Hey All, I stopped in my local (Baltimore) Woodcraft today and noticed that all of the Festool items had their price obliterated. When I asked if this was in anticipation of the March 1 price increase the sales dude told me no, it was a Festool policy not to display their prices. He related to me that there was one Festool vendor that had its "license" to sell Festool revoked because they displayed prices. He was not sure if that was another Woodcraft or a more independent vendor. The new Festool catalogue is also devoid of prices. This makes sense since they won't have "out of date" catalogues when they raise prices again but if the vendors can't display prices on the floor it will require potential customers to interact with the store staff (which may or may not be a desireable task). I do not know if this is national policy or if it is just limited to Woodfcraft, or if it is just the Woodcrafts owned by the local franchiser, but it seems counter productive to me. It disrupts my eagerness to buy stuff if I have to ask prices each time I contemplate buying something. I really doubt this is a nationwwide policy but maybe it is Festool's version of buying a yacht; If you have to ask how much it is, you really can't afford it. On a slightly different note I'm not that excited about the Rotex
- Unless you really need a small diameter sander the larger Festools appear to have better balance. I have a Rotex 150 and it is very easy to keep the pad flat when only holding the barrel . The 90 feels barrel heavy and I think you'd need to hold down on the head as well as the barrel. Still, maybe some day I will "need" that 3+ inch diameter pad for sanding something. If you are a Festool junkie I think you'll also be happy seeing the new catalogue. There are a couple new battery jigsaws and some new battery drills including an 18 volt. That's got to be an expensive drill based on their other models. Not much else to dwell on so I'll head back down to my shop. Hope you all have a productive - and safe - weekend in your shop too. Marc