Festool Quality. In a League by Themselves?

[Mike B]

Brands that come to mind for me (and that I use):
Fein, Felder/Hammer, Kranzle (pressure washers), Flex, Bridge City, Panasonic (drills) and Hilti...

Some not specifically for woodworking but all give me the exact same feeling of quality both in design and first impressions to actual use.

 

[score0matic]

Brands that come to mind for me (and that I use):
Fein, Felder/Hammer, Kranzle (pressure washers), Flex, Bridge City, Panasonic (drills) and Hilti...

Some not specifically for woodworking but all give me the exact same feeling of quality both in design and first impressions to actual use.

I believe Kranzle  also makes Vac's for Festool  I think it is the CT replacement

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

I have a number of DeWalt tools which do the job I ask of them. Sure, the quality is nowhere near Festool's quality but I can live with them until I can afford to get rid of them. I have a Makita petrol cutter which is an excellent machine and a Stihl blower machine which has given me a few years of excellent reliability.

My best non Festool tool is my Fein MM. I got it back recently from a warranty repair and it's been a brilliant addition to my power tool armoury. If it's colour was Festool's black-cum-dark blue and green, I'd swear it was a Festool.

For garden clearance at home, we use a B*sch shredder. Reasonable quality. Reasonable price. A workshorse but not one I'd buy again.

 

[robtonya]

We had a similar discussion on talkFestool, but there I had mentioned that I had never seen a bad 3M product. All the others mentioned here are great too.

 

[woodguy7]

Hand planes, there is no better than Karl Holtey
Machinery, Felder is hard to beat
Lie  Nielson is also superb
There is also a lot of good Japanese chisels out there (don't ask me to spell)

Woodguy

P.S - I  have all of above except Karl Holtey, out of my price range.  I have met the man & held his planes & i firmly believe that nobody makes a better hand plane.
http://www.holteyplanes.com/

 

[jakiiski]

One vote for Lee Valley's Veritas-handplanes, excellent tools...

 

[jvsteenb]

I like it when you can buy a tool and be confident that it's top-notch.

That's the reason I like Festool/Protool: I haven't encountered mediocre tools in their line-up yet.
Hilti does that too, they offer just one quality: outstanding. So does Flex, and ( to a lesser extent ) Fein.
A small step down the ladder, but very consistent in (high) quality: Rupes.

Metabo used to be of a consistently high quality, but that degraded a bit over time, only accelerating when they acquired the Elektra-Beckum brand.
Makita has some jewels, but some pretty marginal tools as well.
Bosch has a couple of brilliant machines in their pro lineup, but again: some less-then-adequate stuff under the same brand.
DeWalt: same as above.
The list goes on.

Kr?nzle machines are super, Starmix vacuums ditto.

Keys and spanners and the likes: Stahlwille, Snap-on. To a slightly lesser extent: Beta. Personally I've had some rather bad experiences with Gedore....

Pliers and the likes: Knipex.

Srewdrivers and bits: PB Baumann. Slightly more reasonably priced: Wera and Wiha, that's almost a tie...

Turning tools: Robert Sorby.

Chisels: Kirschen, Lie Nielsen.

Axes and adzes: Granfors Bruks.

Landscaping and forrestry equipment: Stihl, Husqvarna. I don't like that they sell consumer-grade equipment under the same brandname though.

There's loads more, but I would have to veer off-topic even further....

Regards,

Job

 

[thinkingdog]

Have to throw Stiletto hammers and Starrett squares into the mix.  The quality of their products are exceptional throughout their lines.

 

[richard.selwyn]

I secondrotool, Tanos, Felder (Felder/Hammer-the other FOG), Veritas, Fein

Robert Sorby (English chisels)

CMT router bits

Bessey clamps (I'm sick of all the other copies I have and wish I could afford to replace them all)

Tormek

BMI - tapes and levels

No one seems to have mentioned Lamello either  - far too expensive but I would put them right up there with Festool and Mafell )