skids said:
I just need a router for basic routing, edging etc. Dewalt makes a neat little router that plunges etc. but I wouldn't mind keeping with the festool system. Is the MK worth it for basic routing tasks?
Right now I need a router to add some edge detail to some outside corners of some wainscot and a mantle I built. Which Festool router is the one for tasks like this? These are the type of basics tasks I will use a router for, but I wouldn't mind a router to grow with as well. I like the idea of a small router for portability and handling.
So far a lot of router experts have provided advice. Let me add some from my experience:
In late 1946 I purchased my first router. It was made by PC, had a 350 watt motor, took 1/4" and 3/8" shanks and weighed almost 19 pounds! That is over a pound more than the Festool OF2200 with its 2200 watt motor!
Back in those days the use of what today we call 'high-pressure laminates' were then still 'Formica' because they held the patents. This was before solid surface, so Formica was the up-scale table and counter-top surface material. At first the popular edging for Formica was rolled aluminum which fitted over the top and formed a skirt, held in place with tiny screws. The obvious downside was that the top part caught crumbs and other things, making cleaning the top effective.
Some of us young cabinet makers felt the answer was to self-edge the Formica. We built-up the edges of the counter top or table with one or two layers of 3/4" plywood. To this built-up we would glue (with improved contact cement) scrap strips of the same Formica used for the top, or contrasting Formica. Now came the fun part: We had to render the self-edging flush not only on the top, but also underneath the build-up.
Think of the joy of holding an 19 pound router horizontally with a pre-carbide straight flute steel trim bit. I always found trimming the top was much easier than lifting the router without seeing what I was doing to trim the bottom. Yet, with practice we did all that and made a lot of money doing so.
Okay, flash forward 60 years, to early 2006. That was when I bought my first Festool router, an OF1010, with a 1010 watt motor. I originally bought it to drill shelf-pin holes. By then I owned 15 non-Festool routers, including some designed for trimming self-edging. I had been using PC7518 routers for tasks requiring a lot of power and I owned many bases for the 7518. The OF1010 taught me that effective dust collection was possible and practical with hand-held routers.
So when the OF2000 was replaced by the OF2200, I bought one of the first sold in Los Angeles. By then I owned a total of 4 OF1010s which I found worked very well with the 1/4" bits I owned, as well as the Festool 8mm shank bits for the LR32 drills.
The OF2200 is in a class by itself as far as freedom from vibration. It used all the 1/2" shank bits I already owned.
My feeling and experience differs from some well-known FOG members. I see no reason to apply more than 1000 watts to 1/4" shank bits, since I knew from the old days that with good router techniques I could make money doing fine work with similar bits and only 350 watts. It has yet to be proven to me that there is any inherent superiority of quality in bits simply because the shank is 1/2" or 8mm for that matter.
I use 1/2" shank bits for tasks requiring more power than 1000 watts, so I do not own for example, 1/2" round over bits with 1/2" shanks.
Because I only work in my large shop and besides a 7 1/2hp tilting arbor shaper I own 5 sophisticated router tables, all using PC7518 router motors in lifts. The dust collection of those router tables is a function of the table design, not the router motor. I have used the CMS with the OF1400 in Festool classes and with the OF2200 in shops of pals in Europe and Australia. My opinion is the CMS is marvelous if you only own one router table that you need to carry to sites. For use in a shop with major plant dust collection high volume, low velocity systems, I prefer other router tables and see no reason to hang a plunge router upside down.
You asked about using the MFK 700 router for general purposes. I own many of those. Each of mine is set up for a particular task, all involving trimming edging material. In Festool classes I have used the MFK as a more general purpose router. They performed well enough, but I did not find any advantage for general purposes over many other routers. Where the MMK 700 is most effective is trim routing. My advice is to find someone experienced using and adjusting the MFK and learn to do so before buying one. If you only occasionally trim edging, then the OF1010 will serve, but when you trim edging for a living an hour or more daily, you will understand why I buy them.
