Fein Multimaster Review
The Multi-master looks like a detail-sander and it fills that role very well, but it also does a lot more. Whatever attachment (saw, scraper, sander, etc) is put on vibrates very, very quickly and results in sawing, scraping, or sanding. One merit is that, like a cast-cutter, it mostly only cuts hard surfaces. Theoretically (are you going to test it out?), most of its attachments will not cut skin.
We were doing a lot of different work over a week we both had off from our jobs. We were repainting the walls and ceiling and laying a new vinyl tile floor in the kitchen. Lots of other smaller jobs were also to be done: sanding and refinishing some beat up window sills, installing a new outlet in a bathroom, and other small jobs.
I mention all of this because the multi-master was involved in pretty much everything and made the jobs much easier and, in some cases, even possible.
In the kitchen we had to put down a skim coat of embossing leveler-a thin layer of a plastic-like, cement-like material. After it is spread out and dried, any ridges that were formed have to be scraped down. The material is quite hard and hand-scraping can be a drag. Out comes the multi-master and the scraping blade attached. It just powers through the work (Note: be careful of the angle--you can easily gouge the surface) The tool scraped away ridges relatively quickly and relatively well. (We still did a little final hand scraping.)
The floor was laid down. When we came to the door leading outside from the kitchen, we decided it would look best and be easier to clean if the sill was undercut and the tiles slipped under it. Of course, this decision was made when all the other tiles were in already. One would need a jamb saw usually, and, in this particular situation, a saw would have been a real pain and probably damaged our carefully laid tiles. Again enter the multi-master. I attached the specialized saw blade and started cutting. The saw blade does not make quick cuts, but it makes them extremely accurately and with a very thin cut. Thin enough that I made one cut flush with the floor (with little or no damage to the new tiles) and then laid a scrap down to get the right height and sawed again. The cuts are so thin and careful, I actually wound up with two parallel cut lines ( sort of like ============ in the door sill. A little poking and prodding got the slivers out and then the tiles could slide in. Now this sounds easy and, overall, it was, but it took a fair amount of time. Again, accurate, not fast. The resulting installation looks great and it was worth the time.
Downstairs to the guest bath, time for a new outlet. The walls are wood paneling and, for this wall, the other side is open in the unfinished laundrey room. Again, the saw blade is used. I placed the outlet box where I wanted it and drew a line. The multi-master makes pretty perfect plunge cuts and the shape of the blade allows you to get right up next to an edge. A few minutes later, the exact shape of the box is cut out, the piece removed and the work continues--very neat, very clean.
Upstairs to the window work. Finally the tool gets some action as a detail sander--what we thought the primary use would be. Let me pause for a moment to say that we tried two other detail sanders, a cheap one from Ryobi--absolutely useless; and a more expensive one from Porter-cable, a company we usually like--also less than impressive. The multimaster does what those others claim to. It sands right up to an edge--cleanly, very controllably, beautifully. I did not try to do any heavily shaped moldings, but for close, careful work on flat surfaces the multi-master is great. Again, the tool is deceptively powerful, and it is easy to remove too much material. The company obviously sees this being a central use, and there are a variety of sandpaper grits available. I used both the triangular pad and the finger-style pads and both worked great. I could really get right up next to another piece and sand only what I wanted far, far faster than by hand.
I could go on with several other examples of what we used the tool for but you get the idea. It is a very versatile tool.
That is the good side, the not-so-good side needs addressing as well.
The kit is around $180--not cheap by most standards and expensive enough that we thougt about buying one for 4 or 5 months before we actually purchased. That said, we really wanted/needed a detail sander and the others did not cut it. We not too reluctantly plunked down $100 for the Porter-Cable one we returned. So for a tool that sands beautifully, undercuts sills and jambs, flush cuts and plunge cuts wood and drywall, acts as a grout saw, a power scraper, and more; and seems very well-made the price seems more reasonable.
What does not seem reasonable is the price of the accessories. The tool comes with a saw blade, a sanding pad, a scraper, and some sand paper samples. I bought the finger pads ($20), the finger shaped sand-paper ($10), and an "e-cut" saw blade--used for faster sawing of wood ($40!!!). The sanding stuff did not seem too bad, but the saw blades are pretty pricey. And considering that this fancy e-cut blade that is supposed to make the thing cut as fast a a jig saw (not quite) lost a couple of teeth in the undercutting process, the blades seem even more outrageously priced. They sell kits with multiple blades at a price break which would seem to be the way to go.
Well, to finish up, the tool is very solidly built and seems like it should give many years of use. While the accessories are expensive, most should give long use as well. I imagine we will use the tool for a variety of projects over the years and will get our money worth out of it.
We were doing a lot of different work over a week we both had off from our jobs. We were repainting the walls and ceiling and laying a new vinyl tile floor in the kitchen. Lots of other smaller jobs were also to be done: sanding and refinishing some beat up window sills, installing a new outlet in a bathroom, and other small jobs.
I mention all of this because the multi-master was involved in pretty much everything and made the jobs much easier and, in some cases, even possible.
In the kitchen we had to put down a skim coat of embossing leveler-a thin layer of a plastic-like, cement-like material. After it is spread out and dried, any ridges that were formed have to be scraped down. The material is quite hard and hand-scraping can be a drag. Out comes the multi-master and the scraping blade attached. It just powers through the work (Note: be careful of the angle--you can easily gouge the surface) The tool scraped away ridges relatively quickly and relatively well. (We still did a little final hand scraping.)
The floor was laid down. When we came to the door leading outside from the kitchen, we decided it would look best and be easier to clean if the sill was undercut and the tiles slipped under it. Of course, this decision was made when all the other tiles were in already. One would need a jamb saw usually, and, in this particular situation, a saw would have been a real pain and probably damaged our carefully laid tiles. Again enter the multi-master. I attached the specialized saw blade and started cutting. The saw blade does not make quick cuts, but it makes them extremely accurately and with a very thin cut. Thin enough that I made one cut flush with the floor (with little or no damage to the new tiles) and then laid a scrap down to get the right height and sawed again. The cuts are so thin and careful, I actually wound up with two parallel cut lines ( sort of like ============ in the door sill. A little poking and prodding got the slivers out and then the tiles could slide in. Now this sounds easy and, overall, it was, but it took a fair amount of time. Again, accurate, not fast. The resulting installation looks great and it was worth the time.
Downstairs to the guest bath, time for a new outlet. The walls are wood paneling and, for this wall, the other side is open in the unfinished laundrey room. Again, the saw blade is used. I placed the outlet box where I wanted it and drew a line. The multi-master makes pretty perfect plunge cuts and the shape of the blade allows you to get right up next to an edge. A few minutes later, the exact shape of the box is cut out, the piece removed and the work continues--very neat, very clean.
Upstairs to the window work. Finally the tool gets some action as a detail sander--what we thought the primary use would be. Let me pause for a moment to say that we tried two other detail sanders, a cheap one from Ryobi--absolutely useless; and a more expensive one from Porter-cable, a company we usually like--also less than impressive. The multimaster does what those others claim to. It sands right up to an edge--cleanly, very controllably, beautifully. I did not try to do any heavily shaped moldings, but for close, careful work on flat surfaces the multi-master is great. Again, the tool is deceptively powerful, and it is easy to remove too much material. The company obviously sees this being a central use, and there are a variety of sandpaper grits available. I used both the triangular pad and the finger-style pads and both worked great. I could really get right up next to another piece and sand only what I wanted far, far faster than by hand.
I could go on with several other examples of what we used the tool for but you get the idea. It is a very versatile tool.
That is the good side, the not-so-good side needs addressing as well.
The kit is around $180--not cheap by most standards and expensive enough that we thougt about buying one for 4 or 5 months before we actually purchased. That said, we really wanted/needed a detail sander and the others did not cut it. We not too reluctantly plunked down $100 for the Porter-Cable one we returned. So for a tool that sands beautifully, undercuts sills and jambs, flush cuts and plunge cuts wood and drywall, acts as a grout saw, a power scraper, and more; and seems very well-made the price seems more reasonable.
What does not seem reasonable is the price of the accessories. The tool comes with a saw blade, a sanding pad, a scraper, and some sand paper samples. I bought the finger pads ($20), the finger shaped sand-paper ($10), and an "e-cut" saw blade--used for faster sawing of wood ($40!!!). The sanding stuff did not seem too bad, but the saw blades are pretty pricey. And considering that this fancy e-cut blade that is supposed to make the thing cut as fast a a jig saw (not quite) lost a couple of teeth in the undercutting process, the blades seem even more outrageously priced. They sell kits with multiple blades at a price break which would seem to be the way to go.
Well, to finish up, the tool is very solidly built and seems like it should give many years of use. While the accessories are expensive, most should give long use as well. I imagine we will use the tool for a variety of projects over the years and will get our money worth out of it.