Coliban said:
It can´t second that, with the same arguments, i described earlier. If you have a good repair service for Milwaukee, Makita and Dewalt and if the failure rates are equal to Festool, then i could agree, but over here, especially when i see how many used and old Festool tools are sold for example in ebay from craftsmen when the tools are at the end of their lifecycle and are still running, then i think, at least here in germany, it is a less expensive matter to invest in a quality brand. And there must be a reason why the handcraft sector is using high quality products which a high price.
Thank you for this comment. It is a very good thought. Unfortunately, we are not privy to statistics of failure rates across different brands. Perhaps some people on the FOG have access to such information, but most people don't. But it is a good question to ask yourself - what is a quality brand? As I think about it, the first level is a quality of manufacturing, i.e., production which uses modern statistical process control and which has all standard ISO quality systems certifications and follows them. This means that a tool will work out of the box and is unlikely to fail quickly. Most manufacturers are on this level as it is expected these days. The second level is good quality materials which guarantee that the tool will not wear out and fail in a year or two. The next level is good design and attention to detail. The next level after that is system integration.
With all due respect to Festool, I cannot say I am hugely impressed with its manufacturing quality. From about 15 +/- 5 Festool tools which I bought in the past 3 years, I had to replace two because of the manufacturing defects. A pin on the LR 32 system developed huge friction and got stuck, so that the rocker arm could not lift it to slide to the next hole, just after 2 hours of use. The base of a planer was more curved and out of alignment than on lowest grade Chinese tools sold at 10% of Festool cost. I swapped both tools at the dealer, and it was fine. I am not saying this changed my impression from the brand. I still prefer it to anything else because of the neat design and dust collection. One just has to be realistic, it is not a bulletproof brand with ideal quality. Things happen, also with Festool.
To be fair, from Bosch, Makita, and Dewalt tools which I own, I also had an issue - a slight misalignment in a Dewalt tile saw which I discovered after my first project with the tool. Dewalt has 90 day money back guarantee (compare it with 30 days offered by Festool) and three years warranty. Since I needed the tool for the next project, I decided to get it fixed. I loaded it into the trunk of my car, drove to the local service center, and got it fixed within an hour. Since that time, it works fine. I did not have any failures or issues with any other tools - although I admit they they are not nearly as nicely designed and as accurate as Festool.
I am fully with you, as long as I can afford buying high end tools, I will continue doing it even if I am not a woodworking professional. I do not because I enjoy working with tools with good ergonomics and with good dust collection, tools which help me to do a better job.
Here in the US, one finds many more used Dewalt, Milwaukee, Bosch, Makita, etc., tools sold on the second hand market than Festool. Many of these tools are sold locally via craigslist, to avoid the complexity of shipment and to avoid commissions from e-bay. Many are just kept in the family for decades and eventually thrown away or sold for pennies on garage sales. The reason for this is that for one Festool tool sold on any given day, there may easily be 10 or 100 of similar in function tools from every other brand being purchased from major retailers. Our building and remodeling contractors rarely use Festool, as far as I can judge. I have not yet seen a single contractor who had it, although my experience is limited. My observation is that they prefer less expensive tools which they can throw into the back their truck, let them lie in dirt, and throw away and replace when the time comes without regret. Apparently, those tools work fine and last.
It is funny, but SAE system apparently plays a joke on our construction and manufacturing. There are only 3 countries in the world who do not officially use metric, and I am ashamed to even name those countries together with the US. Anyhow, our contractors typically use 1/8" tolerances just because counting fractions and reading them off the ruler gets harder after the eights. In Europe, one would not use 3 mm tolerance. It is natural to target 1 mm because 1 cm is too big, and the next level down is 1 mm... Which is obviously is 3 times more precise. My wife ordered cabinets from a US supplier, we had an issue with drawer alignment, the rep told me that they manufacture their cabinets with tolerances of 1/8". I was like - REALLY? That's the best you can? In cabinetmaking??
This is why there are so many different opinions, even on this forum, and elsewhere. While many other brands may not be as refined, they are also solid performers.
You pointed out that Festool tools can very often be found in good condition after years of use. What I noticed, is that after I paid so much money for each Festool tool, I handle it with great care. Not only I vacuum them after use and put them back into their boxes, but I also use "lower grade" tools when I expect a significant abuse. When I needed to plane my subfloors which could have nails, I did not use my Festool planer - I used a Makita planer which I also have. It may not be as precise, but I do not need that precision when removing high spots on the subfloor, and I do not care too much how much abuse it will get. I bought it for about $100 or so, its replacement knives are $12 at the nearest Home Depot, if knives get damaged by nails that I inadvertently hit, I will swap them for a little over ten bucks. If it dies on me, I will get rid of it without much regret. When I drill a hole which requires a lot of torque (which I consider kind of abusing for a tool), I would use one of my Dewalt drills rather than Festool because they did not fail on such tasks before, and if they eventually fail, it will not cost me a fortune to replace. Given their age and replacement cost, I might not even bother with an attempt to repair. In contrast, when I do non-tool-abusive work which requires precision and finess, I use Festool because those tools are such a joy to use. Of course, with such care and reduced abuse, my Festool tool collection will likely be like new even after 5 years
I am not arguing with what you said, just wanted to add some thoughts to it which your reply triggered.
Someone very correctly wrote above in this tread: if you are building furniture, you will enjoy Festool drills to their full extent. If you are framing houses, you might not need it. You might rather prefer something heavy, with lots of metal in it, that is truly hard to break, and something that is relatively cheap to replace. You do not need a Ferrari when the task at hand requires a pickup truck.
