Festool because...

[Rod]

... you have to fess up the new tool you just bought ... :-)

(According to partner on seeing them for the first time at Isaac Lord this afternoon.)

[Steve Walker]

Not if you smuggle it into the house and knock it around a bit before it's identified by Border Control. Then you just insist you got it ages ago off eBay, dead cheap, and it's been indispensable for several of the jobs she recently made you do.

[Rod]

OMG - what will happen when RFID tags are on everything? Smuggling in might become much more difficult... :-)

[Andy Hall]

You need to make sure that you have a fitted cricket box if you want to try this line.

Besides, deliberately spoiling a Festool product is not the thing.

[Andy Hall]

There are less expensive places than Isaac Lord, however you have to go a long way to get a better customer ethic than from the guys at their trade counter. Even if you don't really know what you want because you are not in the trade, they will help. They will even offer a discount card on a first purchase, and there are none of the sharp intake of breath games. I'm *really* picky about good service, and I can't fault them in any way at all.

Which Festool product were you looking to buy? Whichever one it is, I can help you to justify it.

[Andy Hall]

RFID tags are to stop people from stealing packs of Penguin bars from Lidl.

You are moving in a different world now,

[Rod]

I bought some screws there the other day - asked for fifty - got given a bag of 100 and still under £2-00. If I had bought at a shed they would have been that for a dozen. Yes - they are helpful.

But can you help pay? :-) The thing I actually want now-ish is a jigsaw. But I simply cannot justify it to myself. I want it to make a curved top to a bit of new fencing.

I was actually buying some of their PVA glue (not pound shop stuff :-) ) at £3-74 a Kg.

[Steve Walker]

No Rod, you *need* it to make a curved top to a bit of new fencing.

[dom]

I think it takes quite an educated eye to spot that Festool are expensive. A casual glance at the lime green fittings and you could pass it off as supermarket special.

[Rod]

Not a chance!

[Clot]

Singular curved top or several? ;)

"That's solid timber that's going to last. If I buy a cheap jigsaw, I doubt it will do the job. I might have to buy a second one." ;)

[Rod]

Might be some mileage there. I did the original fence with a (very) cheap Screwfix router - not ideal but it worked. Then its bearings came apart and that was it - dead. So there is precedent...

(Damn - reminds me I want a 1/4 inch router as well.)

[Andy Hall]

Ah. OK.

For a jigsaw, you would not be disappointed with a Bosch GST series. These are in the £120-140 bracket vs the Festool £190-220 range.

If you have been using a wandering BD £40 job and wondering why you ever bought it, then the Bosch will restore your faith in tool manufacturers.

Either way, you could have bought a spindle moulder to do the mouldings, and in comparison you will have saved a lot of money.

Women understand this concept. They save you a lot of money in the January sales.

[Andy Hall]

Thy are not expensive as a manufacturer, but are good value for money.

Take a look. Touch. Feel. Use. You won't have the same opinion then if you are honest.

[Andy Hall]

You could buy the Festool.

OTOH, for a respectable router range, the DW 625 and equivalents is to the woodworking world as Ratzinger is to Catholics.

[dom]

Oh I know how good they are - used the circular saws. But compare the styling with something like Lamello - the latter *look* very expensive even to the casual observer.

[The Medway Handyman]

Makita 4350 takes some beating

> If you have been using a wandering BD £40 job and wondering why you

So will the Makita :-)

[Andy Hall]

I know what you mean.

Lamello is Swiss precision with lots of controls for each function. You can feel how the detents work. Turn them back to the same position and you will get a cut with repeatability that can be measured to

0.05mm. For precise biscuit joints, there is nothing in the world to touch it.

Festool is more German minimalist, but don't be fooled. It's like the BMW with very little inside vs. the Lexus with "everything"

Either way, the target audience is not the casual observer....

[John Rumm]

Yup another vote for that from me. Definitely a "smile tool" cos that is what it leaves on your face everytime you use it.

[Ian White]

That's why we keep you around, Andy :-)