------------------------------------------------------------------ Bearings are selected based on cost, not necessarily engineering parameters.
The higher the volume, the lower the cost. There are more basic
203 ball bearings manufactured that ALL the rest of the ball bearings combined.
As a result, it is the lowest cost bearing made and often gets applied in an over engineered applications where a smaller bearing could be used but it would cost more.
Fractional HP motors, alternators, forgot how many are in the modern tranny.
It has a 0.669 bore which makes it easy to provide a 5/8" shaft.
You know, absolutely not. I have only used it on the track and that greatly reduces the chance of kick back. That fact along with the fact that it has a riving knife/splitter that plunges down as you plunge the blade, no pinching the blade. That said if you must prevent the saw from moving backwards there is a shoe on board that mounts to the track, it prevents the saw from moving backwards as you plunge into the surface of the wood. This is handy when starting a cut from sonewhere other than the edge/outside of the board/panel.
I used to subscribe to that ideal, I created mountains of saw dust. Now days with the Festool vac and my DC I have very little that gets away. The beauty is that I don't have to chance clothes every time I stop to go inside to eat. And or I don't have to worry about tracking dust into the house. Or.....have as many allergy problems. It's nice staying relatively clean.
Well you know what they say about the internet. If it is there it has to be true. BonJour.
Don't get me wrong, a Honda engine would always be a perk but not all Honda engines are created equal these days.
Yeah I forgot to mention that. I might suggest adding "Stabil" or another gasoline stabilizer. while I never had a problem with my Honda the additive worked wonders for my fathers Honda. The dealer recommended it since alcohol is likely to be in the gas and that attracts water. Relative inexpensive and good insurance against bad gas or gas that might go bad.
The _true value_ of any equipment/tool used in business is it's cost effectiveness.
Bought first Festool (starting with a TS-75) in 2009, and collectively they have played a big part in well over $300k in sales in just the shop/cabinetry part of my business alone during that period ... making them the most _cost effective_ brand of tools I've ever owned.
My wife bought me a wet/dry Shop Vac around 1976. That thing got a lot of use, and still works the same as the day I got it. The problem with that thing is it makes your ears bleed. It's the _only_ tool I wear ear muffs with, that includes chainsaws, air hammers and routers.
Last Christmas My kids got me a new Ridged 6 amp 14 gal model for Xmas. It was around $100, I don't need ear muffs with it at all and if it sucked any harder it would be hard to use. It came with a bunch of attachments, and all my old 2 1/2" hoses/attachments fit it perfectly.
I could buy 6 of them for the cost of one Festool. If it lasts as long as the shop vac, that would be 6 times 40 years. The only feature I wished it had was a auto wind for the cord, like my wife's Hoover has. That would make it perfect.
I worked in an office and used the janitors vacuum once to clean something I spilt. This thing was beat up to hell and back, cleaning many thousands of square feet a day for years. I was amazed at how this thing cleaned, and was super easy to push around. It was jaw dropping. Anyway, I don't recall the name, but at the time, I looked it up and the price was also jaw dropping, so my wife was stuck with the Hoover.:-)
Yeah the Ricar is north of $1000 now. I'm glad ours still works well although for the past 8 years we have been using a Roomba vac. It vacuums 5 days a week every week on the entire down stairs in the new house. My wife uses the Ricar in a single carpeted room up stairs.
I've never had a problem with cheap mowers motors. I have had problems with the rest of the mower however. The frames rust out, the wheels fall apart, but the motors work. I'm on my second lawn mower since getting married, 40 years ago.
The first one. a $75 Murray with a Briggs engine, the frame rusted out, the second also a Briggs engine, is still working fine, I had to fix the wheels on it, but it starts on first/second pull.
No. I'm saying that some products are marketed as high priced products. Some, particularly hobbyists, don't mind paying $650 for a shop vac, and in fact, many insist on having the most expensive product made. Festool, imo, is aiming directly at that market, and the fact Festool doesn't allow their stuff to be discounted by the retailer fits that model.
It's not that their stuff isn't good, it certainly _should_ be, but, again, imo, the difference between a quality saw, vacuum, drill and the price Festool charges is insane. Tradesmen generally don't buy festool stuff either, not because it's not quality, but because it costs too much, and they can get more bang for the buck with good quality stuff that costs considerably less, particularly if they are not the only guy using the tools.
When I am working at a homeowner's house that is a hobby guy, they are in o ne of two camps. They either have really cheap tools, if any, or they are collectors that enjoy using really expensive tools. Nothing wrong with tha t.
But in business, I find it best to fit the tool to the job. If it is a too l that I will use a lot and demands a certain level of performance, I will pay to get what I want. About 18 years ago I bought a DeWalt 10" miter saw and paid $225 for it. Competing saws of lesser quality were around $100 le ss (remember how long ago this was). So why the DeWalt? More adjustments to get it tuned to a perfect cut, and a better build quality than most, and a bigger motor. The key seller was the movable, hardened stainless steel miter detent ring which allowed me to tune the saw to the last hair.
Just last month, the saw handle broke. The rest of the saw is fine, but the replacement handle is about 25% of the cost of a new saw. Strangely, this saw can be had for about the same price these days as it was so long ago. When it broke, I sat and thought how many thousands of feet of molding it has cut, how many jobs it had been to, and how many times it had been used work other than trim. So with almost 20 years under its belt (I will find a way to fix the handle)paying almost double for that saw seems a wise choi ce.
Same with my old Makita 14.4 drill that I use to hang cabinets or do anythi ng else that requires a lot of driving power. I paid about $300 for that d rill with two batteries around 20 years ago. It has helical cut bronze gea rs in the transfer case, carbide lined chuck jaws, and as the Hitachi rep t old me at the time, their best "super duty" trigger. To this day, when I n eed to rely on drive power and performance I take that drill to the job and put it back to work.
The other side of the coin is that I have now joined the Ryobi nation. I b ought a tool bag full of tools and for my small repairs I have been delight ed with my purchase. For $125 bucks at the sale you got a drill (good dril l!), light, recip saw, and circular saw. The batteries that came with it a ren't very good, but my electrician tipped me that at Christmas time and ar ound Father's Day they have their best battery at 2 for 1 pricing. So now I have the set with 4 batteries for $225.
First project for the set: cut hole in roof of a house to run bathroom vent ing out of the attic to bring it up to city code. Used the flashlight in t he attic to locate the area. Used the drill to punch a small locator hole in the roof (from inside the attic) between the rafters. Got on the roof, and drilled a larger hole to fit the recip saw blade into. Used the recip saw to cut the round hole. Mounted the vent pipe, took the flashlight in t he attic with the drill and attached the flex to the pipe jack. I had every thing I needed in the bag.
I was pretty happy with that. I will get $225 of utility out of that set. That being said, I haven't used the flashlight since, the recip saw only a couple of times, and the circular saw about once a week on a jo b.
Those tools will never replace my Makita 14.4 drill, my wayyy too expensive Makita circular saw (never goes to the job and only I use it), nor other t ools like them such my favorite routers.
Agreeing with you Karl, finding he exact fit of price/utility/performance i s the real key to what a tool is worth. Excepting you and Leon whom I know both use your Festool(s)extensively and constantly, I know of no one else that does. How can people blather on about the >>value
Yeah, it's around $3.40 a gallon around here. I buy it, when it's convenient but I haven't had trouble with "old" gas since they improved the supply system a decade or so back. I never do anything special to the gas, other than dumping what's left in the gas can into my car at the end of the season.
No, stuff sells for what it's worth. It really is that simple. If you don't believe that, you need to go back to Economics 101.
Your opinion is wrong, of course. I may have a few Festools but it's not because they're expensive. Most users are *not* hobbyists. Clearly if they were meant for hobbyists there wouldn't be the big emphasis on the Systainer system. They're just another case to me, and not as good as a good blow-mold case at that.
Since you've never used Festools, your opinion isn't worth more than the hot air it is. The fact is that you're wrong.
On Friday, September 18, 2015 at 11:51:28 AM UTC-5, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote :
he replacement handle is about 25% of the cost of a new saw.
Can you repair or make a new handle? Or want to spend the time trying?
A possible option: I often try to repair stuff, so just a thought.... Would fiber glass work for the repair? There is fiber glass wrap, for making casts for broken li mbs and such. Seems, if your handle is similar to a child's small arm, re pairing it may be similar to applying a cast to a child's small arm.... wit h a splint/metal rod inserted inside the wrapping, if need be?).
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You simply dip the roll in water, to activate it, slightly wringing the exc ess water out, and wrap, forming whatever contour, etc, to whatever shape you need. It's very easy. You can easily cut it with scissors, to stop a nd restart any wrapping, if need be.
You may not be able to purchase the rolls directly from a medical supply ou tlet, but maybe you can. You'd probably have to purchase a box of 10-12, rather than one or two rolls. Maybe your local orthopedist would sell you two 3" rolls. I would suppose 2 rolls would be enough. I see online pri ces are much lower than med supply outlets. An orthopedist may charge up to 10X the online rate.
Gee Karl, only 300 K worth of hobby cabinets? You are obviously a hobbyist and amateur. If you were a true professional, you would save up your money and buy the good stuff. ;)
There are a lot of folks who just don't understand economics, tools or appropriate technology. I work with some special computers that are only built in about 4 or five shops in the US. And it takes three to four weeks to get one built and shipped to you. And they only run a few programs. And yes, they are expensive.
But the interesting thing is that there are local shops that will build you a monster machine that costs twice as much. And they won't be as stable, or as fast and will burn out quite rapidly in use. Because throwing money at it doesn't get the job done. Due to some unique demands, that increase every year, not a lot of machines can keep up. The key is not the money spent or expensive components. The key is building a machine optimized for a certain function.
Price is not the only issue. IS IT THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB??? People who work in the real world, solving real problems, spending their own money don't have any problems making appropriate decisions in this area.
Besides, it takes a certain kind of person to whine about tools or somebody else's choice of tool. I have always admired good tools. I have always admired true craftsman. I don't have any problem figuring out whose opinions I respect and those opinions I disregard.
Ya know, the more you guys speak of, not just Festool, but their track saw, the more I think I'd benefit with one. Aside, I suppose I've made my sha re of snide remarks, jokingly, relating to Festool.
I often use a circular saw and there are times I wish I had something more convenient for a better job, a better cutting method, more accuracy, etc., especially with the work at the farm. I can't conveniently bring a table saw to the farm, and I'm becoming more convinced the track saw would do won ders for the ongoing work, there. A circular saw is not always the best s aw for applications, there, and $750 is economical, in all respects, for th e farm application. I'd probably leave it there, permanently.
My only hesitancy is with others not taking good care of the tools, as I ta ke care of them. If I'm not there to watch over them, they'll abuse stuff .... *if and when they decide to try to do something productive, **for a ch ange.
More rant: A set of decent saw horses, at the farm, would do wonders, also , and I'm sure would accommodate a track saw. The present saw horses were made by a nephew and are pitifully inadequate: Poor construction and 20" tall. What was he thinking?!! Sometimes, the woodworking sense, I try t o instill in them, just doesn't seem to be getting through. But, at least his efforts were a try, at saw horseing.
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