4500 Drywall screw gun - Discontinued in USA

[Coen]

That is odd. Not aware of any ‘special’ DWC 25mm bit.

The talk was about the bit holder, not the bit? And in case of the magazine adapter, you need to use the 152mm bits. But even if the bit is slightly different... you can just adjust it with the depth adjustment, if within range.

What really matters, information wise for this thread, is that the Festool screw gun does not use proprietary collated screws,

Does any screw gun? There are like 2 standards? The strips and the drums?

When I was putting in that ceiling together with my brother, the Festool gun had more issues with cutting out too early than my Bosch. Maybe the Festool has a wider "nose" that with same angle deviation will result in bigger depth changes. Not sure, will have to check. I had used his Festool before I bought my Bosch. He had way more miles on the Festool and after a few minutes he still like my Bosch better. My Bosch is however still that type that runs permanently, so it's noisy as heck.
If the gun was held at an angle and it cut out too early, it was also much harder to correct by holding straight and driving the same screw in at 2nd attempt with the Festool than with the Bosch. But as said before; the Bosch doesn't cut it, it keeps the motor spinning. Only the clutch engages / disengages. So the Festool inherently has less opportunity to overcome static friction cause there is zero rotating mass before the clutch engages. I forgot if the Festool has the option to keep the motor spinning? Bosch replaced the one I have with a newer model with motor-shutoff too but then as user option, so you can still use the 'permanent spin' too.
If I had Festool 18V I would have bought the DWC, but I didn't have anything in Festool 18v so... now I got to experience both brands, hehe.

 

[six-point socket II]

1) Mike asked if there is another/ special/ longer bit for use with the bitholder, my answer was no.

2) As far as I am aware that is correct. But it is a question that comes up from time to time, so I thought a reminder couldn’t hurt. Especially since this thread is about discontinuation of the screw gun - which might or might not lead to discontinuation of the consumables at some point. It might be holding off people from purchasing this fantastic piece of kit for the wrong reason/ assumption they might be stranded without consumables for it at some point.

The Festool DWC will not spin unless the clutch is engaged. You can switch between ‘manual’ (trigger pull needed) and ‘automatic’ (just press down on the screw gun) but in either setting it will only spin when engaged. (For reverse its slightly different, but still no constant spinning.)

This is (was) the main selling feature of this screw gun. I haven’t followed new tool releases at scale, so it’s quite likely that other brands offer similar features by now.

I mean, how ‘old’ is the DWC design now? It dates back to the Protool days if I’m not mistaken.




@mike_aa To me it sounds like the ‘dried out’ studs could absolutely be a contributing factor to what you are experiencing. Can’t pin point anything else that could be an issue. Please let us know how it goes from here.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[luvmytoolz]

I've used my Makita collated's almost to death and beyond, but they did take a little while to get the "feel" for using them to avoid cam-outs, miss-hits/jamming, not being driven in properly, etc.

So when I got the Festool I used the same technique, which is to firmly hold the screwgun (in auto mode), and push forward hard with a little more "oomph" towards the end. Last project was driving coarse collated 42mm screws through 1/2" MDF sheet into 100 year old Aussie Eucalypt studs with almost all of them punching just below the face of the MDF sheet pretty well.

Very rarely did I have to reverse and re-drive screws. Did snap a few though near knots or harder sections. When we rebuilt the back of the house some years back I had to be really careful with the framing gun, as the studs were so hardened and dry they'd almost explode in spots with the nailgun.

 

[Coen]

The Festool DWC will not spin unless the clutch is engaged. You can switch between ‘manual’ (trigger pull needed) and ‘automatic’ (just press down on the screw gun) but in either setting it will only spin when engaged. (For reverse its slightly different, but still no constant spinning.)

This is (was) the main selling feature of this screw gun. I haven’t followed new tool releases at scale, so it’s quite likely that other brands offer similar features by now.

Yes but that also means it has a harder time starting to drive a screw again as it has to start the motor against the static friction while the 'continuous spin' can use it's kinetic energy at the start to get the screw to start going again.

 

[UncleRunkle]

I asked my dealer near me about the discontinued part of this, and he hadn't heard anything, though I've seen discontinued SKU's on the drywall gun at another dealer not quite as close to me, so I wonder if that's what OP's dealer was referencing. I have found through luck or stupidity (take your pick) that sometimes a discontinued SKU makes it seem like the tool is going away. Not an expert by a long shot, just trying to add some helpful input.

 

[boomvader]

I called Festool US this morning. 576507 has been discontinued with no replacement.

 

[Cheese]

I called Festool US this morning. 576507 has been discontinued with no replacement.

Thank you for the update.

We've been asking Festool Corporate for the last 10 years to simply give the FOG members an early heads-up when they discontinue an item so that we can more easily fill in any missing pieces...crickets!!!