Festool on a budget [big grin]:http://vega-tools.com/en/power-tools/electric-routers/electric-router-ver-1100.html
Festool OF 1010 knockoff
- Thread starter Svar
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Cheese
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WOW, that’s more than a knockoff, it looks like Festool produces it for them in their own color scheme. [eek]
Everything is there including the always goofy
oval dust port.
Everything is there including the always goofy
oval dust port.Rip Van Winkle
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Do the plunge posts rust?
Rip Van Winkle
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mcooley said:
The finger grips an improvement?
Finger grips are only an improvement if they fit a persons hand.
Glock put finger grips on their pistols for import reasons in the USA, and people haven’t stopped complaining about them since.
Rip Van Winkle
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https://prom.ua/p643600517-frezer-elektricheskij-vega.html
I plugged the “1,729 грн.” price into Google, and if the results I got are accurate, the router costs about $65. I wonder if it’s any good?
I plugged the “1,729 грн.” price into Google, and if the results I got are accurate, the router costs about $65. I wonder if it’s any good?
You see this all the time with replacement parts from China that are either made in the same factory or are top quality knockoffs. I have never bought a tool, but have purchased some repair parts usually because they are not available in the US. I doubt someone would spend the time to make a close to exact copy of a router unless they have access to the molds and other equipment.
I'd like to see someone get a hold of one for a teardown. A quick look at their website shows some other similar looking Bosch tools. For those who do not know Eastern Europe is Western Europe's China. Used to be the Czech Republic and still may be, but I think once it moved to the Euro companies had to keep marching farther east.
Can't judge anything until we have seen it perform against the OF1010. It is obvious the company either makes the parts for the OF1010 or has access to them. A router is not a phone or other mass produced item where sales result from a knockoff looking like the real thing. There is no money in copying it unless money can be saved by accessing the machinery, molds, CNC program or other items central to the creation of this tool.
Rip Van Winkle said:
Sure finger grips but I am speaking more about the lack of material one can grip on many Festool tools. Their 1400 router being one example and the 500 Domino another. No idea why some of their tools get the "grip" and others don't. The 55 tracksaw only has it on one of its two handles.
Rip Van Winkle
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mcooley said:
I actually don’t like the “grippy” material Festool has been adding to their tool handles.
Generally, the glass reinforced nylon used for Festool tool bodies is pretty durable. It might get scratched up or dented slightly over time, but in two decades or more, the tool body will still likely be sturdy and useable, judging from older nylon bodied tools I own. Molded in rubber grips on tool bodies tend to be the first thing on a tool body that fails. It can vary with the rubber material, and unlike a cordless drill, a router for woodworking is unlikely to encounter harsh chemicals, but the rubber material can still break down over time much quicker that the nylon will, or it can detach and start peeling from the tool body. The only fix for this is to by a new set of parts for the tool body and dissasemble the tool and replace the entire tool housing, or replace the tool.
Some of the rubber compounds can also cause skin irritation, either due to an allergic reaction, or just constant contact between a grippy surface over many hours and a persons skin. Having to wear gloves to prevent a skin problem with a tool handle is problematic, and in power tool use sometimes dangerous.
Festool has started adding grip surfaces to their more popular tools as they come out with newer models, so I presume this is the direction they are going in, and newer tools will have grip surfaces on the handles. For some of the tools, the reason they don’t have rubberized grips may have to do with the age of the designs. The OF1010 is just a slightly updated version of the OF1000 router, a design which goes back to the late 1990s or early 2000s. The housing molds for both routers may have been the same, or maybe just required slight modifications to the housing mold. The same motor housing is also used on several sanders, and other similarly aged Festool tool designs like the HL850 also lack rubberized grips. From what I understand, the plastic injection molds are the costliest part of making injection molded parts, so using molds for as long as possible helps keep manufacturing costs down. With multi material rubberized grips, it’s also necessary to make more than one mold. One is used for molding the nylon body, and then those parts have to be put in a separate mold to form the rubberized grip on the nylon.
If you need extra grip on the tool handles there are materials that can be purchased, that are used for firearms, tool handles, etc. that provide extra grip. With these if the material goes bad, it can likely be removed from the nylon handles using naptha lighter fluid or isopropyl alcohol without damaging the nylon. Maybe some company that makes Festool accesories will make up premade sticky grips for use on Festool tools that don’t have rubberized grips.
