What was your first Festool purchase and why?

[Distinctive Interiors]

My first purchase was also a TS75 along with a 1400mm rail and a 3000mm rail.....It was for a specific job and it performed faultlessly....since then, it's been a very slippery slope...!!!

 

[Steve1]

My first purchase was a CT-36 dust collector.

I had a Shop-Vac brand vacuum forever.  I won it in a golf tournament (I am a terrible golfer, but pretty much everybody got something).  I hated the thing.  So loud that I couldn't turn it on without first putting on hearing protection.  Had a crappy filter that clogged up all the time.  But still it mostly sucked, so I kept it for a couple of decades.  Don't remember exactly what was the straw that broke the camel's back and I decided to get rid of it.

Needed an extra 36mm hose, and pretty much had to laugh at the price of a vacuum hose.  Replacement filter bags are how much ?!!
But it was quiet and it worked.  I don't ask for much.  And the HEPA filter on it came in handy shortly after I bought it. 

 

[jcameron42]

My first Festool purchase was the CT Mini Dust Extractor.  Needed a dust extractor with an anti-static hose and HEPA Filtration to clean a server room and computers.

 

[hdv]

For me that was the Kapex 120. I had a Bosch (green) that I was getting so sick of, that I gave it away to one of my then employees. Never had any regrets of both getting the Kapex and getting rid of that Bosch!

 

[luvmytoolz]

The first ones I bought were the original RO1E Rotex and the SR5E 38L dust extractor as I was doing an awful lot of sanding of wooden craft items and all the sanders I had were absolutely horrible to use for long periods. After using the Rotex a bit I quickly bought the RS2E 1/2 sheet sander. These are so old they are branded Festo, and came in big grey metal cases.

Just sold the Rotex a few weeks ago, but still have the others, which have been extensively added to over the years!

 

[wpz]

I remember drooling over Festo catalogs in the late 90's and it becoming Festool later, but I didn't have the money to buy such expensive tools and had to make do with a Skil circular saw that I found in the trash and repaired.

Until 2002, when I was able to buy an ATF 55 EB/1 with 2 rails, a connector and 2 rail-clamps very cheaply at a sale because my local hardware store stopped it's business.

In 2005 I bought a Rotex RO 125 FEQ sander to sand and polish because I had to completely strip and repaint an old grand piano for a theatre production.

Since 2009 I finally stopped struggling financially and started making some decent money and gave away all of my crappy powertools and gradually replaced them with mostly Festool, Bosch, Makita and Metabo tools.

I still own (and use) the 125 rotex, but I mostly use it's bigger brother the RO 150 now.
I sold the ATF 55 and 1 rail to a colleague and she still uses it to this day to make sets for movies and theatre.
The ATF got replaced by a TS55 REBQ and since a couple of months by a TS60 KEBQ.

 

[Ron B]

I never heard of Festool until I was helping at a Habitat house.  Another volunteer had a Festool tracksaw and I remember that he put the track down on a piece of plywood, and as I was waiting for the clamps to come out, he just cut it with no clamps.  I am left handed and a circular saw is very hard to cut with left handed.  To cut with my left hand, the weight of the saw is on the piece I am are cutting off (making small cuts VERY difficult) and I have to stand on the side of the saw where the sawdust exits.  So it hits my body and bounces up, getting behind my eyeglasses and bounces around until it ends up in my eyeballs.  Can't wear goggles because they just fog up, and I have to see the line I am cutting since I am suspending the saw in midair when making small cuts.  I did buy a left handed Porter Cable, (fun to leave at a worksite and watch a right hander pick it up) but I had to admit that track saw was the cat's meow.  So I was hooked.  The price bothered me so I did not bite right away.  Then Festool discontinued their RAS115 sander and I snatched one for under $220.  Then I discovered Recon when they started posting items again.  I am many thousands of dollars down the rabbit hole now.  Don't tell my wife. 

 

[Cheese]

I remember drooling over Festo catalogs in the late 90's and it becoming Festool later, but I didn't have the money to buy such expensive tools and had to make do with a Skil circular saw that I found in the trash and repaired.

Until 2002, when I was able to buy an ATF 55 EB/1 with 2 rails, a connector and 2 rail-clamps very cheaply at a sale because my local hardware store stopped it's business.

In 2005 I bought a Rotex RO 125 FEQ sander to sand and polish because I had to completely strip and repaint an old grand piano for a theatre production.

Since 2009 I finally stopped struggling financially and started making some decent money and gave away all of my crappy powertools and gradually replaced them with mostly Festool, Bosch, Makita and Metabo tools.

I still own (and use) the 125 rotex, but I mostly use it's bigger brother the RO 150 now.
I sold the ATF 55 and 1 rail to a colleague and she still uses it to this day to make sets for movies and theatre.
The ATF got replaced by a TS55 REBQ and since a couple of months by a TS60 KEBQ.

Great story, and don't feel like the lone ranger on this...I think the majority of the casual users on this forum went through the same ownership conundrum as you did when it becomes Festool purchase time. These green/black tools are 4x/5x/10x more expensive than the other common fodder that's offered.

For me it was a decision to replace my ubiquitous $50 Milwaukee sander with a $195 Festool ETS 125. That's a 4x price differential and that's not inconsequential...good move on my part...great story on your part.  [big grin]