Festool

S7910

So 8 pallets of Festool showed up at work earlier this week and got set up yesterday for Festool Friday. I'm now looking at special ordering one of their router tables, and picking up a few odds and ends. As far as the router table goes, does anyone know if it will only mount a Festool router or will it accept pretty much anything? I already own an old skool Craftsman and a Hitachi, so I'd prefer not to have to get another router unless I absolutely have to.

D1PP1N

I didnt realize they had one. I am going to just make a router table to fit a few routers in place. 

R-Carpenter

Some of the routers work well in the router tables, other's don't. I had a Bosh 3hp router that didn't last long at  all and 3.5hp Porter that lasted many years.

Wolf

My Triton 3.25HP is still going strong in my Wolfcraft table.

MartyH

My two Craftsman routers are about 15-20 years old and still running like a champ(s).

D1PP1N

Damn $1700! Thats alot of chedda!

S7910

Thanks for the responses guys.

Mike: I agree. It's the only one I've seen so far that has all of the features I'm looking for. It's also something I only want to have to buy once.

Ben: Thanks for the heads up on the Wolfcraft table. I have some of their other tools and really like them. I'll have to look that one up.

Marty: Thanks for corroborating the longevity of older Craftsman tools.

D1PP1N

More options, they have a pretty sweet heavy duty sliding one for $600 without the router. 

https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/routertable.html

jhollander

I bought a new Crapsmen 2 hp plunge router a few years ago.  The thing would never plunge straight.  I bought a Dewalt plunge and it was so sweet I nearly pitched the Crapsman.  I ended up making a homemade lift, sawed the handles off the Crapsmen and mounted it in a grizzly router table.  The grizzly is "meh" but cheap enough I don't mind modifying with wheels, shelf, and cardboard dust collection.

D1PP1N

My neighbor bought an mft table its a nice unit for crosscuting and clamping but its kinda rickety like it can flex a good amount. It is meant for a contractor and its portable but it but just seemed the legs flexed. He didnt buy the leg support kit that is like $150 more. He also spent so much he frequently borrows my makita tracks for his cuts because the festool one is like $280 for the 8ft one. 

I had 2 craftsman that i really disliked and gave away. My bosch has been going good for 4 years. The harbor freight porter cable fixed base is a good candidate for a cheap router table. The hitachi is great and quiet. Been using the hitachi on my cnc for about a year straight with no problems. 

R-Carpenter

Thought occurred.

Shaper?

Even a small sharper is miles better than a router table.

And a big one will spin scary tooling. Or custom knifes.

D1PP1N

I could probably use a shaper. I want to make a bunch of trim for my house and one with auto feed would be quite nice to have!

Wolf

Shaper tables.... drool....

S7910

D1PP1N said:

More options, they have a pretty sweet heavy duty sliding one for $600 without the router. 

https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/routertable.html

Thanks for the link, Mike. I really like the look of the "Precision" table and it looks like I can use either of the routers I already have.

S7910

R-Carpenter said:

Thought occurred.

Shaper?

Even a small sharper is miles better than a router table.

And a big one will spin scary tooling. Or custom knifes.

So tempting and yet so overkill ... I like it!

R-Carpenter

S7910 said:

So tempting and yet so overkill ... I like it!

Well, mine is 5hp, 3ph and I run big stuff through it. Power is very important. For a corner in the garage a horse and a half shaper will be way better than a router. Smoother, higher torque. Less burn. You can still use router bits in it (mine has a spindle for router bits as well) but also add option for more serious tooling.

Anyway, just a thought.

PWRRYD

R-Carpenter said:y

S7910 said:

So tempting and yet so overkill ... I like it!

Well, mine is 5hp, 3ph and I run big stuff through it. Power is very important. For a corner in the garage a horse and a half shaper will be way better than a router. Smoother, higher torque. Less burn. You can still use router bits in it (mine has a spindle for router bits as well) but also add option for more serious tooling.

Anyway, just a thought.

Dayum!!!!

6thplanet

I was always told router bits can't be used in shapers as they spin the opposite direction.

S7910

6thplanet said:

I was always told router bits can't be used in shapers as they spin the opposite direction.

Interesting. I've talked to a couple places locally (before seeing this) and the consensus was that the RPM difference would make a minor impact on quality if feeding material past a router bit in a shaper table, and only when feeding the material too quickly. The couple shaper tables I looked at all had a "Forward - Off - Reverse" switch or knob for the motor turning the bit, so I'm not sure if the spin direction argument really holds that much water.

Roman: Hypothetically speaking, would a preowned vintage (looks to be from the 1970s or so) Craftsman 1/2 horse shaper table be a worthwhile investment at $250 or would that be considered a little underpowered? I'm toying with the idea of getting both a router table and a shaper table, I'll just need to go preowned for one of them.

R-Carpenter

Not sure about .5hp. It depends on the work you are planing to do.

There's no reason to get router table and a shaper but having a router and adding a shaper later is the way to go.

S7910

R-Carpenter said:

Not sure about .5hp. It depends on the work you are planing to do.

That, I guess, is the kicker. The work I plan on maxes out with a .75" round over bit and a flush trim bit. The work I actually do is anyone's guess.

Looking at it that way, it would probably make the most sense to get the router table since I already have the router and bits. I can always upgrade to a shaper table later if the need arises.