Are Festool Router (and tools) really worth the money?

[matt scarlett]

Dremel went from German made to south american.... I have a german one and its been abused like you wouldnt believe and its still fine, suffice to say I know folks with south american ones which havent lasted beyong the first few months of similar abuse

Unlike Festool, Dremel seem to have varying success.

But so far I've been going buy the likes of Amazon reviews, never occurred to me to join a forum and ask.

 

[Emanuel]

buy cheap buy twice. I've looked at the likes of your £100 routers from Hitachi and Black & Decker, but do you think it'll be a good investment, or am i shooting for the stars. I've also looked at Makita and Dewalt around the £300 mark, but i've seen a few 1 star comments for Dewalt, which surprised me.

That's the way I usually go as well when I am buying something that I don't have much experience with.
Get a cheaper one for now and see how it goes. You might even get lucky and it will last you more than a more expensive one would.
After you get some more experience, you can decide if it's worthwhile spending three times the amount for a Dewalt.

 

[matt scarlett]

That Titan Router didn't last very long. Again I know it was second hand from cash converters, but I did have more than one scary moment with it. In the end I had to get rid. The thing is, most of the time i'm either going to be ripping or gluing/clamping. The router is going to be used for cutting the speaker/subwoofer mounting hole and adding round-over finishes to the enclosures.

There again maybe i'm looking at this with a narrow view. Maybe there will be other projects i want to do other than speaker/sub builds that will require more time with a router.

 

[Sawyer]

Cost saving can do that. They were always proud to be made in Germany, not so now I guess is the point, but they're all at it so take your pick.

A bit like 'Metabo - Made in Germany' which suddenly became;
'Metabo - work don't play'

I don't know what the quality has been like ever since, although I'm sure somebody can elucidate....

 

[matt scarlett]

I'm not saying that quality has gone down, or the Czech workforce or engineering is sub-standard, but IME, and in face of most outsourced components being manufactured in the Far East, it's hard to say that there aren't any benefits to looking for competitive prices, and i'm as patriotic as the next person in wanting to keep the UK's manufacturing alive.

But when companies go cheap, cheaper and cheaper still and simply to maximize profits, then corners ARE cut and many a time it adds up to a product that is no longer what it was, with the company trying to convince that somehow it's for the development of said product, better more efficient etc, etc.

Off topic, i'm trying to argue that point with the new Porsche 718 and it's hideous sounding four pot engine. If Porsche has the capability to engineer a new turbo charged four pot engine, then surely they could have revised or engineered a new six pot? Cutting corners!