Festool: Time for a dumb question?

[Dev Emch]

O.K. This time I need to ask and then sit back and learn. Time to get iducaateeddd a bit.

I saw a post about the Festool "SYSTAINERS". What caught my attention was that folks might be able to live without heavy iron using this system. Sooooo, what exactly are Festool "SYSTAINERS" and why are they such a rave these days? How does this all work? Sorry to dig up what may be an old horse here. T-I-A

[Jason Tuinstra]

Dev, systainers are the containers that store the various festool tools. They are part of an overall system that allows you to stack your tools and keep them organized. They have systainers for other reasons than just storing your tools. Not having any systainers (yet), I'll let others comment on how they use them for other purposes.

[Cecil Arnold]

I'll be steping on someone's toes with this, but here goes. The Festools are some really good, well engineered and built hand power tools that work in a system. You may have seen the guides that are useable with the saw and router, which can be substituted for a TS. The vacuum is efficient and can be interconnected with the tools to do a good job of holding down dust. All this iron comes packaged in some rather diecent plastic boxes that are engineered to be stacked and locked together. You can stack your saw and router and various other toys on top of the vacuum and pull the assembly along to the job. When you return to your shop, they even have a (Master systaner) type of parking farage for all the individual boxes so everything doesn't have to stay stacked on top of the vac. IMHO while the festool line is a very good set of tools--better in fact than any of the current line of Bosch, PC, etc--they CAN NOT replace heavy iron. They are great for field construction and are inheriently more accurate than the tools we are used to. You can build good on site cabs, trim, just about anything with them. If you move beyond sheet goods and S4S face frames, you're going to need heavy iron.

Now, since you asked, I think it would behove the JETs, Deltas, etc, to spool up the engineering departments and give the serious woodworker some better heavy iron to include reeving knives, better blade guards, sliding tables, affordable/better dust collection, and even something like saw stop. Who would have thought the numbers would be there for Mini Max, Robland, and even Felder and Hammer. Just a thought.

[Scott Parks]

Go to the Festool website and order their free catalog. After drooling through the catalog for a while, I became a believer!:D (of coarse my credit card isn't ready for serious damage yet:()

[Ian Barley]

Festool makes a high quality engineered line of tools which are designed to work together as a system. They include a good quality engineered container with each tool.

They have been popular in europe for years with site tradesmen. They offer ways to work which mean that things can be accomplished on site which would previously have required a joinery shop. Ripping long boards accurately etc.

In recent years they have become more popular with serious hobbyists as the tools are almost universally pleasnat to use and the site type capabilities also lend themselves to situations where folk are trying to get the most use out of a limited and sometimes temporary space.

In a professional workshop they have a serious place but are not likely to replace stationary single purpose machines in many production environments.

[Frank Pellow]

In Europe, lot of tool manuafactures, provide systainer cases for their tools. And they are all manufactured by one company (an affiliate of Festool) so they can all be interconnected.

Here, in North America, only some German importers (such as Festool and Mafell) appear to, but I have gotten around that problem and have a systainer for my DeWalt drill -see the picture with post #13 in the thread: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=20251

[Christian Aufreiter]

Hi Dev,

Systainer stands for SYStem conTAINER.
Basically, there are three types of stackable Systainers:
- (classic) Systainer: Dimensions: (LxWxH) : 395 x 295 x 105/157.5/210/315 mm
The height varies as a cordless drill is a lot smaller than a circular saw.
- Sortainer: Dimensions (LxWxH) : 395 x 295 x 210 mm. Sortainers are Systainers with drawers.
- Maxisystainer: Dimension: (LxWxH) : 590 x 390 x 210

All those "boxes" (Systainers, Sortainers and Maxisystainers) are stackable.

And then there’s the Minisystainer that is not stackable with the other Systainers, its dimensions are (LxWxH) : 265 x 170 x 70 mm.

As far as I know, all Systainers are made by Tanos, one of Festool’s sister companies.

There are even cabinets (called Systainer Ports) and carts for the Systainers.

I really like those Systainers because they offer enough space for tools, the cord and a few accessories, they are pretty durable and IMO it’s a lot easier to store and transport them compared to common tool cases.

I’d recommend to check out Bob Marino's website (http://festool.safeshopper.com/) in order to find out more.

Hope this helps,

Christian

[Tim Sproul]

Being relatively new to Festool and systainers....they are ok for the shop. More of a "nice to have" type of thing. If you install or do work on-site....systainer system is really nice. Since the containers stack AND lock together, it is much easier to move A LOT, if not all, your tools and supplies from the vehicle to the jobsite. Even if you don't put them on wheels.....you can lock several tools together and not worry about cases sliding all over as you hump the tools around. I kinda wish they'd put labels of the tools on all four sides.............

The CT22 and CT32 will accept systainers so those are the vacuums to get if you install.....the mini isn't large enough to accept systainers. Festool also sells a "mobile base" type of thing that will accept and lock in systainers if you have too many for a vacuum or for shop use.

[Bob Marino]

The CT22 and CT32 will accept systainers so those are the vacuums to get if you install.....the mini isn't large enough to accept systainers.

Small correction, Tim. The MINI will accept the systainers.

Bob

[Tim Sproul]

The CT22 and CT32 will accept systainers so those are the vacuums to get if you install.....the mini isn't large enough to accept systainers.

Small correction, Tim. The MINI will accept the systainers.

Bob

<scratches head with perplexed crossing of eyes>

I'd take Bob's description without any grain(s) of salt. Mine on the other hand....... :D