Carvex Issues

[windmill man]

David,

Be Grateful you don't have the Carvex state side yet! Hopefully you guys will get a reworked Mk2 version. If not there will be a lot of very upset people in the USA.

 

[DavidCBaker]

Why's that? I don't think I've kept up with any problems.

 

[windmill man]

Hi David,

Its not really been discussed yet, the problems are not reallyfully out in the public domain, yet.

The Carvex-

Concept................... Fantastic
Ergonomics...............Outstanding
Innovation.................Masterful
Reality.................... Absolute Load of Rubbish!

You Guys went into orbit over a few little problems with the Kapex. You will be orbiting Pluto, if you get the Carvex in its present incarnation.

 

[woodguy7]

Cant say I'm over the moon with my Carvex either.

Seems like we are on a bit of an astronomy thing  [big grin]

 

[AlexThePalex]

Hi David,

Its not really been discussed yet, the problems are not reallyfully out in the public domain, yet.

The Carvex-

Concept................... Fantastic
Ergonomics...............Outstanding
Innovation.................Masterful
Reality.................... Absolute Load of Rubbish!

You Guys went into orbit over a few little problems with the Kapex. You will be orbiting Pluto, if you get the Carvex in its present incarnation.

So what's the story then?

 

[windmill man]

Hi Alex,

Lots of problems with the Carvex.Mine ,hopefully, will be with the design team in Germany soon, for assessment.
Festool Uk sat on it for nearly a month despite being informed that the head of the design team wanted it urgently because of the problems I have encountered with it.

THANKS FESTOOL UK, WELL UP TO YOUR USUAL STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONALISM AND CUSTOMER SERVICE. BET YOU ARE FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH WITH YOUR PARENT COMPANY.NICE TO SEE YOU ARE KEEPING UP TO YOUR USUAL STANDARDS, AT LEAST YOU ARE RELIABLE AT BEING CONSTANTLY SUB STANDARD AND INEPT.

Alan

There with only be a mess over this one is if they start to orbit the planet discovered on March 13th 1871, you know the icy blue one [eek]. Then something could hit the fan. [big grin]

John

 

[Tezzer]

Lots of problems with the Carvex.

Like what? I have had no problems, in fact i love mine so much.

 

[peter halle]

This thread is a combination of posted reported issues with the Carvex that have been reported in other posts and comments related those posts.  Unfortunately, due to dates of posts, there might be confusion and muddling of thoughts.  From current date forward that will be remedied.

Peter Halle - co Moderator

 

[Kevin D.]

Interestingly enough, the Amazon UK shows it as Currently Unavailable and "We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PS-400-EBQ-Plus-GB-110V/dp/B003O3FAOG

 

[hasslefactor]

So, uh... windmill guy... is it a secret what you don't like about it or something?
If so, why say anything at all? If not, why not elucidate?

I mean seriously - what was the point?

 

[woodguy7]

I think Windwill man has been asked by Festool Germany to not bad mouth the problems on the FOG until they have been given a chance to fix the them & that is why the element of secrecy.  I have made no such promise so the problems with mine are as follows.
The blade jumps out of the "v" guide that holds the blade.  You can be following a line nice & straight then BAM, the blade is going all over the place.  The blades are also burning up really quickly.  This is a known problem that even my dealer is admitting to & they never admit to any problems.
The other problem is the base.  I only have the fixed base & if you hold the saw in one hand you can twist the base.  This should not happen.  I believe there are problems with the other bases also but i cant comment as i don't have these.  Not sure if these are the problems Windmill John is having but these are my gripes.

Appart from that i love the Carvex  [wink]

Woodguy.

 

[Henning]

I think Windwill man has been asked by Festool Germany to not bad mouth the problems on the FOG until they have been given a chance to fix the them & that is why the element of secrecy.  I have made no such promise so the problems with mine are as follows.
The blade jumps out of the "v" guide that holds the blade.  You can be following a line nice & straight then BAM, the blade is going all over the place.  The blades are also burning up really quickly.  This is a known problem that even my dealer is admitting to & they never admit to any problems.
The other problem is the base.  I only have the fixed base & if you hold the saw in one hand you can twist the base.  This should not happen.  I believe there are problems with the other bases also but i cant comment as i don't have these.  Not sure if these are the problems Windmill John is having but these are my gripes.

Appart from that i love the Carvex  [wink]

Woodguy.

I have similar problems with the blade jumping out of the blade guide. I have not experienced any trouble with the base though.
I have noticed that if i maintain feedrate and manage to "feel" the saw, the problem is a lot less.

 

[woodguy7]

Shouldn't have to though, eh ?

 

[nickao]

It seems Festool just lets tool out to soon.

I have a lot of tools and the best ones(not necessarily what Festool users call the best) never ever needed repair or ever failed. My Milwaukee miter box gets abused like crazy, not one issue. The kapex many issues. My Bosch jig saw, solid as a rock for years, now this Carvex? My Panasonic drill, 8 years old and still the original batteries and never anything wrong with it(various issues with some of the Festools drills). The Festool vacs have clips breaking and outlets burning up, I have Feins 12 years old still going strong. I can go on. I don't care how good the tools are and if they are better than other tools, if they go down it cost me time and money and aggravation!

Festool, it is better off testing the tools in real world use for a year rather then let them out, charge an arm and a leg and then just say well we have a great warranty when the tool is crap in a month.

I don't want to send my tools in  is for warranty. That is for a one in a million scenario, not one in a hundred. What is better a tool with NO warranty that never breaks in 5 years or one with a 3 year warranty that breaks in 3 months?

Festool go to a 90 day return for any reason policy just like most other brands have now, then  when the tool breaks we can take it back instead of get warranty work done on what I consider a new tool.

The service dept is supposed to be so good, I want a service dept that is NOT busy not great because they are constantly working so hard.

We are supposed to get what we pay for.

I really wanted the Carvex, I guess not so much now.

 

[hasslefactor]

I think Windwill man has been asked by Festool Germany to not bad mouth the problems on the FOG until they have been given a chance to fix the them & that is why the element of secrecy. 

....

Appart from that i love the Carvex  [wink]

Thanks, Woodguy - I appreciate your explanation about your experience with the Carvex.

My issue was with the bad mouthing. I consider it extremely inappropriate to bad mouth a tool (especially with the kind of over-the-top "orbiting Pluto" language that Windmill Man chose to use) without providing any technical details to back it up. General statements like that can be more damaging to the reputation of a tool - and the company who makes it - than specific statements are, because they lead readers to imagine the worst. In other words, I think that when someone agrees to keep quiet about the details, they should also respect the INTENT of that agreement by not saying anything at all.

Just my opinion, of course. Obviously others may feel differently about it.  

 

[nickao]

Nothing ONE person says can hurt a company like Festool, get real. If it gets to a point where so many are bad mouthing you can bet your behind there is an issue.

It seems once one person let the cat out of the bag a few others responded they were having issues. Not good there are not that many out there.

The problem with a forum like this is people are very reluctant to bad mouth a Festool even when they have good reason because they get massacred. It takes one guy to say what is what and then the dominoes fall.

So I urge anyone to give there views on the tool, heaven knows we get tons of rave reviews here so some bad reviews are not a bad thing.

I judge tools , tool by tool, not brand name. A forum like this is great, but can get into a thing where anything  Festool is the greatest, its not so and I thank the guys for pointing out the Carvex flaws and not holding back. My money is hard earned especially now.

I will now wait until some early adopters here run the Carvex saws through their paces for a bit.

 

[windmill man]

Ok.

I will reply to the above posts on Monday the 6th of September.

If I have received no feed back from either Festool De or Festool Uk before then, I concider the gentlemans agreement to give them time to address  these problems null and void.

As Far as letting the cat out of the bag- I have more loyalty to the people of this forum than Festool. If any of my comments cause people to do more research or hesitate before buying a carvex then I have done a good thing and not broken my agreement

 

[windmill man]

Hi,

Received news today that my Carvex is on its way back ,from Germany, to me.

When it arrives, I will test its operation and then post here with an up date.

From the discussions I have had , i am reasonably certain that it will be a positive feed back.

John

 

[jmbfestool]

I think Windwill man has been asked by Festool Germany to not bad mouth the problems on the FOG until they have been given a chance to fix the them & that is why the element of secrecy.  I have made no such promise so the problems with mine are as follows.
The blade jumps out of the "v" guide that holds the blade.  You can be following a line nice & straight then BAM, the blade is going all over the place.  The blades are also burning up really quickly.  This is a known problem that even my dealer is admitting to & they never admit to any problems.
The other problem is the base.  I only have the fixed base & if you hold the saw in one hand you can twist the base.  This should not happen.  I believe there are problems with the other bases also but i cant comment as i don't have these.  Not sure if these are the problems Windmill John is having but these are my gripes.

Appart from that i love the Carvex  [wink]

Woodguy.

I notice the same with mine I bought the Complete Carvex Cordless Barrel Grip ((Festool CARVEX PSC 400 EB-Set))  I also noticed the V groove the blade tries to move up the V and starts to burn.  About the base having movement well with the Plastic circular base its even worse their is a lot more play with it. I havent used anything els in the set I just buy stuff not thinking I will use it all I might do I just always feel I want the best and having the full kit is the best lol.  I do like the carvex the cordless version does have a lot of power it feels like its a corded version and lasts along time. I have spoken to my dealer and he said when festool sort something out he will call me and get mine sorted so im just waiting till a fix comes out. I still use it more than my Milwueakee Cordless though got more power and battery last longer I think.

JMB

 

[windmill man]

Hi To All,

In an effort to keep members informed,  I have been asked to  post this before  receiving my Carvex back and before testing the reworks.( The following was written before my previous post).

*********************************************************************************

Well today, via another FOG member, who has been helping with the Carvex problems I have an update.

Before I share the update with you all, I would like to thank very sincerely the above mentioned FOG member for all his help. I think without his input, things may not have got sorted as quickly and hopefully successfully as they have. I have not named him as, he wishes not to be identified, please respect this.

So lets get to the update.

There are certain issues with the first production run of the Carvex, manufactured between early March and the end of May 2010.

Festool De. are aware of them and have been beavering away to solve the issues. My Carvex (when it eventually got there, another and separate issue, nothing to do with Festool De.) was assessed and the reworks done and is now on its way back to me; within a senight!  I am assured that all the issues have been addressed and the machine now performs to their high standards.

Well now you want to know what those issues were. Well I am not going to disclose them.

Now before  anyone has a go at me for this please follow my logic and take on this.

 If you own a Carvex and have no problems with it and it performs as you want it to :- you have no issues with the machine and my issues are irrelevant to you.

 If you own a Carvex and have problems with it :- you now know that Festool have reworks for both the machine and the bases. These should be  addressed  through the warranty scheme.

 If you want to purchase a Carvex,( providing these reworks solve the issues) and that you purchase the developed Carvex (June 2010). Then you too have no issues with the machine  and my issues are irrelevant to you also.

I think some people may have a problem with the above but I do not want to set off a Carvex bashing  jamboree.  I always believed that providing I could make the right people aware , that Festool would sort it. Providing the reworks ,work. The Carvex will be an outstanding  jigsaw.

As far as I am concerned this is a closed book now, providing the reworks are successful.

They always say that out of negative things you always get something positive.

So here are some of the positives.

We are all going to get a really top notch jigsaw in the Festool line up ( subject to my caveat)

The US Foggers can now see the advantages of not being the first market for new products to be released in to.

When the Carvex is released in the USA you will get the developed and matured Carvex

FOG becomes a more Global Village. It`s very positive that people from different countries are willing to help each other because of a common interest.

Festool De have a positive view of this form and another source to get input

I have met via the internet and over  the phone a thoroughly decent chap that has gone to considerable efforts to help a fellow Festool
user

Regards John

**********************************************************************************

I will on receipt of the Carvex, put it to work and report back

Regards John