Now firmly escaped from the Fein grip, it seems like the cut/sand multi-tool has made an appearance in almost every manufacturer’s tool line, from Bosch [What’s This?] to Harbor Freight. Now Ryobi offers one, too, and as you might expect — given the surprising quality of some of their recent One+ line tools — it looks like it’s firmly in the middle price and quality-wise. Read on for a quick look.
So the specs read like most other similar products — 20,000 OPM (that’s oscillations per minute), for example — but one thing stands out: Ryobi’s JobPlus features a removable head like the RIDGID JobMax, and the kicker is that they’re interchangeable.
The basic tool (the P236 JobPlus “base” plus the P570 multi-tool head) lists for $70 at Home Depot, and seems to be sold pretty much exclusively sans-battery, sort of as you’d expect for most One+ tools. This one’s green, so it’ll accept either the newer One+ lithium-ion batteries or (assuming you still have some) the old One+ NiCds. The “kit” also includes a wood/metal cutting blade, a segment saw blade, a sanding pad, some sandpaper, and the now-common “universal multi-tool accessory adaptor.”
If you’ve got something in the One+ line with a battery, like maybe their pretty kick-ass inexpensive li-ion drill/driver, this isn’t a bad way to get into the oscillating tool game. If you’re starting from scratch, the RIDGID might make more sense, as it sells for $100 complete with battery and charger. Either way you’ll have access to pretty much all the available accessories and job heads.
We’ll have to give one of these a try when we can scrounge up a project for one, but if you happen to have one, we’d love to hear from you in comments.
18V JobPlus Multi-Tool [Ryobi]
Street Pricing [Google]