Crazyraceguy
Member
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2015
- Messages
- 4,936
Cypren said:Like others here, I have the MFK 700, the OF 1010, OF 1400 and OF 2200. Of the four, the OF 1400 and OF 2200 see the most use by far: the former tends to be the first router I grab for most tasks, while I save the latter for operations where I need to hog out a lot of material at once. You just can't beat its combination of power and control if you want to do something like cut an inch-wide dado in a single pass.
Also, while the OF 1400 has very good dust collection -- in a completely different league from every other brand I've ever used -- the 2200's dust collection is absolutely superb and makes it look positively messy by comparison. You can route an inch-wide, half-inch deep trench in material and leave almost nothing behind to vacuum up manually.
If you're only going to own one of these routers, my suggestion would be to go for the 2200 and then get an inexpensive fixed-base trim router like the DeWalt or Makita (or the MFK 700, if you want to stay in the Festool family). That will handle the light edging duties, which is the only place where you're likely to really regret the size and weight of the 2200. For most other things it's at most a very mild inconvenience compared to the 1400.
(And if you're wondering why I haven't mentioned the 1010: for me, it has one and only one purpose: guide bushings for high-precision work, since it's the only Festool router that can be perfectly centered with any arbitrary Porter Cable-style bushing.)
Just the difference in how people work, I use the OF1010 for the tasks that you seem to use the MFK700. Until I got a second MFK700, I never used one in a vertical configuration. Mine is set up with the zero degree base for flush trimming hardwood edges, much like a lipping planer. The second one has no dedicated purpose/bit yet, sometimes it takes a while. I may never do that, since it is so versatile.