Festool, Is it really worth it?

I stumbled upon Festool after spending years making various things from lumber, including speaker boxes, desks, more speaker boxes, an aquarium stand, even more speaker boxes, and a storage organizer for the rear end of a suburban for sport shooting. One day I needed to cut down some 4×8 sheets of MDF into 12″ wide and 8′ long pieces for shelves in my bonus room. I don’t have enough garage space for large tools like table saws so I started researching a better way than; measuring my skill-saw, measuring my wood, placing a straight edge, clamping it down, double checking I would cut on the intended line, fine tuning and finally making a cut while trying to see through the MDF dust cloud and then fining out sometimes the cut was off.

I quickly found the term track saw and 2 options to solve my problem, Dewalt and Festool. Dewalt seemed to pretty much just offer a saw and track and that was about it. Festool had so many options for tracks, saws, vacuums, tables, routers, the list goes on and on but the part that really got my attention is their focus on systems and everything working together. I quickly found out they supposedly had great dust collection (which i never cared about, or so I thought) and a cult-ish following and some haters as with most things.

The problem, it was crazy expensive, especially for a guy that had been living with a $30 skill saw for his adult life. A saw and 55″ track was $550, pure insanity I thought. I just needed to cut a couple of sheets of MDF right, I can make my own Festool like solution. So off I go to my local Lowes and Home Depot to round-up the best version of a skill-saw (or technically circular saw), straight edge, etc. Shortly there after I was the proud owner of a $100 saw that even had a vacuum attachment and measurements to help get the blade line setup for precision.

The weekend rolls around, i setup the saw horses, throw a sheet of MDF up there, whip out my fancy say, duct tape my shop vac into the vacuum port, setup my straight edges and start measuring… How can it be? While I’m catching some of the dust I really haven’t accomplished anything to simplify my rip cuts. After 2-3 cuts I got frustrated, jumped in the truck and went to the local Woodcraft store and plunked down $550 for the TS 55 saw and track and another 9.25% for our hefty sales tax putting me over $600 bucks into a saw and straight edge…”am I crazy?” I thought all the way home.

Once I got home, rigged my shop vac into the TS 55, made the initial cut plastic strip on the track to set the cut line, I went to work.

WOW! It really was as simple as mark the wood, lay down the track, and cut. The cuts were flawless and since i was cutting 8′ boards with a 55″ track i could mark both ends and the middle of the board (no need to draw an 8′ line to cut on) cut half way down, move the track, and keep cutting and still have a straight cut all the way down. It was amazing and after cutting down both boards i barely had to sweep because the dust collection was excellent.

In the end, I was hooked. Now several years, and thousands of dollars later, i have multiple sanders, drills, vacuums, router and table, domino joiner, jigsaw, etc, etc, etc and it all stacks neatly in the container system Festool uses.

I came for the convenience and stayed for the dust collection and systematic approach of everything.

I have just finished an 11′ long custom cabinet/bookshelf/desk setup in my bonus room and built it all including doors and drawers with my Festools

If you value your time and quality results, which I do, then there is no question that there is massive value in Festool. I can spend more time planning, building, and resting and less time trying again because i measured wrong and cleaning up afterwards. I just wish I had these things when I was a teenager starting to build speaker boxes and everything that followed.

If you are interested in my collection below are some of the main components I use