Oscillating multi tools are the future.  If you are not yet familiar with these little wonders, don’t feel bad.  I didn’t know about them either until a professional construction worker friend of mine told me about them a few months ago.  I hadn’t really been paying attention to the tool market.  I thought I had already bought everything I needed years ago.  Man was I wrong!  Now I can’t imagine life without my multi-use oscillating tool. I won’t name the brand I picked up because I don’t want to come off as biased.  There are many great brands of multi-use oscillating tools out there.  The important thing is to shop around and find the one that’s right for you.

Basically, a multi tool’s blade oscillates back and forth at ridiculously high speeds.  This emulates a sawing / cutting / sanding / scraping / polishing motion.  Oscillating tool blades are the real key.  These interchangeable blades basically transform the core tool unit from one kind of tool into another.  The same tool can be used for literally dozens of types of jobs just by switching out the blade.  Oscillating tool blades are available in huge varieties by all of the companies that make this kind of tool, and different ones can be used on concrete, stone, all kinds of wood, metals, fiberglass, plastics, cardboard, carpet, tile, grout, dried paint, and tons of other stuff.  It just depends on the blade.

One of the things I like best about these tools is that they make my least favorite jobs a little bit more tolerable.  Everybody’s different, and we all have jobs that we hate.  I hate scraping more than anything in the world.  Scraping paint, grout, and dried concrete is like a sentence to Alcatraz for me.  I don’t know why.  Thank God, some people I know don’t mind it too much.  I try to get them to do it for me, but it doesn’t always work out.  With these multi tools, you can just pop in a scraping blade and let the tool do all the work.  They have a variety of scraping blades, including diamond blades for the really hard stuff.

Another thing about these multi tools is that they are light and easy to maneuver with.  You might have to lug tools up ladders, into attics, under porches, behind big appliances, over roofs, across ice… any number of tricky places.  The traditional hand and power tools are way too bulky to do this stuff without risking a strained back or worse.  And, once you get there, it’s sometimes hard to even get the tool in position to get at what needs to be cut, shaped, scraped, or otherwise altered.  Now I just grab the multi tool, a handful of blades, and head on my merry way.  Sometimes you may also need a few other tools, but this option really lightens the load.

It also saves you cash because you simply don’t have to buy so many tools.  The only thing that can really add up is the cost of replacement blades.  Oscillating tool blades are not cheap, especially if you buy the name brand ones.  Some blades can cost upward of $30 or more, which gets pretty pricey when you are depending on them every day.  To remedy this, you can check out the better off-brand replacement blade suppliers.  There are a couple of companies that make replacement blades that will fit any oscillating tool.  The best one I have found so far is fitzallblades.com.  These guys are a Godsend because their blades are every bit as good as the name brand ones, just as precise and every bit as durable, but they cost a fraction as much.