Festool Router - Worth It?

[Peter Kuhlman]

I have the 1010, 1400 and 2200 for handheld use along with several other brands. If I kept only one it would be the 1010. Simply perfect for me. So smooth, so balanced, never causes any anxious moments, so easy to control. Yes it only takes 1/4" and 8mm bits but I find for my handheld uses that is no problem when using quality bits. I still would need my big PC 7518 in my table.

[David Ragan]

I have the smaller Domino and the 5" sander and th CT33.

All wonderful machines. Great DC.

the Domino is hard to learn properly, but it really is great.

Not sure what next purchase might be.

[Lou Ortiz]

i have the 1400, a couple of biog/small porter cables and a bosch. The Festool is easily the best, but i really like that all of the accessories (edge guides, tracks, stops, etc) - and the dust collection - are very well thought out and work well. I can do many things with the festool, like cutting mortises, with precision that i would otherwise need a jig for. Solid build and ergonomic.

[ken masoumi]

If it were me I would first decide which tool I would use more often ,in my case I would buy either the tracksaw or Domino.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I won a $500 gift certificate to a woodworking store that sells Festool tools. The one tool that is intriguing me other than the Kapex is the Model 1400EQ router. At $555, that's a lot of money for a router. Is it worth its purchase price?

You won a $500 gift certificate - - so my math says the router is $55.

Sounds cheap from here............

[Ruperto Mendiones]

I have the 0f1400 and I used to question why I got it. But when I cut four 1 3/4" deep 1 1/2 x 19" mortises in beech, I had no dust, great chip collection and much easier time to plunge and set depth than the PC routers I had used. Pass the green kool-aide

[Joe Samorodin]

festool router, yes!!

[Philip Johnson]

The smartest thing you could do is rip up that 500 dollars throw it away and step away from the festools, as soon as you buy one you will be lusting over which one to buy next. My wife wanted a sander for refinishing furniture. Took her to the store and she latched on to the RO 90 and would not let go. I must admit I love that sander, I haven't totally gotten over paying 450 for a sander and another 450 for a systainer full of assorted sand papers. So I have 900 dollars in a sander that I have ask permission and beg to use and promise to clean and polish it before returning it. I'm just about over it and trying to decide if I need a router, jig saw, new drill, miter saw.

i think the real value in Festool is how all the tools work together as a system. A router weather it's a 69 dollar one or 500 dollar one doesn't do much more the spin a bit at a high speed. Now if you look at all the Festool router assories it becomes a much more useful and vesitile tool. Check out the LF 32 holy rail assories and edge guides now you can route dados, drill perfectly spaced holes for cabinet shelves or mtf tables or trim laminates. So that 500 dollar router now needs a 500 dollar assory kit, a 500 dollar vacuum, a 650 dollar multi function table to work on, and an extra systainer with the foam insert for router bit storage. So this 500 dollar router suddenly grows to a 2000 dollar routing system. I do like my festools, I think the real value is in the assories that will make that router more useful.

[Erik Christensen]

what phil said - the routers are great but what makes them really shine is when they are combined with the rest of the accessories - for example when used with the rail and micro-adjust adaptor you can increase dado with in 0.1mm increments - for example I had some scrap 3/4 ply that I want to use as dividers for big box to keep my fry pans from banging around, but as the dividers were scrap every one came from a different sheet - I had a dozen to do and no 2 were the same thickness. No problem - used the 1010 for the dados, picked a 1/2" bit, made one pass, adjusted the rail adapter to just shy of 3/4, made a small test cut (inch or so), checked the fit & re-adjusted as necessary. it was dead easy to make a dozen perfectly fitting dados with no 2 the same width and done quickly and safely. or to make tapered sliding dovetails - make a pass, unclamp one end of the rail & move the distance of the taper, second pass & done

[Robert Engel]

No no no

....get a Domino!!

[James Zhu]

Buy Domino (700 or 500).

For the router, Micro Fence has edge guide, plunge base, circle/ellipse jigs to improve your existing router's precision and usage, their edge guide with its interface can be used on any track saw rail. The plunge base and edge guide can dial in 0.001 inch, better than Festool's. It is not cheap, good stuff is never cheap anyway.

Check videos on their website, http://microfence.com/videos-i-37.html

[Jim Becker]

The OF1400 was my first Festool router...I had the opportunity to play with one pre-release and bought my own as soon as "Uncle Bob" (Marino) could get them a number of years ago. It's outstanding. I liked it so much, I also bought the smaller OF1010. Whether it's worth it for you or not is a question that only you can answer.

[Rick Fisher]

I have 4 Festool routers. 2200, 1400, 1010 and 700 .. The 1400 is a really outstanding router.. All of them excel when used with a vacuum ..

I also have 4 x Porter Cable Routers and a Milwaukee. They all spin bits .. but that is where the similarities end. If you need a router, sure.. if you need a sander.. get the ETS ..

[Rich Engelhardt]

i think the real value in Festool is how all the tools work together as a system.

Exactly......

[pat warner]

A strange plunging handle. Made for their accessories and made well.
Tho dear, the rest of the plungers, working within such tight margins (PC,DW, Bosch, The Sumos, + Milwaukee etc) are not without QC and component problems. Compromises, to be sure, but cheap.
The Festool is well thought out, a bit clumsy for this operator, cared for in production, well finished, has one of the best collets, collects it messes and works every time it's tried. Over priced but that's what it takes. Would rather have the big plunger but that's not what you asked about.