How much better are the Festool Routers?

[pettyconstruction]

There are people out there that prattle on about Festool being over priced. My opinion is that with Festool you get what you pay for. Typically over the life of a Festool tool (and the system accessories and the consumables) you get the benefits of your investment paid back to you many times over.

I have all of the Festool routers and trimmers and appreciate them all. I would say that if you want to do a bit of everything and want to get one router it should be the OF 1400.

I'll confess though that a do also have a love of the little cordless Makita trimmers

I've never understood the proud and loud proclamations from people "that they'd never blow their money on anything Festool as they're over priced garbage"!

Wearing your ignorance like a badge of honour always seems strange to me. I read that as they'd prefer to use more difficult, time consuming, and less safe methods to produce an end result with a much higher labour cost. And with all the associated dust as well. Right!

The weird thing is that this comes from a lot of people running a full time business. I would think good value, high efficiency, reliable tools of the trade a necessity, not a luxury?

In OZ yes we do get reamed, but even so I have no qualms buying almost anything Festool, as I know from the tools I bought 40+ years ago that I will get many years of flawless service and performance, and most importantly health benefits from the dust control and the ergonomics. Along with the entire production experience being vastly improved and streamlined. I see the tools I've bought as an investment, and if it comes to the worst, I'll make a small fortune selling them!

And yes, the little trimmers are not only super cute, but stupendously useful! I'm thinking I might be growing my little Makita family a bit more!

What I say to people when this type of subject comes up is
“ You never hear Mercedes say it’s as good as a Toyota”

I also have a bunch of routers , most with the bit left in to speed up a common task.
I have a feeling Festool will bring out  a battery router in the coming year.
Charlie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[luvmytoolz]

I also have a bunch of routers , most with the bit left in to speed up a common task.

This is the way! ;-)

 

[SoonerFan]

My first Festool router was the OF1400. It is flat out terrific. Dust collection is great. I personally bought the 1400 because I have some1/2 bits.

 

[mino]

I guys have obviously either missed out on how many I have or have the addiction just as bad as I do. You're just encouraging the badness at this point....  [big grin]

2 OF 1010
2 MFK700
1 OF1400
2 Milwaukee 5615
1 Porter Cable 890
2 Triton TRA001
3 Makita LXT
1 Makita RT0701
4 Bosch Colt
2 Rigid 2401
1 Shaper Origin
1 spare spindle for Origin

21 and a half  [eek] and you pushers are twisting my arm?
...

Well, 10+ of those are single-task trimmers specific to your occupation .. so pretty sane still, all things considered.

 

[onocoffee]

I really am just a burgeoning hobbyist of wood at this point, but seeing all these tales of multiple routers left setup with bits for dedicated tasks is a revelation. I see I don't have to discard my old routers!

 

[Cheese]

I have a feeling Festool will bring out  a battery router in the coming year.
Charlie

Hey Charlie [member=9356]pettyconstruction[/member] you may be right. I just stumbled upon this information in the latest SCA 16 Charger Owners Manual. The 10.8 V, 2.5 Ah battery listed is the battery for the new CXS 12 drill. It's a very small, lightweight, compact package and would be ideal for a cordless router if they could pack some more energy into it.
Well in the SCA 16 manual, there's also a 10.8 V, 4.2 Ah battery listed and it's not yet released.  [scratch chin]

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Check out the different size battery packages. Traditional 18V vs new 10.8V but both use the traditional Festool style charger.

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[Crazyraceguy]

Well, 10+ of those are single-task trimmers specific to your occupation .. so pretty sane still, all things considered.

Very true, just the encouragement I need.  [big grin]

 

[luvmytoolz]

I really am just a burgeoning hobbyist of wood at this point, but seeing all these tales of multiple routers left setup with bits for dedicated tasks is a revelation. I see I don't have to discard my old routers!

Please don't laugh at or ridicule me, but some years back I went through a period of insanity where I thought I had too many routers, (I know, I know, stupid right?)  and sold a few. Gladly I've since had therapy and fully recovered, adding maybe 5-6 routers since!

Task specific routers are a god send, especially for roundover/chamfering bits.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Please don't laugh at or ridicule me, but some years back I went through a period of insanity where I thought I had too many routers, (I know, I know, stupid right?)  and sold a few. Gladly I've since had therapy and fully recovered, adding maybe 5-6 routers since!

Task specific routers are a god send, especially for roundover/chamfering bits.

Clearly, you "saw the light" that the concept of "too many" doesn't apply to routers!

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Please don't laugh at or ridicule me, but some years back I went through a period of insanity where I thought I had too many routers, (I know, I know, stupid right?)  and sold a few. Gladly I've since had therapy and fully recovered, adding maybe 5-6 routers since!

Task specific routers are a god send, especially for roundover/chamfering bits.

Did you fall and hit your head?  [scared] There is no such thing.

I fell into another one today. I bought a corded Makita compact, from one of the sub-contractors we use.
He saw me using one of mine and mentioned that he got one a few months ago and didn't like it. He offered it to me, still in the box, for a super price.
I ordered another guide bushing set for it this afternoon, metric this time. Should be in tomorrow.

 

[luvmytoolz]

[member=66562]Jim_in_PA[/member] [member=58857]Crazyraceguy[/member] I know right? I honestly don't know what I was thinking at the time, but at least the ones I moved on were all the less desirable to me Hitachi's, Makita's, etc, the really noisy ones. I had a general cull of some tools, including some very regretful purchases like a Virutex flip saw.

Funnily enough I didn't prune my hammer or grinder collection! Can never too many of those either! ;-)

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Culling the "less satisfying routers" is perfectly acceptable...with "more satisfying" replacements, of course

 

[luvmytoolz]

Culling the "less satisfying routers" is perfectly acceptable...with "more satisfying" replacements, of course

Absolutely! There's a slight chance I may have over corrected though! ;-)

 

[Crazyraceguy]

[member=66562]Jim_in_PA[/member] [member=58857]Crazyraceguy[/member] I know right? I honestly don't know what I was thinking at the time, but at least the ones I moved on were all the less desirable to me Hitachi's, Makita's, etc, the really noisy ones. I had a general cull of some tools, including some very regretful purchases like a Virutex flip saw.

Funnily enough I didn't prune my hammer or grinder collection! Can never too many of those either! ;-)

Culling to make space for new/better makes perfect sense.
When I got my first CXS drill, I sold off all of my Bosch 10.8v drills and drivers. I had the little pocket driver, the drill with a chuck, and the right angle drill. The CXS covered all of that.

 

[pettyconstruction]

Please don't laugh at or ridicule me, but some years back I went through a period of insanity where I thought I had too many routers, (I know, I know, stupid right?)  and sold a few. Gladly I've since had therapy and fully recovered, adding maybe 5-6 routers since!

Task specific routers are a god send, especially for roundover/chamfering bits.

Did you fall and hit your head?  [scared] There is no such thing.

I fell into another one today. I bought a corded Makita compact, from one of the sub-contractors we use.
He saw me using one of mine and mentioned that he got one a few months ago and didn't like it. He offered it to me, still in the box, for a super price.
I ordered another guide bushing set for it this afternoon, metric this time. Should be in tomorrow.

Those are good routers,
I have a corded one and 4 cordless
Charlie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Ebuwan]

Trimming out the inside of my house with a ton of MDF moldings. The festool routers on the MDF is a godsend. Like almost zero dust. I've been using the 700 and 1400 for the work recently, and they work wonderfully.

 

[derekcohen]

Culling the "less satisfying routers" is perfectly acceptable...with "more satisfying" replacements, of course

I have a couple of these 1/4" Stanley routers, dating from the 50's. I am not sure where they fit into the food chain or how they compare with Festool.



They remind me of R2D2.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[smorgasbord]

I've never seen a router test that compared things like spindle run-out and side load bearing capacity, or looking at how the spindle bearings are setup. Project Farm and The Torque Test channel take apart the things they test (impact drivers, etc.), but I've not seen that done with woodworking routers.

Heck, it's rare you even get comparisons on the collets and how concentric they are, how well they hold the bits, how easy it is to loosen, etc.

In my view, there's simply just not information for a real true router comparison.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Culling the "less satisfying routers" is perfectly acceptable...with "more satisfying" replacements, of course

I have a couple of these 1/4" Stanley routers, dating from the 50's. I am not sure where they fit into the food chain or how they compare with Festool.



Derek, even if you never use them, those are amazing looking pieces of history. The only time I've ever seen one like that is in the Stanley Black and Decker HQ in Maryland USA where they have a very nice tool museum.

They remind me of R2D2.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Imemiter]

Going through old photos trying to determine how many routers I've had and I give up. For better or worse all the Bosch and PC routers were sold or given away once I got an OF1400. The concern wasn't whether they weren't as good or better, it was more a matter of running out of room. The 1400 and FMK made everything else redundant. I did keep a couple of Makita trimmers and this handsome old guy.

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