i-Drill Oscillating Tool: Discontinued — What to Buy Instead
An oscillating multi-tool from a brand no longer trading. Why the blade fitting matters more than the tool, and what to buy.
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The i-Drill oscillating multi-tool is no longer available; the brand has disappeared from the market.
Blade fitting is the whole question
Oscillating tools spent years in a fitting war. Every manufacturer had its own blade mount, and blades were not interchangeable — which meant buying a tool locked you into that brand’s consumables at that brand’s prices.
That ended with the OIS / Starlock-compatible universal fitting. Almost every tool sold now accepts the common star-shaped universal blade, and blades are cheap and generic.
If your old tool uses a proprietary mount, check whether an adapter exists before buying new blades. If it does not, the tool is effectively finished regardless of its condition, because the blades are the consumable and you cannot get them.
What actually makes one good
Variable speed with real low-end control. Full speed melts plastic, glazes grout and burns wood. The useful skill with a multi-tool is running it slower than feels right.
Tool-free blade change. You will change blades constantly. A tool that needs a hex key for each change gets used badly, because you will keep cutting with the wrong blade rather than stop.
Vibration. This is the real fatigue factor. These tools buzz hard into the hand, and the difference between a well-balanced one and a cheap one is measured in how long you can keep working.
What a multi-tool is for
Plunge cuts in place: undercutting door jambs for flooring, cutting a socket box into fitted plasterboard, trimming a proud dowel flush, removing grout. It is the tool you reach for when no other tool can get to the cut.
It is slow and imprecise for anything a saw could do instead. Used as a general saw it will frustrate you.
What to buy
The DEWALT DWE315K, linked below, is a corded oscillating kit with variable speed and a tool-free blade change, supplied with an accessory set. Corded matters here more than in most categories — these tools draw hard and run continuously, and a cordless one on a small pack will not finish a floor’s worth of undercuts.
If you already own a battery platform and only need a multi-tool occasionally, the cordless version on your existing packs is the more sensible buy.