I drank the green koolaid

[John Piwaron]

And it's good.

I have and have used dust collection adaptors under my Bosch router. The router works well. The dust collection doesn't.

Fast forward to my new Festool OF 2200. It's power and accuracy are great. I initially used it to plunge 20 very deep mortises. Some time later, I need do some edge work. Yeah, a behemoth like the OF 2200 is overkill, but what the heck. I'll use it. In fact, I'll try that lame dust collection doohickey they included with it. I have low expectations. It's an included accessory. I'm thinking it's like buying a 19 piece drill index where the box and the packing peanuts with it are part of the piece count. Just something to throw in and make me think I got a lot of stuff.

Wrong! It works! I was surprised. To say the least. With the clear plastic "skirt" lowered in place, the dust collection thing on and the vac connected, it got it all. No mess at all to deal with. Wow!

Tools that work. Who'd a thought?

[Mike Cutler]

John

Congrat's.
I have that same router and it's a winner, hands down. I have zero buyers remorse over my purchase of the OF 2200.
I kept anticipating it getting out of control on light stuff, but it's so well balanced that it just kind of floats along. It really is made for hand work.
I thought that little dust shroud would be kinda gimmicky too. But on edge work, it works as advertised.

[Larry Frank]

I think that one of the strong points of the Festool line is the dust collection. Every Festool that I have used with their dust extractors has worked amazingly good.

[Keith Hankins]

You won't be sorry. I've got a lot of green and not a bad one in the bunch.

[John Piwaron]

The OF 2200's performance is encouraging me to buy it's next smaller kin. Dust collection is why. The fact that the machine is also an excellent performer in all it's other features doesn't hurt either. I think Festool could eventually leave their competition in the dust, so to speak.

[Matt Meiser]

The 1400 is my primary handheld router. I do use my little Dewalt for shelf pin holes because its light, but the 1400 is just a joy to use. I just used it last week to rabbet a mirror frame and that made a small mess with half the bit exposed and no ability to use the shield they provide for that type of cut, but still no where near what I would have gotten with another router.

[John Piwaron]

Yup, yup, good tools. I don't want to look a fanboy, I'm simply impressed with their outstanding function. But, there have been/are issues. My dust extractor stopped extracting without a kick. Festool took it back immediately and replaced the motor. I sent it and had it back within a week. I recognized the problem as a dead bar on the commutator. That happens. I have one of their sanders with missing labels. :) I guess someone was so excited to put in the box that the labels got overlooked. I haven't called about that 'cause I don't care about labels. I *do* care that it works better than any of my P-C sanders even with dust extraction attached to them.

Festool, performance wise, is eating every other manufacturers lunch. When are the other guys going to step up their game?