Help me prioritize - which festools are *much* better than other offerings?

[bruegf]

Slats from cheap plastic mini-blinds work great for holding the laminate above the contact cement until you're ready to slide them out and stick the laminate to the substrate.

Fred

 

[rodwolfy]

I If I could buy melamine coated plywood, I would have used it instead.  Finishing is likely to take me as much time as building it. 

Dave R.

Dave,

I had no experience with laminate until a few weeks ago. I read up a ton, then went over to a friend's house, where I was the "expert". Put in new kitchen counters and sink. You just put down the contact cement and let it dry for about 20 minutes (or whatever time it says on the can). Get a paint roller to put it down. Then recoat it again and wait again. Make sure that you're well ventilated as it made me dizzy, even with all the windows open. Put down some old venitian blinds (metal or plastic, like 1" wide from the dump yard or thrift shop), then lay the laminate down on the plywood. Pull out the first slat and roll out with a solid rubber laminate roller. Work your way across the plywood, pulling out strips and working the air out from the center to the edges. Finally, plug in a flush trim bit and route to the edges.

Rod

 

[Eli]

Slats from cheap plastic mini-blinds work great for holding the laminate above the contact cement until you're ready to slide them out and stick the laminate to the substrate.

Fred

good one!

 

[brandon.nickel]

Brandon,

You seem to be familiar with routers. I have a Bosch 1617vs with the plunge & fixed bases, a 1618Dvs, a Hitachi 3hp (in a table), a Bosch Colt, a Makita Laminate trimmer and a 3hp Felder shaper. The only thing that I don't like about the Bosch's is the lack of dust collection, especially on my Leigh D4R. Do you or the others really think that the Festool 1400 is worth the money over the other routers out there? What could I do with it that I cannot do now? I'm sure that I could figure out some way to run my current routers off the guide rail...

Rod

Sorry for the delay, Rod.  I've been out of town without internet access.  As for hand-held use, in my opinion, the OF1400 is not going to significantly affect the finished result.  However, it runs extremely smoothly, its dust collection is incredible (compared to every other router I've used), and it's guide rail compatible, so it can be used for mid-field work (fluting, etc) without worrying about it getting away from your home-made guide jig.  The keys to the dust collection are the shrouds that go above and below the bit.  The rotating chip-catcher is pretty remarkable in the percentage of below-work dust that it actually picks up when combined with the above-bit shroud.  I'm not going to say dust free, but I'd bet it gets >70% of the dust/chips.  So, if you add these all up, in my opinion it was worth it.  If you've got more patience than me, you can make the others do the job equally well.  However, compared to the Festool method, you have to work harder to get there.  If speed or enjoying the task factor in to the equation, you might consider it money well-spent.

-Brandon

 

[Brice Burrell]

Very nice answer Brandon. I couldn't agree more.

 

[rhombear]

My home shop has a 10" Delta table saw with extension table (52") unifence and uniguard, a floor drill press, 3 benchtop grinders, 3 routers (Elu and milwaukee) 14" bandsaw and resawing blocks, 6" jointer, 13" thickness planer, european bench with 2 vises, 2 metal vises, a disk/belt sander, concrete polisher, shaper/router table, sliding compuound miter saw and a whole bunch of drills, jig saws, sanders, circular saws, 2 stage dust collector, a second ceiling-mount dust collector, several shop vacuums and a whole bunch of other stuff.  Reason for mentioning is that, as of about 6 months ago, I figured that festool stuff was nice, but pricey, and I could survive with a reasonably well outfitted shop for a non-professional week-ender.  Also, almost all of my tools are extremely well made in the U.S., not like the usual crap available today.

My adult son tried, and really liked, my barrel grip Milwaukee jig saw.  Several months ago, I tried to find one for him to no avail, so I bought him the festool barrel grip; the closest thing I could find.  He was new to power tools, and his first project involved cutting pressure treated 8 X 8's.  The festool was absolutely amazing.

Since then, both he and I have bought festool stuff.

That as background.  I am no pro, but I believe that the festool "system" is hard to beat.  I think that the ets 150/3 (we both have one) is a great "bargain" and demonstrates, along with your festool vac, great design and really great dust extraction.  I have several top-end sanders, some still new and in their boxes; they'll stay there.

I have the small MFT, my son has the larger one.  using the TS55 with the MFT is a new way to think about ctting wood.  It is no replacement for a table saw, but you've already got a great table saw.  As said earlier by others, festool stuff complements what you have.  Much like your domino.  When I finally got used to my domino, it opened up a whole new way of looking at woodworking projects.

I would consider the TS saw and an mft table and one of the ets 150 sanders if I were you.