Bought this really useful tool recently, they do still have some in my store.
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From mem about £35 and spare tools extra.
It has scrappers and triangle sandy discs etc but the bit that interested me was the saw. It oscillates thru a small arc and literally can be plunged. In my case into Luan (poor mans Mahog).
I had left a misted up double glazed pane for far too long and the dripped condensation had rotted a corner section. I could have chopped it out with a wood chisel and just filled it with Ronseal filler after drilling holes and saturating in wet rot hardener. However, I preferred to let in another piece of mahog. The plunge saw allowed me to make precision cuts without damaging the next section along. Then I just had to shape up a piece of mahog to go in and glue and screw ... small gaps got a little filler.
Not for those that don't do battery tools: for me Li-Ion is fine and they hold charge for weeks or months on end. Good charger on this device as it has a light that goes out when fully charged. Being cordless it makes for a more precision feel like a surgeons tool. Really good to use and the blade and attachments can be put at many angles for getting into restricted areas.
The saw blade did come loose a couple of times but that was just me getting used to how much load to put on it.
Will it be useful for much else? Radios maybe ... cutting out broken trim ...
I have no connection with Aldi, just a customer who like there stuff. My wife calls them "my tailor" as I buy many of there clothes
Gary
That's a keen price Gary, especially with a li-on battery. I've seen this type of tool advertised for some time and often thought about one, but they're usually £80 or thereabouts so are a tad pricy, but I could be tempted by Aldi's offering!
(We've got two Aldi's within 1.5 miles of us but I've never been in one. They're trying to get permission to build one in our village on the site of a large house, but with two others Aldi stores so close at hand, and a new supermarket approved in the village within 250 Metres of the planned store, I can't imagine they'll get approval, and if they do, I'd have thought they'd 'cannibalise' their customer base at the other two stores. Time will tell).
Looks as though it works the same as the Fein which I mentioned in another post to Col, not sure how much the Fein is these days, more of a pro tool and maybe a bit expensive for average DIY. A handy type saw for window repairs as Gary says , also for floor board removal for exposing pipes, electrics etc. they go through hard solid oak no problem.
Lawrence
Hi,
Thanks for taking the trouble to add this Gary. For occasional use it will be an excellent buy. I would think this kind of tool is much like a biscuit jointer; for a home workshop not used often but when its needed its needed badly. I've seen a similar tool demonstrated on Ideal World shopping channel and it is most impressive and at the price quoted by David;
http://www.idealworld.tv/CEL_Multi_Tool_...s@lt;{8011}
For my use I'd like a Fein as Lawrence mentions but at the moment I'm working through 20 litres of creosote substitute; a 12 hour shift yesterday and a 8 hour shift today; normally I complain bitterly about the dire weather but the last few days have been glorious; so much so that I'm now suffering from too much sun exposure to the back of my neck; its been worth it though to treat a lot of rough timber whilst the timber is bone dry for a change.
I'll look at a Fein in depth because I feel it will be a useful tool if I buy one. I still like wearing the Aldi work trousers (Cargos) which you recommended Gary;
http://www.fein.de/en_uk/?gclid=CMLW5q3u...tAodEFMA3A
I've also tried out my new Erbauer jig saw and what a huge difference this is to my 38 year old B&D jigsaw; it cut through a handrail (Mopstick) with absolutely no effort at all.
Kind regards, Col.
The Fein looks a Pro tool but at £200 + I would never have enough work to do to justify it.
I may fork out for the jig saw though and pension off the B&D
thanks for info Gary
Hi,
Thanks Gary; I was just looking at Fein multi tools and they sure are expensive but then if used for trade the cost is justified; I'm unsure if I could justify paying this price for home workshop use;
http://www.buybrandtools.com/acatalog/fe...tAodPEkAng
Screwfix sell a Bosch multi tool for £179.99 which is a bit cheaper but I think if I was going to pay this kind of money I would pay the extra for the best this being the Fein.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gop-250c...ec-_-Area2&_requestid=407162
For members not familiar with a multi tool here is a demonstration;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nvcypVO2ek
There are plenty of jigsaws to choose from Gary; both corded and battery. I prefer corded and as Screwfix were doing a special deal on the Erbauer with a £40 saving I have got a good jigsaw with a two year warranty for £59.99. I've only used the Erbauer once so far but it is most impressive compared to my old B&D jigsaw. The Erbauer comes with a delightful tool bag which Bron was having a good look at.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-erb389...240v/90584
I'm suffering from sunburn this morning but it makes a refreshing change from suffering from rust; I'll treat the shed this afternoon with Creoseal as the shed is shaded by trees; I need to make the most of this warm weather whilst it lasts.
Kind regards, Col.
It seems to me that unlike say routers, biscuit jointers, circular saws etc, these multi-tools are quite lightly loaded and whist the cheaper ones may not (clearly won't) be up to the standard of tools costing five times the price, nevertheless they're most likely well up to the task. Looking at the demo, there are obviously some tasks for which no other tool can quite achieve the same result - plunging cuts, clearing grouting from between tiles, flush cutting into corners etc, I can't think of many occasions when I've thought 'Oh, I'm really stuffed now - if only I had a multi-tool'. That said, I guess it's one of those things that once you have it, you find all sorts of things to do with it. For seventy years I got by without a metalworking lathe, but this last few years I've found my little Lorch jobbie useful for many small tasks.
I could certainly be tempted by the Aldi multi-tool, but no way would I consider the Bosch, let alone the Fein.
It isn't so much the cost of expensive tools that's the deciding factor for me - it's the cost-benefit equation. I just don't do enough of anything to warrant buying expensive tools that will spend most of their lives in idleness. I'm a fidget and a dabbler at heart - I dabble in many things but don't really get deeply involved in anything - my life is a series of unstructured random movements, flitting about from one thing to another, often not at home. I've tried really hard this year to see half started/half finished projects through to conclusion, and in that regard, I'm on a roll and really quite smug with myself!
As to the relationship of price v quality, I once bought a cheap router from B&Q which looked up to the task for little jobs. After a few hours use it stopped. I opened it up and the brushes had been mounted in a thermo-plastic moulding which had melted due to heat from the motor and brushes. Basically, just cheap tat so it went back for a refund. Similarly, I had a 'Ferm' biscuit jointer from Screwfix which was fine for a couple of years, especially on softwood, but then it hit a knot in a piece of oak and stripped the bevel drive. When I opened it up, I noted that the bevel drive was made from die-cast aluminium - not machined from tool steel. Dire.
I've got a heavy duty De Walt router which I don't often use, and a Ferm one that I was given which is fine for little jobs in jigs such as cutting comb joint slots of radio backs, which only takes a few seconds for each slot in thin material, but I don't think it would stand up to cutting a slot in a length of hardwood or running an ogee bead along an edge, or whatever. True, you can make two or three passed when cutting housings rather than cut the whole depth at once.
The Fein is really for tradesmen where the cost can be justified/written off etc, the reason I mentioned the Fein was so you can see what an oscillating saw is capable of but not suggesting that everyone should buy top price pro tools, it all depends how much hammering it's going to get I guess and if you need to make a living with it.
Happy DIY.
Lawrence.
(13-07-2013, 03:34 PM)pwdrive Wrote: [ -> ]The Fein is really for tradesmen where the cost can be justified/written off etc, the reason I mentioned the Fein was so you can see what an oscillating saw is capable of but not suggesting that everyone should buy top price pro tools, it all depends how much hammering it's going to get I guess and if you need to make a living with it.
Happy DIY.
Lawrence.
True enough Lawrence - two quite separate market segments.
Yes David, sometimes I can go OTT and assume that everyone was a full time chippy....
Lawrence.