the full kit "Multimaster TOP" with the metal case and a host of blades - I paid just under 100 quid including VAT for mine with a slightly damaged cardboard box 4 years ago from Axminster.
In a professional situation (non DIY) It's been one of the best power tool buys I've ever made, doing jobs with the standard tooling that previously required custom attachments making for attachment to air sanders. In avoiding special tooling costs alone it saves me about five times the purchase price every year. Add on the time saved and it's another couple of thousand quid over 4 years
So 100 quid for the multimaster + a few hundred quids worth of Fein attachments = 4k saving. It's a no brainer. The only idiots are those that haven't got one yet :)
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