I drove up from Chester this morning, the wife came with me :roll:
I was like a big kid all the way there, when I saw it off the road I had a dry mouth, outside was a working demo ( if reqd ) of al the Festools, and when I got in the door, it was like the advert for Disneyland, when the parents say "Were not even in yet" as the kids are dumbfounded.
And that was it..........I had it in my head that it would be packed with machinery, their was a fair bit off stuff out, but it just seemed like an awfull lot of space in between displays ?
What really shocked me were the physical sizes of some of my wanted list, Sjobergs Benches at the front door looked like they belong in a wendy house, I always imagined them to be huge, the Axi Planer/Thicknesser AW106PT was much smaller than I thought, and the Axi thicknesser CT 330 was massive., I had a lok at the Dewalt 733 ( I like this ) and a drill press ND 71, and the cheapest bandsaw.
The castings on some of it wasn't great, but nothing a touch up with a file wouldn't cure, all the Jet stuff was out, and I wasn't impressed with the TS 200 saw.
I've only ever seen them in the catalogue, so it was a good lesson learned. It was nice to see it in the flesh, and I have a better idea of what will fit in ay home, but it just seemed to lack any excitement, Ii was expecting to have goodies thrown at me and some opening day discounts, which brings me to my next point.
I overheard a sales guy say "spend over £100 and get £10 off" only after I was 3 miles into the journey home, I realised we hadn't got it ? my wife ( bless her ) bought me a Veritas LA Block plane, which incidentally is down to £99 I got 2 other items as well, payed for it myself and didn't even think about the £10 off :x did anyone else know about the discount ?
I got a chance to see my potential purchases ( January sales ) but left a little unhapy that it wasn't a bit more fun.
I would suggest uttilising the space better, their's loads of room for more stuff, and as suggested a try before you buy area for the more popular items. ( but it was day one, and that may be the plan anyway )
If you like Festool though ( and I do :wink: ) it's the dogs nuts, still lots going out on display, but it's all there.
I don't see me going again, my dealer in Chester ( Grahams Machinery )has pretty much what I need, and with discounts and freebies, so I'm staying local, if Axminster move a bit more Northerly, I'll give it another go.
Cheers
Jed
Ps That veritas block plane.....................