>>2961078
It's a German company that produces its tools in Germany and the Czech Republic. They pay their employees rather than using slave labor, and the quality is higher as a result.

>>2961079
Dean D has some praise for the brand, it has decent repairability and available replacement parts so that's pretty nice. As for performance it seems to be lacking compared to the usual suspects, at least for one of their drills that project farm tested.

>>2961078
The only thing worth a shit they make is the Domino and maybe their vacs, everything else sucks. Also, their stuff doesn't work without their proprietary bullshit, enjoy paying 5$ for a single dowel, for example.

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>>2961080
>As for performance it seems to be lacking
its a carpenter brand that pioneered low profile low runout chucks and tight space adapters for furniture assembly. Like decades before the usual suspects made their 1/4" hex based clones.
nobody cares if it cant drill 2" holes in 316l

>>2961087
they also had brushless already all the way back in nicad/nimh days, pretty substantial performance boost back then

>>2961087
>>2961088
Fair enough, it's a btand with decent pedigree but stats wise it doesn't do as good nowadays, it is what it is.
Bosch used to be the top dogs of demolition hammers and now they strip gears pretty easily and don't refuse to fix the problem even when their own official repair shops advise them to do something about the issue. Even hilti isn't exempt from this. There are a few brands that used to make bombproof power tools that simply rely on their name brand to sell a product that simply isn't as good as it once was.

>>2961078
for me its ryobi. it just werks

Festool is targeted at cabinet makers and other fine woodworking installers. I have a stack of it collected over more than twenty years, but it gathers dust because what little woodworking I do is with dimensional lumber and plywood, and is easier to do with my collection of cordless tools.

>>2961079
are they really that good? compared to blue bosch for example (im sucking Robert's dick hard)

>>2961362
Nu-bosch is going downhill. Poorly hardened gears.

>>2961082
The Domino is still only competed with by jerry-rigged router setups.

The compound miter saws are nice, but DeWalt's is still a good choice if you're fine with the extra rear clearance you need, and you can get one with a rolling, folding stand for $650 if you watch the sales versus $1800 for the Kapex

The Dust extractors are actually pretty decently price competitive with other dual-filter models from DeWalt, Milwaukee, 3M, and Mirka, though Harbor Freight has one now for $370.

The rest of the industry has caught up to them on track saws.

None of the cordless stuff they make is worth the price premium unless you have to have an all-Festool shop and their stacking storage boxes.

>>2961087
Still rather go with the Milwaukee M12 installation driver for that, or DeWalt's new multi-head 20v Atomic.

>>2961449
>Still rather go with the Milwaukee M12 installation driver for that, or DeWalt's new
nobody who bought into centrotec in 2000 will change to a different brand installation driver.
For a regular drill? sure

Automotive painter/prepper/bodyman in my smol workshop.
RO 90 and 150 is what i have from Festool. Shits great. Need to get to (or even through in corners) metal, fast?
Take loud as fuck Rotex. Same deal with kicking down fist layer of putty. Some of them can be really hard to sand.
90 is a beast also, i never thought that delta attatchment can be used for cars. Just zip the shit out of rims or other places.

Need forced action polisher? Blast em clean and slap pad on and get going. RO 150 has same specs as Rupes Mille and it just works.
If it falls apart, send it to repairs or get parts yourself. They will outlive me.
Probably these are last generation Rotexes because bigger one is in production for almost 20 years...

For more delicate or quieter sanding i have Mirka Deos blocks and smol n big Deros.

I started my effort from scratch, without funds and support and after a year, system basically works. Even in remote europoor village.

Thanks for reading my blogpost.

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>>2961078
>I don't get it, surely they can't be that good?
for DIY it's overkill unless you are rich and want to have a really sick setup that you don't use very often. the only reason to get into festool is if you are a professional who wants really high end products with a lot of power, features, dust collection, and fantastic warranty support. festool is head and shoulders above most companies when it comes to this stuff. i run festool miter saws, a festool router, and their sand paper is the best even though i run a mirka sander. mafell has them beat on track saw and router. the festool sander is probably better than the mirka for painters. all my battery hand tools are milwaukee and i will give this anecdotal evidence:
>festool kapex eats a piece of ipe that was too small and I shouldn't have been cutting anyway
>blade grabs it and pulls it into the housing seriously fucking shit up
>go on website submit warranty claim
>get shipping label
>saw gets back a week later with half of the parts replaced and cutting great again
vs milwaukee
>oscillating multitool breaks (turned on but the blade had no power going to it)
>similar process to festool
>they sent me a brand new replacement
>the blade screw retainer is broken
>have to send the brand new replacement back to them
>finally get a working replacement
a lot of companies have good warranties and good tools, but festool doesn't have hiccups like some of the other guys. i was burning up bosch routers pretty consistently so i got the bigass festool router and have been loving all the creature comforts and accessories. also, dust collection is an absolutely amazing "i never knew what i was missing" feature that more people should invest in.

>>2962109
>mafell has them beat on track saw and router.
track saw and jigsaw*, router isn't really comparable since the mafell router is 240v

>>2961449
>The Domino is still only competed with by jerry-rigged router setups.
Dominos are just a specialized tool for floating tenons. 95% of the time you could just use a drill (which you already have) and dowels (which are trivial to make).

>>2962109
>who wants really high end products with a lot of power
But only for the corded tools. The cordless are actually a bit underpowered, focused more on smooth feel over power.

>>2962153
Not just that, but with a lot of little details built in to make the mortises fast and easily repeatable and evenly spaced.

>>2962184
Oh yeah. Guides to help with alignment. They'd be helluva useful for production work. But total overkill for the home DIYer

>>2962186
Even for custom work, running a bunch of dominoes takes 1/10th the time that manually cutting mortises would.

>>2962192
Again, yes. But it wouldn't take much less time then dowels, and at many times the cost.

>>2961078
Festool is a fashion statement.
It's like snapon, people buy it for the logo and the bragging rights of having been ripped of by jews, not the performance.

>>2961087
>low profile low runout chucks
total gimmick in a hand-held tool.

>>2961362
>are they really that good?

No they are on par with Mafell or the higher end Metabo lines or FEIN.

>compared to blue bosch

Well they're way better than Bosch. Bosch has random products where they just didn't engineer it right and it fails due to that and they never fucking fix it. They also have products which last but it's a gamble.
There's a really funny thread in a boat forum with people grinding fucking yachts for weeks and trying to find an alternative to festools rotex. The bosch equivalent dies reliably after a few days, the makita is fine (and half the price of the festool) but the real smart guys get a Mirka which weighs 800gr instead of 3kg for all-day-long overhead work and take a small hit to the removal rate.
If you want to know about a tool for sure, go look for people who have to use it under the most miserable circumstances, like grinding glas fiber boat hulls overhead, in protective gear, outside, and have workpieces which are huge so they do it a lot.
Don't ask youtubers who use it for 5 minutes in their nice climatized workshop.

>>2962184
>But only for the corded tools
That's all I use other than drill/driver/multitool.

>>2962283
>total gimmick in a hand-held tool.
yea no
i have a high end metabo drill and due to the way the chuck is attached it has like 10mm wobble at the tip of a 5" long drill.
Also like 5mm for the bit holder, pffft.
Imagine shilling for this while claiming the superior way is le-gimmick.

>>2962328
Sounds like a Metabo fault to me, my DeWalt has zero deflection at the drill bit tip.

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Does Festool offer an alternative to the GSB 12V-35?

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>>2962340

>>2962338
>Sounds like a Metabo fault to me
i thought too and contacted their customer service. Its the play in the 1/4" hex shaft. Metabo has that issue, so does Bosch and milfukee. Centrotec does not since it mounts the bit all the way inside the gearbox shaft instead of the tip of whatever chuck / bit adapter
>my DeWalt
let me guess, its fixed chuck
>>2962340
their 12v range

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>>2962349
>let me guess, its fixed chuck
I'll take using two separate tools if it means I can also put clean holes into metal studs and cinderblocks.

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>>2962355
this is all about mounting excenter and angle adapters, not fucking stick framing
>why would i own a multitool, my jackhammer is better suited for ripping out driveway slabs

>>2962359
I sure as fuck wouldn't pay Festool's premium for that.

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>>2962360

>>2962361
>Festool's premium
its import tax kek
they all cost like ~300€ here. festool, bosch, metabo, milwaukee.
metabo and festool share the same flange on the 12 and 18v range. Bosch? zero flexibility here

used one of these with two tracks

Felt like a plastic toy, but I guess it worked good.

Even joining the tracks felt weak, but I guess it worked.

I guess if you were gonna be doing that sort of cutting all the time it would be worth it instead of Bubba DIY guide and Skillsaw.

Even the storage box felt cheap and weak. More like dust cover than a storage box.

>>2962452
>used one of these with two tracks
Festool Plunge-Cut Track Saw TS 55 FEQ-F-Plus-FS with 55-Inch (1400mm) Guide Rail

main prob was it track was too big to fit in Job Box and holes too small for our chain, it was a "diverse" jobsite, so boss had to carry it home until we figured out a custom way to lock up with a bar with two holes that fit through the slots. lol

>>2962362
Fess from Germany gets big import tax but not all the shit from China?

AFAIK all such tools in USA have been from China for at least 20yrs.

If war pops off with China, Germany will be the only NATO nation with tool factories, unless maybe Lockheed sells Impacts for working on F-35 for $1,000,000.

>>2962457
>AFAIK all such tools in USA have been from China for at least 20yrs.
Nope, DeWalt mainly builds actual power tools in the US, Mexico, and Vietnam. Their batteries use Korean cells put together in Mexico. They use China for other stuff. Milwaukee has similar diversity of their factories.

>>2962478
>Mexico, and Vietnam
Well known trans-shipment hubs.
The US factory is hilarious. They had only one coil winding machine (it's actually shocking that they ever wound a motor). It's a demo/showpiece where they mainly assemble parts from china.
And by assemble, I mean put the stickers on.

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>>2962361
Compatible with Jobmax?

>>2962481
Nothing is. Especially other Rigid tools.

>>2962480
You're just mad that your claim is a lie and you got called on it.

>>2962480
>They had only one coil winding machine
everybody imports their pmm from china.
Even metabo despite everything else being made in germany (castings, clam shells, ...)
China holds the monopoly on rare earth magnets, its up to the west to design new motors that dont rely on the yellow jews resources

>>2962338
He's a retard making shit up, metabo turns, hardens and precision grinds all their spindles.
They have like 0,02mm runout or less from the factory.

>>2962153
95% of the time the joinery needs to be perfect and fast for a professional. A dowel jig is perfectly reasonable, but it needs to be well thought out.

Even biscuit joiners have their share of pitfalls. At their best, they only secure alignment in one direction. But they are very fast, which is optimal when they just do the job they're supposed to.

People who aren't putting in 4-6 kitchens a month will never understand.

>>2961078
they are that good. they just are. i work with hvac and general construction, if i did only construction i would buy festool. i dont so i buy dewalt

>>2963772
>if i did only construction
You'd be a fool to buy Festool for construction work. Aside from the fact you're getting less power for a lot more money, you're basically painting a massive "steal my shit" target on yourself.

>>2963733
>Even biscuit joiners have their share of pitfalls.
Biscuits are for alignment, not strength. Tenons do both.

>>2961078
They are that good. Not in terms of power or quality, there are many alternatives. It is about the little features that make life easier for your trade. Like, stuff you have to do on a daily basis and it saves you a few minutes every time. Not relevant for diy stuff but if you do stuff for money, time is money and Festool prices start to make sense.

>>2962361
festool includes charger and 2 batteries, dewalt is drill only.

>>2963911
biscuits are dowels cut in biscuit form, how do they not contribute to strength?
>insert skizo babble

>>2964564

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>>2964570
More James Bond’s mission

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>>2962455
>TS 55 FEQ-F-Plus-FS with 55-Inch (1400mm) Guide Rail
>main prob was it track was too big to fit in Job Box and holes too small for our chain, it
That got me really confused. Is anon ESL and/or retarded or am I? There’s no chain in a track saw. Does he mean the blade? Is he running some redneck-engineered sawmill where a chain pulls a tiny track saw through a log?
But then
> it was a "diverse" jobsite, so boss had to carry it home until we figured out a custom way to lock up with a bar with two holes that fit through the slots.
Oh, ok. Burger problems. Guess that’s not festools fault.
What however is, is
>>2962452
> storage box felt cheap and weak. More like dust cover than a storage box.
I don’t know why they chose to use the cheapest feeling, ratty ass plastics there is. You pick up one of those sustainers and you think it’s some cheapo box cheapo tools come in, straight outta China, that you throw away and put it into a proper storage system, but turns out that is their system and it costs a lot of money. Same issue with meatobos system. Milhousee with their packout feels like it’s actually worth something, but not festool.
For my /diy/ ass, festool is too expensive for the use I’d get out of it, apart from their sanding papers. For mesh, I prefer Mirka, doesn’t frail as much as festool, but for removing paint, their granat is fantastic. Thanks to the anon who recommended it to me!
And in large boxes, pro tier stuff is cheaper than crap from the big box store. And I run it on a cheap Bosch green PSA with holes drilled into the head for dust collection.

>>2964561
If you're buying one of them, you probably already have a few other DW tools and batteries.

>>2964607
>apart from their sanding papers.
I use 3M, way better bang for the buck.

>>2964811
there are like four non chink OEM for sanding paper supplies, Klingspor, VSM, Swarowski and 3M. Everybody else either buys from them or the chinks

>>2961078
It's just boutique shit guys who are high earning engineers buy. I'm sure it's well made and high quality, but not made for a job site.

>>2965256
it is, but you have to be making good money to afford it. way more durable than the home depot brands. better warranty service too.

>>2965310
Which is fine, if you're an actual furniture designer that builds high end stuff or you design furniture for brand names or something.
imho warranties are only for overpriced shit, or when you have a fleet of tools for a business.

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>>2965317
I like their reliability and power for woodworking tools.

>>2965406
I'm an office cuck. What is the purpose of the blue tape grid on the floor?

>>2968699
That's 4x8 subflooring. They tapped off the edges so that they don't fray while working on the rest of the room. Eventually the tape gets removed and the floor will be tiled or whatever.

>>2968699
>What is the purpose of the blue tape grid on the floor?
the hardwood floors are covered with paper and then masonite. the tape is to seal the seams of the masonite so dirt doesn't get under it and scratch the floors. we use blue tape because regular masking tape in current year is fucking bullshit and tears just trying to get it off the roll, so we use blue tape even though it should be masking tape since all that shit is disposable floor protection.
>>2968703
the ideas you guys come up with are baffling

>>2964566
They are for aligning not strength.

>>2964566
It's better than nothing, only brad nails.
It's worse than everything else, woodwork with self respect.

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Our Snap-Off guy has a sense of humor

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>>2961078
getting ready to pull the trigger on picrel. half the price and twice the usefulness. sucks they just raised their prices though by $100

>>2961078
Their tools are nice but I buy tools to work not to look at and brag about. Maybe one day ill have a shop and fill it with high end stuff but im not interested in paying $1000 for a track saw and have some retarded apprentice fuck it up.

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I’ve got an old Bosch PDA (pic related, as you can see, I’m running it on Granat already) which I’m mostly using to sand louvers and it absolutely sucks.
It doesn’t have dust extraction (with the louver add on), it’s unergonomic to grab and the vibration is terrible for extended use. How much better (if at all, maybe that’s just normal for small delta sanders?) would the rotex RO 90 be?
Should I splurge on it?

>>2969314
Do you want corded or cordless? You could get Milwaukee's new M12 3" detail RO with two batteries for half the price.

>>2969321
I already have this thing (and a bunch of M12 batteries) and I really like it, but it lacks dust extraction (so corded is ok) and it doesn’t have a louvre attachment.

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>>2969352
The newer 3" round one, not the home plate one.

>>2969395
Only heard bad things about this one, but haven’t looked closer since I don’t really need a(nother, small) orbital sander but a delta one. Does this do that too or is that a festool special?

>>2969424
I think you can find pads that adapt them to triangle.

>>2961078
I do antiques restoration, nothing compares to Festo in woodworking. I use only corded tools for this. Metalwork and cordless > Makita.

>>2961079
>It's a German company that produces its tools in Germany and the Czech Republic. They pay their employees rather than using slave labor, and the quality is higher as a result.
Black & Decker (in the gorm of Dewalt), and Bosch, can both produce tools, in German, or formerly in Switzerland, for a retail price that was and may still be 1/3 of Festool’s retail price.
The Bosch and Dewalt tools are in many cases just as well made, and in dome cases better engineered than the Festool tools.
Flex and Fein make tools that are as expensive as Festool, in Germany, but the build quality and engineering is usually better. (FLEX actually used to make some of the Festool tools for Festool).

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>>2971986
>Bosch
>in German
kek, nobody tell him.
The only Power tool makers with a large protfolio still made in Germany are Festool and Metabo.
Fein is one of the dozens of nieche brands with limited sortiment

>>2961087
>its a carpenter brand that pioneered low profile low runout chucks and tight space adapters for furniture assembly. Like decades before the usual suspects made their 1/4" hex based clones.
“Low Runout Chucks”.
Don’t kid yourself.
Festool drill chucks were actually the lowest quality keyless chucks made by Rohm in Germany. (Unless Metabo made the cheaper series of chucks?).
Festool later released an all metal version of their quick change chuck that was better, but that was around a decade after their first drills came out that used an interchangeable quick change chuck system.
The Centrotec system was designed as a way to lighten the drills, snd provide slightly shorter drill length for tasks like cabinetmaking.
Festool came up with their own fairly expensive system to do this, rather than using the somewhat industry standard 1/4 quick change system.
They didn’t really properly explain how the system was proprietary when it came out, or make a wide enough range of accessories for the system for a decade or more, causing the Festool salesmen to get pissed off if you enquired about the issues.
When later manufacturers like Fein rntered the wuick change chuck market, they had Rohm use their higher wuality chicks for the Fein system, and those drill chucks are better than even the higher quality chucks Festool uses.
Other manufacturers doing similar systems do the systems at a better price.

>>2971989
and yet it still shits all over every competitors 3 decades ltater, i can tell you that much as user of Bosch, metabo with röhm carbide chuck and Festool
>Festool came up with their own fairly expensive system to do this, rather than using the somewhat industry standard 1/4 quick change system.
oh nononono, you mean it doesnt fit my 30ct ali express hssCO hex drill bits. I need to spend on quality to get quality? NANI???

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>>2971989
>>2971990
this is why festool holds the bit inside the gear shaft

>>2964607
Festool originated the modular lick together tool box system for power tools.
Originally the Tanos Systainer system was just meant ad a reusable box system got transporting tools and accessories to tool dealers, with the boxes intended to be shipped back to Festool once the dealer received the shipment.
Dealers allegedly started not sending the boxes back, because they gound the boxes useful, so Festool spun that off as Tanos, and started advertising the box system as well as selling the modular box system to other tool brands such as Black & Decker for the Dewalt and Elu brands, with other brands such as Mafell and Metabo and Makita also using Systainers at one point, or at least offering them as an aftermarket accessory.
Festool used ABS plastic, maybe due yo cost.
A number of other manufacturers now making modular tool box systems use different plastics that may be more impact resistant.

>>2971992
>this is why festool holds the bit inside the gear shaft
Festool could have made the Festool Centrotec System compatible with other quick change systems simply by driving a hex broach down the center.
They chose not to to keep the system proprietary, even they making the system compatible would have cost little extra in effort.
Festool also literally couldn’t or wouldn’t properly explain the proprietary and non compatibility of the system, which is something they have a habit of.
The Centrotec keyless chucks are also plastic shit,
They may work, but basic Milwaukee cordless drills that cost 1/3 the amount were being sold with far better drill chucks.
There were also alternative systems that Festool could have piggybacked onto, made by manufacturers like Wiha. (Who already makes accessories for Festool).
Festool just decided to make non-compatible accessories.

>>2971990
>oh nononono, you mean it doesnt fit my 30ct ali express hssCO hex drill bits. I need to spend on quality to get quality? NANI???
The Festool Centrotec system is not compatible with standard US made 1/4” Hex quick change systems, that were around before Festool introduced they Centrotec system.
The Festool system is not compatible with Japanese made quick change systems.
The Festool system is not compatible with the Wiha Driv-Loc system, or System VI system, or the Wera Vario system, all three of which use 6mm hex blades.
The Festool Centrotec system is not compatible with any of the three Stanly North Brothers Yankee bit standards, which have been around for almost 100 fucking years, and which also use round fucking shanks.
The Festool Centrotec system is not compatible with the 5/16 inch hex bit standard, or the 1/4 square or 5/16 square shank industrial bit standards.

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>>2971998
>The Centrotec keyless chucks are also plastic shit,
the "chuck" is just the axial retainer you collosal dumb fuck
obviously the regular chuck can hold any hex bit, but unlike the competition it doesnt have 2 millimeters wobble

>>2971988
Fein and Bosch worked together to design and standardize on an oscillating blade standard, and may have worked on dome other mounting standards as well.
Fein also manufactures the oscillating tool Festool sells.
Fein mostly decided to focus on metalworking, and removed themselves from the woodworking market, other than a cordless jigsaw and basic drills and the oscillating tools and vacuums.
Fein may still be making motors and components for Trumpf and Draco.

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>>2961078
I've used this at a workplace a few times. It's just as full of pot metal and plastic as any other brand. Not anything special or extra accurate.

I used to work for an epoxy flooring company that mixed sand into the epoxy resin. Festool were the only paint mixers that wouldn’t die within a few months, and usually lasted a couple of years.

>>2961078
Best friend is a sales manager for Hilti (even more expensive than Festool, 600€ for a basic drill).
These brands don't give a fuck about diy, their market are the pros.
Their tools are reliable workhorse that can be serviced for years if not decades.
Hilti has an asbestos rated service shop so you can actually repair a tool that has been used on asbestos, no other brand do that.
The biggest threat to the model is now some artisans buy Lidl shit and treat them as disposables.

Said friend told me that for woodworking and painting, Festool is usually the best but for other works, not so much.
True to that, the painter and the guy who changed windows both used Festools.

>>2972481
>the painter
I thought their big brand was Wagner.

>>2973103
painters spend more time sanding than they do painting, festool makes really good sanders and the only real competition is mirka and they have different features so it comes down to personal preference.

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>>2973486
>the only real competition is mirka
3M.

>electronic clutch
Ewww la.

>>2973775
literal mirka clone

>>2974329
Made in the USA.

>>2962283
Mirka isnt a secret, its the peofessional standard for orbital sander

>>2973775
Thats just the Mirka Deros I rebranded, since they launched the Deros II, they opened up for other brands to use their (outdated) design, still a good sander nonetheless

>>2971988
>Fein
>Niche
Lol, everyone has or knows Fein's oszillator, its basically a synonym at this point

>>2974459
and now tell me what else do they make without asking google or grok
>ugh ugh drills
compare their portfolio with metabo, dewalt, bosch or milwaukee, thats what nieche brand means