Rockwell RK5102K SoniCrafter Deluxe 72-Piece Kit
by Rockwell
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List Price: Our Price: $159.00 You Save: $40.99 (20%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $79.99 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Rockwell RK5102K SoniCrafter Deluxe 72-Piece Kit
Customer Review: I took a chance and I'm glad I did !!
Summary: 5 Stars
I debated a couple of years about purchasing a tool like this. At first, Fein was the only option and just for home use it was too much money for me to justify purchasing. Now that there are reasonably priced choices, I purchased the 37 piece Rockwell kit and added some accessories. Honestly, I felt like it was a gamble. Many reviews say the blades don't last and they come loose all the time. I rolled the dice. I WON!!!
This is a solid tool. I love working with tools and I own a lot of professional quality tools. I put this in the same class as my Bosch, Dewalt, Porter Cable, Rigid, and Makita tools.
For $208 I bought the 37 piece kit and a diamond segment saw, a carbide triangle saw, and a blade cleaner. (the 37 piece kit is the cheapest with variable speed; the least expensive kit is not variable speed). The harder the material you work on, the higher the speed needs to be set. According to the manufacturer, it is running the tool on too low a speed that causes overheating and excessive blade wear. The tool and add on accessories cost me less than half as much as the equivalent from Fein would have.
I immediately went to work taking out thinset from an old tile job, probably 1/4 inch trowelled. I had tried hammer and chisel and hated that. I bought an angle grinder which worked but threw dust everywhere. That lasted about one minute before I had to quit because of the dust. Then I threw a rug over it. That was a couple of years ago.
This Sonicrafter with the diamond segment saw is the right tool for the job. It is powerful enough. I used it for an hour, it did not overheat or bog down. The blade shows no signs of wear. The blade never came loose. It did not throw dust everywhere. After an hour my hand was tired. Operating this tool feels very much like operating a random orbital sander. The gentle vibration over time is fatiguing.
Be careful when you mount the blade. Blades mount like a twelve point socket fits on a nut; but these blades and mount are thin like a hacksaw blade. Make sure the blade is seated on the nut before you tighten the mounting screw. If the blade is mounted correctly, it will not work loose. I have used three different types of blades and have never had a blade work loose. Just get it on there right to begin with.
I am more than satisfied with my choice of Sonicrafter over Multimaster. I used some of the money I saved to buy myself a new Stetson hat.
Update: I was digging a post hole in my back yard and ran into a one inch root about 18 inches deep into the hole. All progress stopped. I smiled a lot as I qucikly cut the root out with my Sonicrafter.
Customer Review: Rockwell v. Fein
Summary: 5 Stars
I first came across the Fein Multitool on a TV infomercial. The price sort of stalled me on that one in spite of the fact that Fien makes top-drawer industrial tools w/typical ***** German engineering.
Several months later I stumbled onto a (brand NEW) Rockwell-Sonicrafter Ad and started searching for info. Didn't take long to find them on scores of websites including Amazon, from whom I'd bought before. Good outfit.
Reading (then) only a half dozen or so reviews on Amazon I knew I'd be more satisfied with the bigger, sturdier Rockwell over the other few light-weights around like the Dremel. I ordered the mid-range ($139.xx) Sonicrafter package.
Turned On or Off this tool has a solid feel, (and sound). It is smooth, quiet and strong. It's (comparatively) large 2.3 amp motor has plenty of muscle. My first need was when I had a 40gal. water heater hemorhage at 11 pm.
Next day I bought a tankless heater - which required a good bit of re-plumbing and cutting a hole larger under the "bottom" of a charged 3/4" PVC waterline in a nightmare place. An otherwise 2 hr. job draining and removing waterlines just to get back to the hole that needed lowering was surgically completed in about 5 minutes with the brand new Sonicrafter. As far as I am concerned this tool had just 'Paid' for itself first time out of the box.
A few tips. #1. Like most cutting tools including power drills, these new Multi tools (by whatever trade name) can not be "pushed" into cutting substantially faster. But, "Leaning" too hard on these tools 'will' do some things you're not going to like; Such as prematurely burning up or dulling cutter blades - overheating the motors - and, if you hear someone complain about the hub screw regularly loosening on a Sonicrafter you can bet that they are seriously 'dogging' down on that tool to make it happen.
The one I chose has the variable speed control - I expect the lower speeds might be handy only for 'sanding' stuff like 'less hard' finishes, aka old varnish. For hard, brittle material 'cutting' use a very high or highest speed... And no different than with any saw-type tool for cutting - your material must be held firmly 'still'. If not, you're just going to be "viberating" your work piece instead of cutting it.
I rate this tool as being a Real Winner among my 'manly' treasure chests of hand-&-power tools! ;-)
Whack on,
Gerry Harris
Customer Review: Terrible Customer Service, mediocre quality
Summary: 2 Stars
A friend of mine has a Fien Multimaster, which I fell in love with, but I did not feel I could afford one.
When I saw the Rockwell I thought "Eureka! Now I can afford the same thing, only cheaper!" Never was the old adage "You get what you pay for." more true.
I should have remembered that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. I purchased the Deluxe 72 Piece Kit, and when the unit was brand new, it worked pretty much as advertised. It seems however that Rockwell's quality control is not all that good.
The blades wore out quickly, and the unit itself started to loosen up after a few hours of work. In particular the screw that holds the blade down pretty much lost its ability to remain tight for any length of time. Now, after only a few minutes of use the blade will loosen up and effectively stop cutting. This looseness may have contributed to the dulling of the blades.
My personal opinion is that oscillating tools need particularly good quality materials as well as workmanship because of the ultra high RPMs. Rockwell clearly is lacking in checking what it sends out the door.
All attempts to contact Rockwell have failed. I have tried to contact them by phone, but I always got directed to a phone-tree that put me on wait, then told me to leave a message and someone from customer service would get back to me. No one ever has. Likewise my email has gone unanswered.
What I have now is a glorified paperweight-cum-doorstop. The unit that worked so well three months ago is now literally vibrating apart, the blades would barely cut butter if they could be held securely by the retaining screw, and customer service is non-existent.
Apparently some Sonic Crafters got better quality control than mine, since there are some positive reviews here (Unless, that is, Rockwell employees are over here plugging their product.). I only wish I was one of the lucky ones that got a good unit.
In summary I am reminded of John Ruskin's famous quote:
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey."
After all these years, I should have remembered that.
Customer Review: Not a good tool for several reasons...
Summary: 1 Stars
First impression: not bad. Seems solid and the motor runs evenly. It comes with no instructions for use, other than crude illustrations which only indicate the most obvious concepts, like changing attachments. It is a pain to use the allen wrench to change attachments, but OK no big deal if the thing works. It does not. First job: remove some molding with the "precision wood blade." Results were mixed at best. It vibrated around in the wood and it smoked like crazy, even with just a tiny amount of pressure. It was burning the wood more than cutting. Half way through I used I circular saw to do the main cutting and used the "SC" for the corners. Not too impressed at this point. Second job: sanding. At first it was OK. It did remove material, but the loop pattern in the wood was far more obvious than my $60 Porter Cable orbital sander, and I wondered how I'd get the curly patterns out of the wood later. After about 45 minutes of light/moderate sanding the oscillation of the pad suddenly stopped entirely. I tried to remove the triangular sanding attachment to see what was wrong but the metal housing was so INCREDIBLY HOT I couldn't hold it. It was hotter than any hand power tool I've ever used. Not a good sign for a motor. The "male" nut that the pad mounting sits on had deformed the "female" end of the pad so badly it was utterly useless. So, the pad that holds the sandpaper was shot after sanding half of a door. At that point I knew it was a return, but to try to finish the job I switched to the "finger sanding pad." Again, bad looping patterns in the wood. I gave up with this tool after less than three hours total use. When I went to remove the sanding pad from the finger sanding attachment, the top 1/4 inch of Velcro from the pad peeled off, so sanding was now totally impossible with this tool after the first job. I only used two pieces of sandpaper: one regular and one "finger" and sanding was 100% impossible. It comes with dozens of sheets of paper, but why? I completed the job with my normal tools, and that is what you will do if you buy this product.
Pros: None.
Cons: Incredibly high heat; attachments fail where they mount to the tool; cheap accessories; you wish you bought the Fein or maybe all these tools are too good to be true.
Customer Review: Rockwell Disappointment Updated
Summary: 5 Stars
3/11/10 UPDATE - I originally gave this tool 1 star, and my terrible review is below. Since that time, I took on a major bathroom renovation, and had so many difficut cuts to make that I had to try the tool again. I immediately noticed that I was not tightening the blades properly, which explains why they were coming loose. So that problem was solved. Then I soon learned that if you cut too deep into the wood, the blade gets caught and stops vibrating. It is not that the blade is dull, the problem lies in the user. I was trying to cut into the wood with too much force. You have to remind yourself that this is not a saw. If you let the blade vibrate slowly into the wood, it does an amazing job. I have now used it to cut through plywood, 2x4 studs, and even copper pipe. It has been a life saver for this project since I have been able to reach into places where no other power tool would go. The tool itself is solidly built and well designed. I would now highly recommend it to anyone. I cannot believe I have lived without it all these years. I am so glad I gave it a second chance.
OLD REVIEW - I have been looking at these "multi-tools" for a couple of years, but could not justify the expense for the little work that I do. When I saw the price of the Rockwell model, and had a job requiring a lot of door frame trimming, I decided to give it a shot. What a dissapointment. No matter how hard I tightened the various blades, they come loose in less than a minute. The unit also gets extremely hot. I got through the project with much frustration, and had a new project requiring an opening to be cut in 3/4" plywood for an electical box. This tool was perfect, because I could not fit a jig saw into the area. Well this thing was useless. The blade was dull after getting about 1/2" into the first cut. A new blade yielded the same results. Then a third. I finally cut the hole with a right angle drill and file. What a nightmare. I am now left wondering if I would have gotten better results from the more expensive products, or if they are all just marketing hype. I would not recommend this tool to anyone.