Festool hand screwdriver quality/design

[demographic]

Honestly, for anything related to hand screwdrivers, there's only one godmode brand in the world and that's PB Swiss.

Can't say I've ever used one but its got to be pretty good to beat an old stubby ratchetting hard handle Snap On.
For a start the direction selector actually works in the right direction, something other brands seem totally oblivious of.
Have you handled one? Can't really give a winner without actually trying the competition can we?
As for the Festool one, non ratchetting and still costs a bomb?
Ahh, not so much though eh?

I wouldn't mind a good look at those Vessel ratchetting screwdrivers but theres a baffling array of them and I've not really worked out which is the one I want.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Can't say I've ever used one but its got to be pretty good to beat an old stubby ratchetting hard handle Snap On.
For a start the direction selector actually works in the right direction, something other brands seem totally oblivious of.
Have you handled one? Can't really give a winner without actually trying the competition can we?
As for the Festool one, non ratchetting and still costs a bomb?
Ahh, not so much though eh?

I wouldn't mind a good look at those Vessel ratchetting screwdrivers but theres a baffling array of them and I've not really worked out which is the one I want.

Vessel are pretty great too. I have a couple of them. My first was the Impact type, it's great for stuck screws. Phillips is not so good for that. The second was JIS. I don't need that one very often, but it's nice to have.
I would say you are probably right about the stubby Snap-On. I had the full-sized version that I've been holding onto since my mechanic days, in the 80s. It could hold tips in the hollow handle. After all those years, it was destroyed in a fire, in 2019.

 

[COBill]

If you didn't see my other thread, Festool had a bad run of 200140 hand drivers where Centrotec bits don't lock in.

If you have one of these, Festool will replace it with the proper version, in which Centrotec bits lock in and are not at all loose.

Bad batch of 200140 Centrotec Hand Drivers