Festool VS. EZ Smart

[Gary Keedwell]

Fine Homebuilding has a must read article on Circular-saw Edge Guides. Guess who received "BEST OVERALL." And who received "BEST VALUE"?

Stay tuned..........

Gary K.

PS. I'm going to read it tonite when I go to bed.

[Jim Dailey]

Let's see...

Easy chair, popcorn, lot's of cold beverages....

This could be a long one...

Oh... I vote for the green one...

jim

[Dan Clark]

Best value = "other"

[Dennis Peacock]

OK....let's be careful on the direction this could head in. We've all been here before and we know what always happens to this topic and it's thread.

[Dan Clark]

I looked at another thread.

It seems fairly obvious to me - it depends on whether you already own a good set of tools that you like and want to keep. If you do, then EZ seems like a relatively low-cost way of leveraging your current tools. OTOH...

If you are dissatisfied with your tools or don't have them, and don't mind the initial investment, the Festool is a great solution. You can argue that the EZ guides are better than the Festool Guides, or vice versa. But the guide is not the issue, it's the tools that you use with the guide.

Festool makes great tools and they work VERY well together as a system. Other tools may be good quality, but they don't work togher as a system. Festool circular saws, jig saws, and routers are designed to work with Festool guides, and the tools are designed for the DC, and the guides work very well with the Festool MFT multi-function tables. It's a system that is pre-integrated.

With EZ products, you are integrating NON-system products to work together as a SYSTEM. Although EZ products are quite good, the overall system is dependent on 1) the quality of the tools PLUS the guides and 2) how well your tools + EZ guides work together as a system. Even if you have a great circular saw that is better than the Festool saw, and even if the EZ guide is better than the Festool guide, the combination of your tool + EZ guide may not work together well.

Bottom line... Do you really like your tools and don't mind integrating with EZ? Yes? Buy EZ. No? Buy Festool.

Regards,

Dan.

[Mark Rios]

This is said with respect to all who have posted.

I find the fact that there is the review to read interesting and I will quite likely buy the mag and read it (I buy it once in a while at the BORG). After all that has been hashed over regarding these two products I can't think of anything that might be further discussed about it.

From all the (appropriate) raves about the Festool, even us non-green owners can tell that it is a top quality product, especially if we've had a chance to play with them and drool over them. Congrats to Festool for taking the top honors.

For some, Dino's products work very, very well and they satisfy their needs completely. Congrats to Dino for his placement and position in the review. Hopefully, this will increase his sales a whole bunch.

I'm not sure that any discussion would be helpful in any way. (And Dennis is watching very closely )

Thanks for the heads up on the GRSS Gary. I'll enjoy reading the review.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

I looked at another thread.

It seems fairly obvious to me - it depends on whether you already own a good set of tools that you like and want to keep. If you do, then EZ seems like a relatively low-cost way of leveraging your current tools. OTOH...

If you are dissatisfied with your tools or don't have them, and don't mind the initial investment, the Festool is a great solution. You can argue that the EZ guides are better than the Festool Guides, or vice versa. But the guide is not the issue, it's the tools that you use with the guide.

Festool makes great tools and they work VERY well together as a system. Other tools may be good quality, but they don't work together as a system. Festool circular saws, jig saws, and routers are designed to work with Festool guides, and the tools are designed for the DC, and the guides work very well with the Festool MFT multi-function tables. It's a system that is pre-integrated.

With EZ products, you are integrating NON-system products to work together as a SYSTEM. Although EZ products are quite good, the overall system is dependent on 1) the quality of the tools PLUS the guides and 2) how well your tools + EZ guides work together as a system. Even if you have a great circular saw that is better than the Festool saw, and even if the EZ guide is better than the Festool guide, the combination of your tool + EZ guide may not work together well.

Bottom line... Do you really like your tools and don't mind integrating with EZ? Yes? Buy EZ. No? Buy Festool.

Regards,

Dan.

I think you have hit the nail right on the head Dan!

I'd like to congratulate Dino, I have the pleasure of knowing him through the WWW, I don't even know the name of the person/persons that own Festool

Cheers!

[Hoa Dinh]

I don't understand the purpose of this thread.

This issue has been beaten to death so many times. There is nothing new.

I can understand if a person asks the question of E vs F because (s)he doesn't know either one (or knows only one) and is trying to make a purchasing decision. Even then, I'm sure someone will say "do a search."

But this is apparently not the case.

We all know that a review in a magazine doesn't mean a whole lot to anyone in either camp and to anyone in no camp.

So, enlighten me please, what's the point?

[Gary Keedwell]

Hao,

Just bringing it to everybody's attention that there is a review in a major publication, is all. There is still many, myself included, that are sitting on the fence. As a publication that specializes in house building, it is interesting to see their perspective. After all , reading this thread is an option ....you don't have to.

Gary K.

[skip coyne]

nothing more than one mans opion

Im to cheap to buy so I sat in Borders books the other day and read it , along with the reveiw of EZ in woodsmith

its intersting that Hartville tools guide is well rated yet hartville is reported to have a good reveiw of the EZ in their latest catalog .

I put a lot more weight to what I read here and in other forums than I do to magazine reveiws

[Burt Waddell]

Congratulations to Festool on being rated "best overall".

Who was rated as having "best anti chip protection" which translates to me to be best cut?

Another interesting point is this was a review covering only a limited set of features that all the guides in the test had. It ignored all the features that set the different guide rails apart.

Dan's Essay on the "System" really doesn't fit in the scope of the article.

Has Woodsmith done a review of Festool? Wonder what the results would be if they did.

[Al Willits]

Hoa, a search doesn't always mean you'll get what your looking for.
I've gotten a lot of info from searching, and couldn't find other info I was looking for, maybe not "search" educated or? but either way, I enjoy seeing posts like this....

I think its sometimes easy to forget, that every now and then some newbie like me comes along, and can't find all the info he needs.
I/we will enjoy them oft repeated posts, as we're seeing them for the first time, and thank the rest for just putting up with us newbies....

btw, I've talked to Dino also, and hopefully by Friday or next Monday I'll have the funds for a EZ smart system, was a pleasure to deal with him....even if he doesn't speak Scandihovien...

Al

[Burt Waddell]

From Fine Home building:

Best anti-chip protection? EZ.

Full page ad? The best overall.

Summary From Woodsmith (No ads):
This innovative guide system turns your circular saw into a precision tool for cutting sheet stock.

...At first glance, the ez smart looks like a lot of other straightedge saw guides on the market. But there are some key differences in how the Ez Smart works.

...All this features are great,but what makes the EZ Smart really stand out are the accessories available for it.

...After taking a look at these, you quickly realise that this isn't just a saw guide---it's a precision cutting system for the circular saw.

...Repeaters-Square-SRK

...These accessories allow you to use it for cutting parts to length, squaring up panels, or routing joinery.

[Bob Marino]

[quote=Burt Waddell]From Fine Home building:

Best anti-chip protection? EZ.

Full page ad? The best overall.

Burt,

I generally stay out of these Festool - EZ posts (as I think all people affiliated with these companies should, but that's me). And it takes much to get an editorial type response/comment from me. However, your implication that because Festool has a full page ad in FWW, they got top honors and Best Overall is highly insulting - and I'm afraid, speaks more of you than of either FWW or Festool.
Bob

[Burt Waddell]

Bob,

I should have been more specific with that comment. The punctuation didn't work as intended. I always find it interesting when a tool rated as "Best, tops or whatever the best rating is" has a full page ad in the edition of the magazine with that rating. I was not trying to say that the rating was less than honest but it sure could make you wonder.

Burt