dustartist
Member
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2007
- Messages
- 7
While initially a Festool fan, I have to say my latest additions to the system have left me wondering if I'll ever buy another Festool again. The plunge saw, vacuum and guide rail combo were my first purchase several years ago, and I have been happy with them so far. I bought the CDX12 screw gun after that and love it. I have the MFT 1080 and use it frequently, no complaints. The vacuum attachment set I got is great.
Then I bought the jigsaw. That has turned out to be a big mistake. The carbide blade guide assembly has needed replacement twice. The adjusting screw strips out, and I was very careful about not overtightening it. The metal is just too soft. The bevel is also nearly impossible to adjust without removing the foot plate entirely. The little C-shaped piece of metal jams itself into into the softer metal of the foot when you tighten the allen screw. If you loosen it to adjust the bevel, the C-shaped insert wont even budge, making it impossible to adjust unless you remove the foot plate, flip it over and knock it out w/ a nail set or something. Dust extraction only works at 90 degrees, is mediocre at best, and obstructs visibility. I don't even use it anymore. I'm back to the old Bosch.
Two weeks ago, I bought the OF1010EQ router. The one I got was difficult to plunge and nearly impossible to do one-handed. It felt like there was a little detent at the top of the plunge action that took a lot of downward pressure to overcome. I took it back and compared it to the demo model at the store, and the demo worked fine. They took my new router and said I could use the demo model until mine came back from Festool. Today they called and said my router was back. I went to the store after work, and there was my router, the same one I had bought two weeks earlier, not a replacement. It had been worked on, and now plunged easily, but with a lot of noise from the spring inside the shaft. It felt like it was a lot more loose than the demo. At that point I said I wasn't happy with the repair, and they offered me the demo model as a replacement. Initially I said yes, but then reconsidered whether I really wanted a demo router for $350. They refunded my money.
I was happy that the store did refund my money, no questions asked, and Festool has a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. My opinion is that if you buy something that doesn't work properly right out of the box you should receive a new replacement item, not have to wait for the manufacturer to repair it. That may not be Festool's opinion, and is definitely not their policy as followed by their distributors. There were several other new routers in stock at the time, but I was only offered the demo or my repaired one back. I felt my only option was to insist on a refund, even though I just really wanted a new router that worked properly out of the box, which is what I paid for initially. That said, Festool honored their warranty, and that is all that really counts. I still think they are a good company, but I wonder whether some of these tools are all they are cracked up to be. These products are full of good ideas, but need to be subjected to rigorous testing before they are released to see if they are going to work as advertised. I am a professional woodworker and rely on my tools to make a living. Some of these tools are not reliable enough for me to keep in my tool kit. Sorry, but those are the facts.
TD Graham
Then I bought the jigsaw. That has turned out to be a big mistake. The carbide blade guide assembly has needed replacement twice. The adjusting screw strips out, and I was very careful about not overtightening it. The metal is just too soft. The bevel is also nearly impossible to adjust without removing the foot plate entirely. The little C-shaped piece of metal jams itself into into the softer metal of the foot when you tighten the allen screw. If you loosen it to adjust the bevel, the C-shaped insert wont even budge, making it impossible to adjust unless you remove the foot plate, flip it over and knock it out w/ a nail set or something. Dust extraction only works at 90 degrees, is mediocre at best, and obstructs visibility. I don't even use it anymore. I'm back to the old Bosch.
Two weeks ago, I bought the OF1010EQ router. The one I got was difficult to plunge and nearly impossible to do one-handed. It felt like there was a little detent at the top of the plunge action that took a lot of downward pressure to overcome. I took it back and compared it to the demo model at the store, and the demo worked fine. They took my new router and said I could use the demo model until mine came back from Festool. Today they called and said my router was back. I went to the store after work, and there was my router, the same one I had bought two weeks earlier, not a replacement. It had been worked on, and now plunged easily, but with a lot of noise from the spring inside the shaft. It felt like it was a lot more loose than the demo. At that point I said I wasn't happy with the repair, and they offered me the demo model as a replacement. Initially I said yes, but then reconsidered whether I really wanted a demo router for $350. They refunded my money.
I was happy that the store did refund my money, no questions asked, and Festool has a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. My opinion is that if you buy something that doesn't work properly right out of the box you should receive a new replacement item, not have to wait for the manufacturer to repair it. That may not be Festool's opinion, and is definitely not their policy as followed by their distributors. There were several other new routers in stock at the time, but I was only offered the demo or my repaired one back. I felt my only option was to insist on a refund, even though I just really wanted a new router that worked properly out of the box, which is what I paid for initially. That said, Festool honored their warranty, and that is all that really counts. I still think they are a good company, but I wonder whether some of these tools are all they are cracked up to be. These products are full of good ideas, but need to be subjected to rigorous testing before they are released to see if they are going to work as advertised. I am a professional woodworker and rely on my tools to make a living. Some of these tools are not reliable enough for me to keep in my tool kit. Sorry, but those are the facts.
TD Graham
