To the gentleman that suggested that I try the drill and centrotech stuff.....If you notice in my previous postings, I have a CXS drill from Festool and have bought a couple of the ridiculously overpriced Centrotech driver bits. Guess what, I love the drill and the only thing nice about the Centrotech system is the quick change capability and bit locking (which is available on lots of hex shaft systems). I would not be here complaining if I did not try them. It appears that more than one person here seems to think $425 is a bit high for some drill bits and drivers.
To respond to the question of the hex drivers not being standardized and Centrotech not being proprietary to be inconvenient. I have to call BS on that one. I agree that the locking mechanisms on hex adapters not being standard but even it the locking mechanism does not work, usually the bit will go into a drill from another manufacturer. I regularly use bits in a Milwaukee compact driver, a Dewalt 18V drill, and a handheld Klein screwdriver. No problem there. Now if Festool wanted to make a highly precise hex socket and highly precise bits to go with it, I would have a choice and no problem with them at all. The fact that they rounded off the corners of the centrotech bit serves exactly one purpose I can see.....It allows me to stick a Centrotech bit into my Dewalt, Milwaukee, or my screwdriver but prevents me from sticking their bits into the Festool quick change Centrotech chuck. Maybe one of the Festool engineers would care to say why rounding over the hex shaft improves the Centrotech system...maybe there is a good reason for that but it better be a pretty compelling reason to make your system incompatible with every other quick change bit set in the world.
As far as the other bits....I like the FAMAG bits a lot. I have a forstner bit set from them and like it alot. They are just not real highly available here in the US. The Colt bits are distributed by Woodcraft and I like those a lot too. The only downside I have seen with the Colt bit is that for some reason it seems to try to feed itself pretty aggressively and if you don't watch out it will pull your driver very hard into the cut. If you guys looked closely at the comparisons better the Centrotech bit, the FAMAG, and the Colt, did anyone notice how much more smoothly machined the hex bit was vs the Centrotech?
Steven Naslund
Chicago IL
