I don't know how this forum could be here this long with no mention of the Fein MultiMaster. What is the MultiMaster? Well, it is a detail sander, a polisher, a rasp, a wood saw, a sheet metal saw, a scraper, a knife, and a tile cutter. There's probably a few more things it will do and I'm sure we will see posts on them.

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Multimaster 636 II with "E Blade"

Before you get too excited, for most of us, this is not a tool that you will keep at the end of your workbench. It's more of a specialized tool that you will turn to when your other tools just won't accomplish the task on hand. It might sit idle for months and then that one job comes up and requires it.

Basically the MultiMaster has an oscillating shaft that you attach the accessories onto. These accessories then oscillate and do their job, and quite well I might add. What caught my eye was a video showing the MultiMaster cutting through a 2x4 in under 1 minute. You can do a search for "MultiMaster" on YouTube and watch it in action for yourself.

The power cord is 16 feet long. Why do the German's get it and the American manufacturers are just beginning to understand? 3-8 foot power cords just don't work for most of us. You end up having to use an extension cord with a power connector dangling in the air. Fein also makes the MultiMaster with a battery operated model.

There is an optional dust extraction kit but I have not tried it. I considered it too expensive for the time being.

The sanding pads use standard hook and loop fasteners for easy and quick sandpaper replacemnt. When using the sanding pad be careful to use light pressure and keep the pad flush and to NOT use just the tip of the pad. It will wear out the hooks on the pad within minutes making the pad useless. It's worth keeping a few extra pads on hand.

The scraper blade is great for removing old paint, caulking, glue, etc. It is shaped to a knife blade on the edge. You could try to sharpen it with sharpening stones but I haven't found that necessary yet.

I haven't done any tile work so I can't say how it holds up there but I would assume it does well.

My favorite is the bimetal "E Blade" saw blade. You can cut through nails with it. The teeth on the saw blade have no offset so you can cut flush against another board and not damage it. There are several blade options you can go with but the E Blade is what stays on mine. The blades are expensive and wear out quickly. To get longer life from the blades, try letting the blade do the work instead of forcing it, make sure the sawdust gets out of the kerf regularly, and don't let the blade overheat. I have tried cheaper blades that can be found on eBay. These blades cut great but wear out even faster.

The patent protection on the MultiMaster are done and you are seeing several copycats appearing on the market with a much cheaper price tag. I have not tried any so I cannot vouch for how well they work.

Overall, the MultiMaster gets a 5 Star rating from me.

I've been working on putting a railing on an old existing porch/deck and the Multimaster proved its worth again. The customer wanted the 4x4 posts to sit on the frame and not on the deck boards. So how do you notch out the deck boards for the 4x4 post when you have a frame directly underneath those deck boards? With the MultiMaster. I also used it to "hollow out" a 2x2 corner of the corner post.

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Steve Adams, Qwas Products

There is also a tool for removing tile grout. It works very well. I've also used it to cut back the cement backer board when it was proud of the tile edge.

I got a MultiMaster (Top Kit) several weeks ago. IMO, it's one of those tools that you won't use every day. So I had not used mine until yesterday morning...

Several months ago when I laid down the subfloor in my Master Bath, I cut a nice 4" hole in the subfloor for the toilet drain. I installed the subfloor and the toilet drain pipe was nice centered in the hole. All was well... That is until I measured the outside diameter of the toilet flange and found that it was also 4"! Ooops!!!

So how does one turn a 4" hole into 4 1/4" hole through a 1 1/4" of plywood that has a 3 1/2" pipe sticking through the hole?

So I grabbed my Multimaster with the e-cut blade. About 10 minutes of careful cutting and... Voila! 4 1/4" hole with no damage to the drain pipe!

Yeah, I like it!

Dan.

That's what the MultiMaster is like. It sits there patiently waiting, and waiting.

And then that one job pops up and you say it's perfect for the MultiMaster. It almost pays for itself with that one job. But another 3 months pass and another opportunity pops up, and the cycle goes on.

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Steve Adams, Qwas Products

Steve,

Agree completely. IMO, it DID pay for itself. Prior to doing it, I worried about how I would get the hole enlarged. It was EASY.

Regards,

Dan.

Here's mine is a sortainer, I use it quite a bit. In fact I just installed a new cord because the old one got in the way why I cutting up linoleum.

I've tried the sander and vac attachment a couple of times, worked o.k.
Plunge cuts and demo work is where I use it the most.

Attached Images

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The Fein Multimaster has proven to be one of the most valuable tools I own - and I own a lot. I'm a carpenter that specializes in exterior repairs and modifications. Much of my work in previous years has been replacing individual pieces of siding and trim. Removing a piece of rotten brick molding and leaving the siding adjacent proved to be difficult. Most of the siding was hardboard and you never new if the knife had completely cut thru the hard as rock caulking until it was too late and the paper coating peeled. Now you just cut the seam with the multimaster and go on. The disposables are not cheap so I save and reuse. Customers do get charged an extra misc. charge every time I pull it out. It doesn't take much to ruin a 30 - 40.00 blade.

Inch for inch the sanding is the most aggressive I've experienced. Like it was mentioned before keep extra mounting pads around - they can melt.

Mine resides in a systainer 2. Not as neat as shown previously. Got 40 or so dead blades in addition to good ones.

So to the Fein Multimaster I pay homage

Peter

vt, very nicely done with the use of the sort. Impressive.

t

I seem to get through blades on my Fein Supercut far too quickly. I heard someone say that for cutting wood he ground new teeth on the old blades. Anyone else hear of this?

I've never ground new teeth onto dead blades. I have taken the old dead straight blades - not round ones - and sharpened them to a knife edge to use as a scraper or for cutting caulking.

Peter