Educational Festool saw review

[durbien]

Well, I have to say your teardown and critique of the Festool router kind of put me off them.

The Mafell rail system seems to make much more sense, but again, $$. (Though the Bosch is identical save the branding)

I suppose this is the "power tool culture" that Chris Schwarz was railing against - pretty much all power tools will crap out eventually, whereas good hand tools can be a joy for generations. No one's building a house with hand tools, though.

[Brian]

I went with all hand tools because my budget is for professional hand tools and hobbyist power tools. Hobbyist power tools drive me a bit crazy with inaccuracy issues Chris mentioned. hobbyist tool suppliers seem to always direct everyone to the new 'best thing' but they never really wind up all that well sorted out in my eyes since they must make compromises to meet the hobby consumers price point.

[patoriku]

Bit late to the party here but I have seen the review and what was said didn't surprise me. There are people on the FOG who would buy a turd if it had the festool name on it. The MUF on the other hand seems to be open to criticism of the tools and a lot less worship of the brand.

I had a ts55. It was okay but nothing earth shattering. The plugit cord is a good idea but it never locked that solidly on my one.

I have the makita tracksaw and it's about the same as the 55 but cheaper.

I'm looking to get rid of the mak and get a mafell but I'll probably have one shipped over from Europe as the only dealer in the US wants both arms and a leg for one. I've never really understood why they don't have a dealer network here.

From observation, I would always give the nod to mafell over festool. Mafell are made for pro use whereas festool's pro range are called oddly enough protool.

What annoys me the most about mafell or festool is the corporate pricing thing and that no one is to discount costs.