Tools that are much better than you expected

[Ben Rivel]

Sure. For me though, none of my Festools have exceeded my expectations. That's because my expectations were high...to go along with the price I paid.

That said, some Festools have not met my expectations. The Trion as you mention. The Kapex is very good but I still need to mod the dust extraction a bit (there's a thread on here somewhere about how to fix it). I'm not impressed with the vacuums for the money. I don't see much innovation over a standard vacuum with an after market vacuum switch and HEPA filter. The drills are OK but I have some Dewalt drills and drivers that are better in some ways.

Overall, I like the Festool products and find them well made. But I was expecting that giving the innovation and price.

Think Id have to agree with you on all points made. Ive avoided the Kapex due to the growing number of people reporting motor failure issues. Well that and the fact that I cant figure out how to justify the cost of it over the other leader miter saws. And yes the vacuums are nice, but if youre working in a garage/shop where you dont need a "quieter", HEPA filtered, tool powering vacuum, a good shop-vac style vacuum can handle most vacuuming duties. Its just very convenient to have the Festool vac if you already have their other tools. And the drills, well yea Ive skipped over all Festool cordless tools. No need for them. Cant stand that proprietary bit holding thing they use on their drills. Why they wont make a head that takes standard 1/4" bits eludes me. Theyd sell more drills and make money off the accessory. My 18V LiIon and 12V LiIon DeWalts have never been anything short of awesome. Never felt a need to make the jump. Especially since I can own three DeWalt drills for the price of one Festool.

[Jay Larson]

I have a couple from the last few years.

First is a DeWalt planer. When we were building our house, my fiance changed her mind about the stairs to the basement. "Instead of full width carpeting, can we go with a runner?" Sure, but have you priced maple stair treads? Well, I found a local lumber mill where I could get 5/4 maple in the sizes I needed for a reasonable price. Ended up making all the treads risers for the staircase. Along with the price of the planer, I saved over $400 on the project. Since then, it opened up so many possibilities on projects. Instead of thinking in 3/4" increments for thicknesses, it becomes what looks better.

The second is a HF bandsaw that I bought from a friend down on his luck and losing his house. I already had a 10" table top Rikon that I used a lot. At first, it couldn't cut a straight line or a consistent curve. Tried a few things, but eventually started completely over. Bought a new blade, tuned it up and set it up. Now I can cut 1/16" slices all day long. I am so impressed with that saw that I sold the Rikon.

[John Sincerbeaux]

My new Martin tablesaw.
I obviously had extremely high expectations buying arguably one of he best made saws in the world. The fit and finish is amazing as I expected. I had seen Martin machinery many times at all the big WW shows.
Operating this fully automatic, motorized machine is really a joy. But, the biggest surprise is how much safety and precision this saw brings. I knew a "slider" was going to take a bit to get used to as I have operated only cabinet saws for the last forty years. Another concern of mine was that a slider is generally not considered a saw used for fabricating small, intricate work? I have read here that many guys have a slider for large case-work and a cabinet saw for small work.

My greatest realization is that a slider can not only do the most intricate work you have ever dreamed of but also 100 times safer than any cabinet saw ever could. The slider holds the wood so you don't have to. Your hands never come close to the blade. I had a Fritz and Franz jig made as soon as I received my saw. This jig combined with the sliding table has completely changed my approach to cutting wood on a table saw.

Here are a few pics of fabricating the stops for the T-track on the F&F jig. I plan on posting another thread just on the Fritz and Franz jig and the safety benefits.

IMG_7622.JPGIMG_7619.JPGIMG_7628.JPG

[Larry Foster]

I've been pleasantly surprised by my Harbor Freight power tools.
Wrenches and stuff, not so much.

I have an air compressor, drill press, log splitter, router (haven'y used yet), cordless drill that runs all over my Craftsman and a multi-tool.
I'm sure there's more.

As far as that little Rockwell circular saw, I've been disappointed.
It seems more like a toy

[Mark Bolton]

My new Martin tablesaw.
I obviously had extremely high expectations buying arguably one of he best made saws in the world. The fit and finish is amazing as I expected. I had seen Martin machinery many times at all the big WW shows.
Operating this fully automatic, motorized machine is really a joy. But, the biggest surprise is how much safety and precision this saw brings. I knew a "slider" was going to take a bit to get used to as I have operated only cabinet saws for the last forty years. Another concern of mine was that a slider is generally not considered a saw used for fabricating small, intricate work? I have read here that many guys have a slider for large case-work and a cabinet saw for small work.

My greatest realization is that a slider can not only do the most intricate work you have ever dreamed of but also 100 times safer than any cabinet saw ever could. The slider holds the wood so you don't have to. Your hands never come close to the blade. I had a Fritz and Franz jig made as soon as I received my saw. This jig combined with the sliding table has completely changed my approach to cutting wood on a table saw.

Here are a few pics of fabricating the stops for the T-track on the F&F jig. I plan on posting another thread just on the Fritz and Franz jig and the safety benefits.

IMG_7622.JPGIMG_7619.JPGIMG_7628.JPG

I always thought the skewed, ergonomic handle, on the pusher was about the best part of thier jig.

[Phillip Gregory]

I can think of a few.

1. DeWalt GE 7 1/2 hp 16"/20" medium arm radial arm saw. I sucked up about 10 pounds of nasty old MDF dust, ungunked a frozen rollerhead bearing, made a new table, replaced the shot motor bearings, put on a new blade, tuned it up, and wired it up I originally got it to handle cutting through some very large old reclaimed rafters and barn timbers. I'd briefly used RASes before, but the typical 10" Sears ones so using a really good one was an eye opening experience. The GE works so much nicer for crosscuts and dados than my 3 hp Unisaw clone that I largely use my cabinet saw just for ripping now. Running a dado blade on a good RAS for the first time is a very pleasant surprise.

2. Whitney No. 134 4 hp direct drive double spindle shaper, mine has the 1 1/8" spindle tops. I had to go through this one a little bit as it had been used and abused for decades in a furniture factory that ended up going belly-up. Fortunately nothing was broken or missing and the bearings fortunately were fine. I'd never used a shaper before and seeing how much and how well it cuts vs. a router in a table put a big grin on my face. This is the other half of why I never run a dado head on a cabinet saw any more as a shaper is much better at rabbets and grooving. I don't think it does too badly for being just shy of 100 years old.

3. Baldor 1215W 12"x2" 2 hp 1725 rpm pedestal grinder rebranded as a Powermatic 2100-25. I've used cheap bench grinders before and this replaced the last one of those. This grinder just needed new motor bearings (super easy), hooked up to the VFD, and a light dressing on the ruby red wheels it came with. The first thing I did was sharpen a set of mower blades just to try it out. It was nearly silent, had essentially no vibration, and let me sharpen the blades in about 1/3 of the time as with the last crappy grinder, and without any even hint of overheating of the cutting surfaces. The tool rests are solid instead of flimsy and the guards actually keep most of the sparks and swarf from pelting me. The VFD also stops the wheels in about 8 seconds which is pretty neat as every other grinder I've used has yowled and buzzed on for minutes after being shut off.

4. Hitachi 23 gauge pin nailer. This isn't a super impressive piece of equipment and I got it to put some glass stop in a door, and I didn't think I'd be using it a whole lot. I end up using it on pretty much every project as shooting a couple of pin nails to tack something into place during glue-up is extremely handy.

[Bill Serino]

Ridgid 18ga brad nailer and a cheap HDX 1/2ga compressor.

The amount of work I've gotten done with those is remarkable. A true "must have" of any home owner IMHO.

[Bob Cooper]

Earlex sprayer

[Nick Shattuck]

The HF pocket hole jig is way nicer than I expected.

I bought it to check my drill press table alignment, but I use my Woodpecker's mini-square all the time on just about every saw I own.

The i-Socket Autoswitch is incredibly useful for me when sanding.

Now that I have a decent 0.5 mm mechanical pencil, my Incra precision marking t-rule gets a lot of use.

[Martin Wasner]

OMGA miter saws. Bar none the best value for money in a saw. You've got to make a lot of cuts to make that realization though.

I bought a domino for one specific project and haven't used it much since. When it gets used it's pretty handy. Festool is really nice stuff, but way overpriced. Somebody brought up their vacuums, I think that's the only thing they sell that's actually competitive in price to other vacuums.

Fein multi tools, that thing has saved my butt a few times cutting things that weren't possible any other practical way.

[Brian Holcombe]

OMGA miter saws. Bar none the best value for money in a saw. You've got to make a lot of cuts to make that realization though.

I bought a domino for one specific project and haven't used it much since. When it gets used it's pretty handy. Festool is really nice stuff, but way overpriced. Somebody brought up their vacuums, I think that's the only thing they sell that's actually competitive in price to other vacuums.

Fein multi tools, that thing has saved my butt a few times cutting things that weren't possible any other practical way.

I regret buying a Kapex rather than going the whole mile and buying an Omga. I've reset the Kapex to be precisely square more times than I would have expected to. I gave a Hitachi to my father, the Kapex is an improvement over that but not quite the precision I was looking for.

[Martin Wasner]

the kapex is really nice, my next portable saw will be a kapex. But bolted down in a shop, we'd kill it in no time. The capabilities aren't necessary in a full shop either as there's usually a better tool available for the task.

The OMGA's just don't die. Being able to put them on 480v is a plus too, we've got three on one 20amp circuit and it's still oversized. I've got a single phase derda as well, (which is a Polish clone of the omga), it's 23 years old and has done a lot of cutting since it was the only cut off station I had for years. Still cuts perfectly square.

A plastic saw just can't compete with the mass of an omga or a CTD.

[Martin Wasner]

To add salt to the wound, the most I've paid for an OMGA is $800... I paid $250 for my first one.

[Jim Morgan]

Much more mundane: a multi-hole pencil sharpener. Who isn't always in need of a sharp pencil? I have an electric one, but would have been perfectly happy with a manual as well. I have some colored pencils for marking on dark woods that would not fit the standard pencil-sharpening hole. Also handy for tapering dowels of various sizes for draw-boring.

[Brian Holcombe]

To add salt to the wound, the most I've paid for an OMGA is $800... I paid $250 for my first one.

Nice! In the field I'm sure the Kapex is hard to beat. Festool has always struck me as being about as good as it gets for a mobile system, great for installers. In the shop I always feel there is a better tool for the job in cases outside of rough cutting the edges off slabs.