Why was the MFS routing template discontinued?

There's a person on eBay from Germany selling one, has anyone ever bought from eBay/Germany that lives in North America?      I wonder if you would ever receive it and if there would be import charges.
The price is $349 Euros which seems cheap ($483 Canadian). The list price was $652  Canadian local retail before it was discontinued last year. 
 
ScoFF said:
There's a person on eBay from Germany selling one, has anyone ever bought from eBay/Germany that lives in North America?      I wonder if you would ever receive it and if there would be import charges.
The price is $349 Euros which seems cheap ($483 Canadian). The list price was $652  Canadian local retail before it was discontinued last year. 
Yea Ive seen that one two and even emailed the seller a couple times. Still pricey to get one here, but cheaper than retail. Im waiting and hoping that Festool brings them back to NA and in a new Imperial version.
 
ScoFF said:
Yes if anyone has hands on experience with the Trend Varijig let us know.

I have seen it but not tried it. There was something that I spotted at the time which I did not think was very clever. I would have to look again to be reminded but think it may be to do with the way the scales work.

Peter
 
ScoFF said:
Yes if anyone has hands on experience with the Trend Varijig let us know.

I did buy one and found it difficult to set up accurately. The tape measures are inserts and slide around, the screws are tiny and did not mate easily to the t-nuts in the rail as they too slide in the rail and are not fixed distances apart and you really need to use the Trend clamps to hold it down.

For £80 and around £30 for a pair of clamps it is a much cheaper option than the MFS but it is narrower, the anti-tilt block is fixed and must be screwed to the router base and it really didn't inspire a great deal of confidence.

I returned it to Amazon and bought the MFS 700. It was an outrageous price for four alloy profiles and a fixing kit but it is beautifully made, exact in squareness, easy to adjust and wide enough together with the anti-tilt follower to route precisely. The rules on the profiles are fixed and absolutely accurate. It is like night and day to the Trend template and, for me at least, well worth the additional cost. I filled a mini skip with templates and jigs I had made over the years and replaced them all with the Wendlingen Wunder Kid.

The MFS sets and profiles are still listed here in UK/Europe and come into stock from time to time. I bought mine last year from FFX in Folkestone and they had the MFS 700 set in stock last week at £249 which sold out rapidly.
 
RobBob said:
What are the advantages/disadvantages of the Festool MFS versus something like this....?

Trend VARIJIG Frame System

I bought that (or its twin) at a WW show a few years ago. I had planned to get the MFS but got sucked in by the demo guy.  I set it up and tried working with it for a couple of hours.  I finally got disgusted with the lack of accuracy and chucked it.  Bought the 400 and was so happy with that, i bought the 700 complete right away. 
Tinker
 
I'm happy  to own what amounts to about three different size configurations of the MFS, I will get 1 more 1000 VB extension set.They great as routing templates and just as oversized accurate squares for lining up the guide rail.

I hope they keep producing them, speculate if its' because technology is moving on, and CNC systems maybe make a lot of the benefits of router templates obsolete, but will keep my present outdated approach to things...

As long as Festool offers the routers in three different versions theres a lot of reason to keep offering the Mfs system.
 
I bought the 2000 extensions from engineering agencies in gb, so they will ship to the states. It took about 2 months though, as i wasnt the only person with the bright idea to go international when festool discontinued them in the states. Last time I checked though, engineering agencies was basically out of mfs stock.
 
There are some dealers in Germany who will ship too - cost is about the same as the discounted prices in the US when they were discontinued. There are still some brick and mortar stores who have them in stock...but more of a quest to find them.
 
I should have added that the total cost, including international shipping to the states, was well below even the discounted price of the items in the states.

ScotF said:
There are some dealers in Germany who will ship too - cost is about the same as the discounted prices in the US when they were discontinued. There are still some brick and mortar stores who have them in stock...but more of a quest to find them.
 
What about the Virutex knockoffs of the MFS templates?  Does anyone have any experience with how accurately they set up?  Virutex in the US is apparently going to be stocking them in a month or so.
 
I have both sizes as well as the router sled. They are incredibly useful....

They are also ridiculously overpriced. I only have mine because I got them on clearance for $100 (all parts!) from our
local dealer when the went out of business from the housing bust/great recession.

Festool probably felt they weren't selling well... the correct solution would have been to price them reasonably.
 
Does anyone know if the MFS extrusion is a special, made for Festool, or is it an off the shelf item?

If it is specially produced then the cost of the tooling will be huge and that would explain the cost of the system as the other components are quite easy to manufacture. And if it is a special then I would wonder why Festool would discontinue manufacture as their ongoing costs would be small. I suppose there is a chance that they only produced xxx thousand metres at the start of the product life cycle and now cannot get any more.

[member=8041]Pat R[/member] hit the nail on the head with the Varijig - what he said reminded me of the various concerns I would have with that system.

Peter
 
I think that the Virutex is similar and there is a thread on here from years ago about someone making one out of 80/20 extrusions. I think that Festool has the scales and there are pins on the end to help alignment and squareness and those might be unique to Festool's MFS.

I still think it is something that should be brought back. I think that part of why people did not buy was partly cost but also limited information into how to use it to its full potential.
 
ScotF said:
I think that the Virutex is similar and there is a thread on here from years ago about someone making one out of 80/20 extrusions. I think that Festool has the scales and there are pins on the end to help alignment and squareness and those might be unique to Festool's MFS.

I still think it is something that should be brought back. I think that part of why people did not buy was partly cost but also limited information into how to use it to its full potential.

I agree with you. I know that the MFS is expensive but I did make a pair of videos about it and thought that it was an excellent design, very accurate and easy to use. I cannot afford one at the moment but hope to get the MFS 400 sometime this year.

Here are the links to my MFS videos:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Peter
 
Peter Parfitt said:
Does anyone know if the MFS extrusion is a special, made for Festool, or is it an off the shelf item?

GEAT was the original inventor, I don't know if they were then purchased by Festool or they just became a supplier for Festool.

[member=11629]GarryMartin[/member] seems to know the history of their association quite well.
 

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Cheese said:
Peter Parfitt said:
Does anyone know if the MFS extrusion is a special, made for Festool, or is it an off the shelf item?

GEAT was the original inventor, I don't know if they were then purchased by Festool or they just became a supplier for Festool.

[member=11629]GarryMartin[/member] seems so know the history of their association quite well.

Do you know, I very nearly pinged Garry in my post as I too feel sure that he can answer this.

[member=11629]GarryMartin[/member]  - well?

Peter
 
[member=11196]Peter Parfitt[/member]

I enjoyed your videos -- good stuff! Yes, there needs to be more of this content. A few woodworking channels show it is use, but it would be nice to see even more applications. I think that the GEAT was the original and Festool bought into it. They made some changes like the stops are angle pieces and not extruded like in the pics and I am not sure if the GEAT has alignment ins and holes like the Festool versions.
 
I have a bigger project coming on this, but I used my MFS to route out a trash can sized hole in a "drawer" this past week.

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I also made a very precise outlet cutout in a raised end panel I made for a cabinet.

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Very handy tool.

Cheers. Bryan.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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