Reading a review of heavy duty routers.   Festool came in on top and Hitachi best buy.

 

The Festool was $800, plus $300 more for the edge guide and bushing.  The Hitachi was $225.  The rest were all $300-375.

 

Hmm, I'm sure it's a good router, but it or 3-5x of another brand?  Is the difference really justifying the price?  If it's 10-20% better, pay 3x the price?  Even a few features make it 30% better?

 

That said, a whole section (about 1/4 of the showroom) at my local dealer is Festool stuff.  Right inside the door, they have a big display of Woodpecker's tools, too.

 

 

 

the law of diminishing returns

 

an econmomic  principle stating that profits or benefits gained from something will represent a proportionally smaller gain as more money or energy is invested in it.

 

Edited March 11, 20251 yr by kmealy

32 minutes ago, kmealy said:

That said, a whole section (about 1/4 of the showroom) at my local dealer is Festool stuff.

 

I did a turning demo at a Woodcraft store a week or so ago. They are really pushing the Festool stuff.

make hay while the sun shines?

5 hours ago, lew said:

 

I did a turning demo at a Woodcraft store a week or so ago. They are really pushing the Festool stuff.

It has a fixed sale price and if a dealer does not sell for that, Festool will drop them.

Years ago the Bing search engine had some odd promotion going on, if you bought something you found with a Bing search, they (Bing) would give you a rebate on the purchase. It was variable, and went up to 25%.  Anyway, that was when I bought my tracksaw, I got it with a 25 rebate from Bing....honestly i wouldn't have bought it otherwise. But even though that didn't involve Festool ot their vendors, about 2 weeks after i got my saw they banned (forbid, actually) any dealer from selling their stuff when a Bing discount was given. So that was the last (and only) new Festool product I ever bought (except for some other track pieces). I have 2 other Festool products both bought second hand.

They have been pushing Festool stuff for awille. I’ve got many routers. They do what’s expected, route..

Festool is always a double edged sword. The price being one of the edges. Their price is hard to swallow sometimes. But they are always a step above everything else out there. I have their kapex chop box and it’s the most well thought out miter saw I have ever used. There are a lot of little differences that make the day to day use a pleasure. Not the least of which is the amazing dust collection. The amazing dust collection is an attribute of all their tools. I also have their domino XL, hepa dust extractor and the Shaper Origin. I suspect their routers are the same quality as all their other tools but definitely expensive. I unfortunately have three of the Makita 3 1/4 hp routers from years gone by and they refuse to die. 
Paul

Yes sir I even got so low to add some green color to my small router. Makes me feel so much better.

I bought a track saw 20+ years ago and (almost) never regretted it.  I've had a couple of their jig saws and liked those too, but I wouldn't kick a barrel grip Bosch out of the shop either.  I would consider a Kapex if I got to try one first and found it better in some way - but I think the odds of it being $900 better than my Rigid saw or my ancient Hitachi 8.5" are very slim.

 

I could have gotten in to their cordless drivers with the variable front attachments and really stubby drill version, but I was out of the custom cabinet trade by the time those were being advertised so I really couldn't justify the cost once I was doing my own stuff and didn't likely have the need to drill holes or drive screws in a really narrow cabinet box.

 

The rest I kinda think is more hype than substance.  Might be 10 or 20% more effective at 3x the cost....

Edited March 14, 20251 yr by JWD
added almost :D

One has to decide how deep they are in woodworking and their age. I’ll be 60 this summer and I decided a couple years ago I wouldn’t drop big bills on any tool that doesn’t improve or speed up performance. My performance as a woodworker has dropped to a point I’m spending more time here than in the shop.I’d actually like a Domino and a oscillating sander, but that’s it and can get by with out them if needed

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 20251 yr by BillyJack

Yeah, same here.  I've used that track saw a lot, and at the time I bought it, it was the only one on the market.  My only regret in buying it is that the next year they came out with a quick disconnect cord - I would have liked to have that as the cord is usually the first thing to go on portable tools.  If it got stolen or something, I would probably replace it, even though I'm 55 and the days where I need to cut up big sheets of plywood are numbered the same as my days of being able to lift big sheets of plywood.

 

I forgot about the Domino.  Might have gone for one of those if I didn't already have a bunch of ways of doing similar stuff.  I do think their solution is an innovative one, kind of like that really stubby cordless drill.

I want the Domino , but only if I can sell my Dewalt scroll saw for a decent price.

I have actually been looking at the Festool routers for a couple of reasons.
1. The dust collection is excellent compared to others

2. The integration with the rest of the Festool ecosystem like the tracks for instance is a step up from anything else on the market.

Festool has by far the best thought out ecosystem and tools and accessories work together very well but this does come as a premium.

It is also a different workflow in which tools are brought to the workpiece rather than the workpiece being brought to the tool which is more common.