Festool Planer used as a Jointer

[Peter Scoma]

I'll say that I havent used this tool but question anyone who says that it works well for planing long boards. With a 6in infeed and outfeed table it is just silly to try working a board on this stand when you can clamp the board and just run the plane over the edge.

I may catch some slack for this but I think there is Sometimes, a bit of an elitist attitude put out by festool owners in the sense that anything branded FESTOOL is automatically worth whatever it sells for.

ps

[Michael Parr]

Any reason why this Festool planer could not take the bend in a board. I see a lot of info on hand planners could this not at least start to take off the bow in a piece of edge joined work (IE the problem I have now)

[Bruce Page]

These are the kind of products that will hurt a good reputation.
You would be better served and money ahead getting a little benchtop unit.

[Jim Becker]

Although I do not own this tool, I tested it in my own shop a few years ago. While it certainly wouldn't be cost effective to purchase it exclusively for use as a very small jointer for craft-type/size projects--for most people, but there may be exceptions, it is a valid use for the tool. I was skeptical about it when it came out of the back of Uncle Bob's SUV when I got to play with nearly all the Festool products that weekend. After about ten minutes, I was no longer skeptical. This IS, however, a specialty tool that is suitable largely for folks who truly can take advantage of its many features, dust/chip collection, excellent cutting quality and multi-capabilities. And while I'm not someone that could justifiably leverage it enough to make me want to buy one, I have healthy respect for it having, as I said, actually used it.

[Paul Johnstone]

So lets turn this post on its ear. If I wanted to ask the question would you spend the money on a single use item like a cheap small table top joiner with almost no adjustments or shall I spend probably double on the Festool setup but then have the option to do Door or wide flat sections. If there was a singular purpose here I would say go spend the money on the cheap but since I am trying to build a good base of tools to both do woodworking and work in the house could this tool fit. So lets see if a couple more experieced people aswer this question for me:

What else can a hand planer do? The joiner will be a singular task.

I have a Bosch hand planer that I've owned for about 15 years. I bought it to fix a poor construction problem, and it really saved my rearend in that regard (saved me lots of time and $$ to redo). So, it earned its money on that job

Since then, it's maybe planed 3 doors that didn't fit well. I could've easily done the same job with a circular saw and straight edge.

Really, I have a hard time recommending this too to any hobbiest (unless you are a door installer). I certainly wouldn't recommend spending $700 on one. It is so seldom used that a normal brand will be fine.

Also, BTW, it takes some skill to use this tool without sniping. It also takes skill to plane a level line. That's just the nature of these kind of tools. I really doubt there's anything Festool could do about this.

I also agree that a benchtop jointer (or a 6" jointer on a mobile base) would be far more useful, give better results, and be less expensive.