New Guy with tool questions - Festool that is

[Steve R]

Brian in Oly,

Sounds like you know what you are doing with wood.

You didn't say (or I missed) what it was you mainly work on. That would tell me more what to recommend. But I think you have enough WW experience to know what is is you need next. Moving to Festool is a good move as the product does what it is designed to do.

I would dedicate your Fein as you state. The CT line I find is sooooo much more stable than any round DC and it stores better and the HEPA rating. That getting that in a group purchase deal makes sense.

I agree with your logic that if you have tool that works, keep it and go for Festool tools you don't have. The other side is that if you only have 3 hours to do some work and you spend two hours working and one hour cleaning up.  That tool that works just fine.....might just sell very well and pay for most of a Festool and give you 2.75 hours of work time and 15 minutes to clean up and put away the tools.

Keep us informed what you do.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[RussellS]

My recommendations based on the Festool tools I own and use.

55 or 75 saw.  I have the 55 and like the light weight for cutting sheet goods.  But maybe the extra depth of the 75 would be nice, even with the extra weight.
Vaccum.  Think I have the 26 model.  Works wonderfully with the 55 saw.
Guide rails for the saw.  I have the 1400, 800, and 3000 models.  I've hooked the 1400 and 800 together to get a longer cut and it worked fine.  But I bought the 3000 for when I need to cut a full 8 foot sheet and do not want any chance of misalignment where you join rails together.
6 inch sander with the 3mm pattern.  Good random orbit sander.  Have not used the other sanders mentioned by others so can't compare.  But for finish sanding, this 6 inch 3mm one works well.

I also have the smaller router, 1000 model.  And the barrel grip jigsaw.  Can't recommend those.  The jigsaw has the speed controlled by a switch, not the trigger.  So its not really variable speed when using.  You set the speed using the switch, then turn it on to that speed.  Not variable speed.  Don't like that.  The router does have dust collection and can be guided via the saw rails.  So those are plusses.  But its only 1/4" and 8mm collets.  And the functionalily the router provides can be had from much cheaper routers made by others.