Festool Carvex PSC420 Review - Video

[Stone Message]

There is a new jigsaw being sold made by a company called Festool. Not many of you will have heard about this product and so I have made a short video which may be of interest.

My tool was supplied by Festool through my association with a major (UK) woodworking magazine.

Take a look at:



Peter

 

[galwaydude18@gmail.com]

Excellent review Peter. Very honest and detailed. It has cleared up everyone's questions and concerns if you ask me.

 

[Davej]

good review peter  , nice to see the 420 can do everything my 400 can  [big grin]

 

[GhostFist]

Good review Peter. you can do 1.5 meter radius with the core maker/ thats cool.

3 things i'd like to see an angle cut in the center of the board
I'd like to see cut performance with a rail
and I'd like to see you review the mafell

 

[Stone Message]

Good review Peter. you can do 1.5 meter radius with the core maker/ thats cool.

3 things i'd like to see an angle cut in the center of the board
I'd like to see cut performance with a rail
and I'd like to see you review the mafell

Thank you.

I had to cut some things out. I really don't see the point of doing jigsaw work with a guide rail. If a straight cut is long enough to make you think that you need a guide rail then perhaps you need to use a TS. If the cut is too short to warrant a TS then it might just as well be a freehand cut.

I do not go cap in hand asking manufacturers for tools to review but wait for them to contact me or let my magazine organise some work. I will never do 'head to head' or comparison reviews because that type of work is too subjective. It takes a lot of skill and a huge amount of work to do truly fair comparative tests. Many have tried and failed.

Peter

 

[Alan m]

great job peter as usual.
the manual must be really bad for you to feel that strongly about it.

i too would like to see the angle base in the convex formation in the middle of a sheet. the concave way looks great thow. the other half of the foot acts like a fence

 

[festooldude]

I had to cut some things out. I really don't see the point of doing jigsaw work with a guide rail. If a straight cut is long enough to make you think that you need a guide rail then perhaps you need to use a TS. If the cut is too short to warrant a TS then it might just as well be a freehand cut.

Hi peter,

Thanks for the review.. I think that its your personal opinion about not
wanting to use a jigsaw with a guide rail. As a review you should be objective.
Since the manufacturer designed it to work with a special foot for guide rail usage.

I think you should do a review on that topic cause its there always a moment that
you cant use a TS saw and using a jigsaw with a guide might help you out.

Thanks for the review..

Rick

 

[ajones]

great job peter as usual.
the manual must be really bad for you to feel that strongly about it.

i too would like to see the angle base in the convex formation in the middle of a sheet. the concave way looks great thow. the other half of the foot acts like a fence

Peters videos allways tell us how brilliant the tools are, so he needs to find fault with something to redress the balance

 

[neth27]

I would never buy anything on his reviews.. I can find negatives on Festool products, he never does..

John..

 

[green fever]

Neth 27 I would like you to please take the time and review the carved 420 and show us your views if you would not mind , I am all for honest reviews be it good or bad , I have found Peter parfitt to be honest in the reviews , perhaps you may like to highlight some where he should have been more objective unless Peter has not reviewed the tools you do not favour , I myself have certain views on a few festool tools and have read on this forum about them but I can't recall Peter posting about them but how many people have reviewed the festool FAKIR ? I doubt Peter cherry picks the tools he reviews and I have to trust him on what I have seen thus far , Peter well done in getting this video on the forum , green

 

[ART at WORK]

Thanks for a great review Peter, and getting the film done in such short time. It would have taken me longer to edit something together, and my video camera has packed up. So I took the easy route to do photos.

I will get some of the carvex blades and give the machine another run for its money.

I am very glad you mentioned the web site its so bad and the really awful users manual.
I meet a friend the other day who works for a firm that produces instruction manuals. I was tempted to tell her to contact Festool, she then said they had so much work they weren't looking for new clients. So I left it.

One of my favourite TED talks is about simplifying legal jargon. I embed the video at the bottom.
I think machine manuals should follow some basic rules. Like the uses know nothing and everything.
So give them all the information and don't treat them like an idiot.
Lots of Photos, illustrations, cartoons, mechine users are usually visual people.
Give good examples or the things you can do with the machine and maybe some examples of a few exercises to get used to the new machine.

Just my thoughts.
Maybe a new thread coming up here. "If Festool made a new manual it should ...."

Ted Talks

Having difficulty with the embed, if one of the moderators would be so kind, im going to in bed now.

 

[GhostFist]

I've never used my trion with a guide rail as I haven't seen the need. I was just curious as to what the performance is like as it's a feature the saw boasts.
As for my request for the mafell review, i'm not interested in a head to head, just your reaction to that tools performance.
All the best,
I always enjoy your vids and appreciate the time you spend on them.

 

[peter halle]

Peter,

Thanks for that video.  You are a trooper, doing that while you were not feeling your best.  I appreciate the fact that you put the Carvex 420 thru the paces and just showed it doing its thing.

Another Peter.

 

[Scott B.]

how many people have reviewed the festool FAKIR ?

I have.

 

[peter halle]

how many people have reviewed the festool FAKIR ?

I have.

Start a new thread maybe?  I don't have wallpaper and hate it with a passion and would love to see it.

Peter

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Yeah, missed the Fakir review, Scott. Post us a link or something.  [popcorn]

 

[Scott B.]

how many people have reviewed the festool FAKIR ?

I have.

Start a new thread maybe?  I have wallpaper with a passion but would love to see it.

Peter

Oh, I won't muddy up a good Carvex thread with the Fakir.

I will definitely make it a dedicated thread when I do publish it, and I would be happy to share it exclusively here.

Unfortunately, its on a list of draft form reviews that may not see daylight for a bit, and there are several much more relevant tools on the list (my opinion, but likely to reflect consensus). And it is a tool that has an unusual range of strength/weakness extremes. Sometimes I think that readers of reviews don't understand that reviews with strong negative (or con) components take longer to compile and present than more favorable ones. However, I can honestly say that some of the tools that I have written (and shared video) the most critically of, have been the most appreciated by the manufacturer of the tool. I had one case where an engineer from the manufacturer called to thank me for telling the truth about how bad the tool sucked, so that the corporate layers would see it and agree that either a redesign or complete removal of the line was in order. To me, critical versus favorable reviewing is similar to jury patterns in court. Not guilty verdicts are returned quickly in comparison with the deliberation that goes into a guilty verdict, and sometimes the jury is entirely hung. Just my $.02.

PS...Peter, if you hate wallpaper, you ought to own a Fakir.

 

[Scott B.]

Yeah, missed the Fakir review, Scott. Post us a link or something.  [popcorn]

When it graduates from draft form, it'll be visible. Its a tough one to incorporate proper footage with. Believe me, watching a video of wallpaper stripping is only slightly more fun than wallpaper stripping itself.

 

[Jaybolishes]

Thanks for making the review Peter.  I wonder why the blade ejection lever isn't green, I might not be able to find it! [tongue]

 

[richard.selwyn]

Thanks for the review. I particularly liked your rant about the instructions. An excuse I have heard in the past was that professionals in Germany had long apprenticeships and therefore knew how to use their tools. To know about the pendulum setting seems unlikely though. The "instructions" say to set the pendulum between 0 and 1 when using the circle cutter - which setting did you use to get the circle shown in the test?
( I have some Felder machines which are excellent, but their instructions also seem on a par with the Festool ones. Luckily they have a FOG as well.)

I was hoping to cut some 2 metre diameter circles in 22 mm ply but am wondering if I need to do it freehand and then clean up with a router as the instructions seem to limit the circle jig to 20mm Any thoughts?
Richard.