Cars and motorcycles are a big part of American culture.  Whether your favorite toy is a 1964 Mustang, a 1953 Studebaker, or a brand new Harley, Americans tend to share a love of great vehicles.  Not everyone has the time or the know-how to work on their own vehicles, but serious “motor heads” will typically try to pick up a wrench as often as possible.  If you are serious about your cars or bikes, you may want to add an oscillating multi tool to your tool collection.  These are the high speed power tools that move an interchangeable blade back and forth.  While they are often used by construction workers, wood workers, and home improvements hobbyists, these handy little gadgets can really help out in the garage as well.  Most of the big power tool companies have their own versions of these tools: Versa tool, Rockwell multi tool, Bosch Multi Cutter, Dremel tools, Sonicrafter.  There is some variation in price, durability, and feel.  After a little bit of shopping around you can find the one that’s right for you.  I recommend trying them out in person, though.  You have to feel them in your hand to really know which one is the best for you.

The real magic of these things comes from the blades.  Like the tools, the blades are pretty similar; Fein blades, Sonicrafter blades, Rockwell blades, and Bosch Multi Cutter blades are about the same in quality, and they all offer a huge variety of blades.  The question is: “What kind of work do you do on your cars or bikes?”  Once you start to look into it, you will probably find all kinds of uses: grinding, polishing, scraping, and cutting just about anything.  You may use one of these tools to cut fiberglass, sheet metal, seat leather, pipe, hose, tubing, plastics, rubber, or any number of other materials.  Some blades can be used for scraping paint, grinding metal, polishing metal, or scraping up dried compounds that may have accidentally gotten slopped onto the garage floor.

Once you take a look at your work habits, it’s not a bad idea to think about your travel patterns as well.  Many car and bike enthusiasts like to go to meets and rallies, often driving hundreds of miles away from home.  If you do this, you may want to invest in a cordless multi tool to take along on these trips.  You just never know what may come up.  If you camp, they are great.  You can use them for sharpening dull tent stakes, cutting kindling, zipping through tough cord or rope, etc.  If you are on the road and find that you need to improvise, you may find that you don’t exactly what you need the multi tool for until the situation comes up.  They are so light and easy to pack that it may be worth it just to throw it in with an assortment of blades.  You may have to modify parts, grind something down, or cut through who knows what kind of metal, cord, hose, light chain, branches, vines, or rope.  Depending upon how adventurous you tend to be, it’s easy to find yourself in a pickle while traveling around.

You can get these tools pretty inexpensively if you shop a little bit.  The ongoing cost that gets some people comes from the replacement blades.  Whether you go with Sonicrafter blades and tools, Fein blades, or Rockwell multi tool equipment, you will probably find that they all cut really quickly and precisely.  However, most name-brand blades are expensive to replace.  Some of the more expensive blades can run $30, which takes a huge bite out of your wallet after a while.  The good news is that you can get off-brand replacement blades through FitzALLblades that are made specifically to be compatible with the various name-brand tools.  These blades are extremely tough and precise, and they work perfectly with their designated tool types.  They are made with a special arbor pattern that allows for eight positions, so you can cut, grind, shape, or polish at a variety of angles.  Best of all, these replacements cost a fraction of the price of the name-brand blades.