EcoFurniture said:
nickao said:
I just do not think the American woodworkers in general would be receptive to the idea. And the Preciso CS is exactly the type tool I am talking about that Americans don't like. It is a light weight system and even advertised as that. Not a heavy sturdy machine like we are used to in the States. It may take a bit longer for Americans to warm up to the lighter weight tools.
I had some carpenters over here last week and showed them some of my shop and they were not impressed by the Festools at all, especially when they asked about cost.
Well said! I noticed the same when on site....People ask about it, but as soon as you go into some details, they start laughing and call you stupid for spending sooo much money... At my workplace, I have even been told not to use my Festools in the shop anymore.... Go figure.
most "carpenters" i've seen in this part of the world fall into two classes... "rough" and "finish" carpenters... the finish carpenters use a fine tooth chain saw.... :-/
i've got a fair bit of money invested in Milwaukee battery tools.... drills, roto hammers, rattle guns, etc.
and i've got SIX 18v lithium batteries, and a 3 station fast charger, and all the batteries are less than a year old....
one won't take a charge, four are good for one 2" holesaw thru plywood, or the equivalent.
two of those batteries still work ok.
six batteries, and that speedie charger, and a lineman's bolt bucket on the back of the charger
to hold batteries, weigh about 20 lbs.
and with tax cost about the price of the new 18 volt drill, with accessories.
so... lets' see... i should buy another $500 worth of batteries for this year, right?
i'll keep the charger and three batteries, for the rattle gun and some of the stuff
that i want to use, but most of it's going to salvation army. i've had it with crap
stuff made in china by american companies pulling all the equity out of their brand
names. all this stuff is a quarter inch above what you find at harbor freight.
the ridgid compound miter saw walks, and doesn't cut miters well.
and doesn't make repeat cuts.
the Milwaukee batteries are worthless swill.
so, i'm getting an 18 volt drill set, and a carvex when it comes out.
that carvex will replace my milwualkee sawzall, and porta band.
the drill will replace my 90 degree ridgid driver, three milwualkee drills,
and a corded hole shooter that will be rendered unnecessary, but will
still be carried on the truck, along with a super hole hawg that i use
for driving big cutters, and a cable tugger. i'm an electrician, not a
finish carpenter.
and the reason contractors, both union and non union, don't buy good
tools is that most of the "skilled labor" using them destroy them in the
course of one job. most tools are considered disposable by contractors.
i've seen very few festools on jobsites. i've also seen contractors doing
$30M a year that don't use some of the tools i use, in electrical contracting.
festool doesn't run a lot of their product line in the united states. they have
a drywall sander that will produce 75 POUNDS of drywall dust an HOUR, in
a production environment. that's a lot of finished drywall, for an hour of
labor.
it's over $3k to buy. and in this part of the country, you can buy a whole
truckload of cheap labor with sanding poles in a home depot parking lot.
and most american contractors are right in there with harbor freight.
for you folk who live in parts of the world where you don't know what
a harbor freight is, consider yourself lucky.
