Got the 1400 and thanks to this review of yours, I will be ordering a 2200, since my 1400 is dedicated to my router table and it seems from your video that I could accomplish many sizable projects with this router without it feeling too cumbersome. You mention the investment in bits versus the quality of the router that spins them...and I couldn't agree with you more! Thanks again Peter
+New Brit Workshop (Peter) Thanks again Peter....I'm really enjoying all of you excellent video reviews of all my favorite products, please keep them coming! Lol
I agree with you Peter on the justification of quality tools. They not only give you pleasure when you turn out quality work, but you avoid the frustration found in lesser quality tools. It's also a time to pass the love of wood work on to some others by passing tools you will no longer be using on.
Hello, Peter, my friend. I was wondering what your thoughts are using this router for inlay work? Or perhaps the 1010 would be easier to maneuver? As there is one used within my circle of region here barely used. Also the lack of LED lighting... All reflections appreciated 😊 Cheers
Hi Jon, For inlay work you do need very tight control of the router and so the smaller, OF1010, is a good choice. I understand that Festool now sell a lighting accessory for the router - I have not seen it or used it. When I do inlay work I mostly use a template that allows me to not only cut the recess (or hole) but also the piece to fit inside. Good luck. Peter
You would have to check the particular router table that you are interested in but most manufacturers make provision for this world beating router. Thanks for watching the video. Peter
@daikuone The OF2200 appears big but it operates so smoothly, has great reserves of power and is easy to handle. I prefer it to both my CMT and Dewalt which are much smaller.
when the bars are locked off they are not level therefore the router does not lay perfectly flat on the workpiece. but if you put a shim on the opposite side of the locking handle for the bars you can get the bars perfectly level which means the router lays flat on the workpiece, and the guide rail adapter lays level on the guide rail.
Thanks for the overview Looks like some nice features for changing accessories. Did you find the weight difficult to handle? I have the 1400 and wonder how the big one is to use handheld.
Hi Peter I have seen a comment saying that engaging the spindle lock whilst the router is running can seriously damage the motor Any thoughts on this? I'm getting a used one and wondered about this issue. Regards Liam
Peter: When I first started getting serious about my woodworking, wanting to better my skills and be all I could be, I looked at the Festool 2200 and said out loud: "There is no way in the world I will EVER spend $845.00 for a router!" Well................I was right...................sort-of. I waited too long and just spent $885.00 on the newest version of this router. As I have become more and more familiar with Festool, and as I have acquired more and more of their equipment, I have grumbled every single time about the price, but have never, EVER been disappointed with their quality, or how well thought out their tools are. As for this router..................I owe it's purchase to you! Your closing comment about how much we as woodworkers spend on bits, (Many thousands of dollars / pounds) it made me realize just how true that is. So, when it came time to augment my already considerable router collection, I didn't hesitate to order the 2200. What an amazing machine, and when coupled with Festool's attachments (such as the guide rail) it completely revolutionizes routing. I can't tell you how many times I have had a router "drift away" from the straight edge I was using, ruining the piece I was working on. Thanks for the great review and thank you for the keen observation about the relative investment between router bits and the cost of a new router.
Hi Terry, The OF2200 is simply amazing and well worth the price. I have recently had a good clear out of damaged, blunt and poor quality router bits from the various drawers and felt quite guilty about the many hundreds of pounds that I had once spent on them. It is significant that the clear out has not made much of a dent on the overall numbers. Thank you for your super comments. Peter
Hi Ralph, Unfortunately not as the router bodies are quite different in size. You only need the fence on one of the routers though - think about it and decide which one. Peter
Hmm, thats a shame but you make a good point. I do have the Makita RP2301 with a fence for 1/2" heavy work requiring a fence as well but then it leaves me wondering if I need this router at all - my problem is that I am a completist and since I already own 2 of the 3 standard routers that Festool offer the lack of this 3rd router constantly nags at me. Stupid I know.
Dr. Ralph Kennedy Hi Ralph, I think that I am exactly the same as you and I would want each router to be complete too. Good luck with the decision. Peter
Literally, just bought one from Axminster - the Festool vouchers also made me up my game so I plunged for the full kit at pennies shy of £900 - meant I would get £100 off instead of the £50 off the basic model - thought it made more sense than nickel and diming myself over the next few months. When I first started woodworking I laughed at the idea I would ever spend £500 on a router and I've just spent almost double that. I have probably spent £3k on routers in my relatively short woodworking "career" and almost all of them have ended up on ebay sold at a loss. Thats why I no longer consider Festool expensive because I have yet to want to part with anything I have ever bought and fully expect to still have them in service 15 years from now. The Trend and Dewalt and Makita routers I have owned are really good tools but ultimately something on each of them frustrated me or was poorly executed. If the OF2200 is as good as the OF1400 or even - my personal favourite the 1010 - then it will have been worth it to have that level of precision at 2.2kw Thanks for taking the time to respond - you probably help sell more gear than you realise.
Hi Ralph, One of the things I remind people, certainly the professionals and it applies to me, is that you always have more money invested in router cutters than you do in routers if you consider the cutters that you buy across the lifetime of the routers. Please could you contact me by Private Message as I would like to ask you a question. To send me a Private Message follow this link: ruclips.net/user/StoneMessage then click "About" followed by "Send Message". Cheers. Peter
You should receive all the parts with the CMS-OF unit for you to install the OF2200. However, you should be aware that for reasons that I do not understand the CMS-OF in North America is not supposed to be used with the OF2200. Festool are quite clear about this and will not support it in any way. Everyone that I have heard about in the US has had all the right kit with the CMS-OF to mount the OF2200. I am surprised that Festool still supply all the parts if it is not allowed to be used in NA. Peter
Hi Peter. Being a new hobby woodworke I recently started equipping a small workshop. Your videos inspire, and I was wondering... I bought primarily Festool including the MFT/3 table. Now I've seen something called Qwas Dogs...would you know where I can buy these in Europe (I'm from Denmark). Any help/comment will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Br. Carsten D.
Hi Carsten, Have you heard of Parf Dogs, designed by me and made under the Veritas name by Lee Valley. They are available from Axminster and Baptist in NL. Many thousands are sold every year and I believe that they might be the most popular 20 mm bench dog. With these you can do all sorts and you then may go on to look at the Parf Guide System which allows you to create near perfect arrays of holes in your custom bench tops. Take a look through my videos or do a Google search. If you want to cut things square then do look at these Parf products. Good luck. Peter
Thank you! And I mean THANK YOU! My bosch router when locked is rocking because it only locks on one column, and I can not use it as a router plane. I really dont want to spend $1000 on a router, but I may have to.
It is amazing how many people come to realise that good tools are worth the investment. My OF2200 is as good now as it was when it was new 11 years ago. Cheers. Peter
A male square will have sharp corners but a female square will have rounded corners the same size as you router cutter. These rounded corners can be squared up by hand. Peter
One problem with this router. When you .ock the bars off the bars do not stay level. With the edge fence it really doesn't matter. But with the guide rail and guide rail fence when you place therouter on the guide rail and put the right base on. The bars tilt the router. So the cut is not 90°. If you shim the bars so the router base sits flat on your work piece. It is like engineering in wood! Try putting the bars in the router. Measure with calipers the gap under the bars. Lock them of. And watch the difference. Put it on the guide rail, and see how it sits on the work piece. So the cut will not be 90° If festool drilled the base for the bars it would be perfect. I used foil from a marvel milk tin to shim the bars and they stay in. The foil is thick and strong enough.
What is it with Festool....... I have the Domino 500 and the air clamp system which are both excellent tools. But why would a tool company sell the router fence as an extra?............A router as an everyday power tool is pretty much useless without a guide fence so the fact that Festool class it as an "optional extra" shows Festool are just profiteering from customers. Just my opinion but apart from the Domino there are plenty of other power tool companies that make similar tools that do the job just as well for far less money. The Festool Kapex is a typical example of an over priced powertool that has less capacity than most but costs far more money to buy. When companies start selling guide fences as extras you know thye are taking the pi$$............
+adie chip Festool tools are not cheap and not everyone (believe it or not) wants a fence with a router. A lot of routers go into tables as well. I suspect the real reason is not to try and make extra money from the customers but to try and reduce the initial cost of the tool. I have probably owned twelve or more routers at various times, maybe more, and none of the cheap and cheerful "supplied" fences were particularly good. I modified most that I owned but have not needed to do that with the Festool ones. Peter
Hi Peter, Appreciate your comments. Having been a Carpenter & Joiner for some 32 yrs I like you have used many different makes of router and as you say the fences can be of dubious quality but the vast majority of routers are not used in tables.Its a bit selling a car and the wheels costing extra. If someone is going to stump up £625+ for the router then including a half decent fence for around £25-00 wouldn't put people off when you consider you can buy a decent TREND T11EK or similar Makita for less than half the price of the Festool Having said all that I do follow your tests with interests.. Regards Adie
Just used my brand new OF 2200 for the first time, light test cut only... the base of the router has turned black, looks like graphite... otherwise sounds and runs ok... anyone had a similar experience?
Got the 1400 and thanks to this review of yours, I will be ordering a 2200, since my 1400 is dedicated to my router table and it seems from your video that I could accomplish many sizable projects with this router without it feeling too cumbersome. You mention the investment in bits versus the quality of the router that spins them...and I couldn't agree with you more! Thanks again Peter
+Grimm Day Hi Peter, Excellent. Good luck with the OF2200 - it is one of the 3 best tools that Festool makes. Cheers. Peter
+New Brit Workshop (Peter) Thanks again Peter....I'm really enjoying all of you excellent video reviews of all my favorite products, please keep them coming! Lol
I agree with you Peter on the justification of quality tools. They not only give you pleasure when you turn out quality work, but you avoid the frustration found in lesser quality tools. It's also a time to pass the love of wood work on to some others by passing tools you will no longer be using on.
Hi Gary, Good stuff. Cheers. Peter
Hello, Peter, my friend. I was wondering what your thoughts are using this router for inlay work? Or perhaps the 1010 would be easier to maneuver?
As there is one used within my circle of region here barely used.
Also the lack of LED lighting...
All reflections appreciated 😊
Cheers
Hi Jon, For inlay work you do need very tight control of the router and so the smaller, OF1010, is a good choice. I understand that Festool now sell a lighting accessory for the router - I have not seen it or used it. When I do inlay work I mostly use a template that allows me to not only cut the recess (or hole) but also the piece to fit inside. Good luck. Peter
You would have to check the particular router table that you are interested in but most manufacturers make provision for this world beating router.
Thanks for watching the video. Peter
another awesome video
Thanks so much peter for posting it
Hi Ben, Many thanks - the OF2200 is simply brilliant. Peter
great video!! thanks for the overview, I'm going to order mine now
@daikuone The OF2200 appears big but it operates so smoothly, has great reserves of power and is easy to handle. I prefer it to both my CMT and Dewalt which are much smaller.
Thanks Peter very helpful review now I know how to use my rote which I bought second hand form Saturday
Market
Hi Jabar, That is brilliant - good luck and take care. Make sure that you wear safety glasses and take things slowly and carefully all the time. Peter
when the bars are locked off they are not level therefore the router does not lay perfectly flat on the workpiece. but if you put a shim on the opposite side of the locking handle for the bars you can get the bars perfectly level which means the router lays flat on the workpiece, and the guide rail adapter lays level on the guide rail.
Hi John, If your router is new then get Festool to look at it. Mine does not need any shims at all. Peter
Thanks for the overview
Looks like some nice features for changing accessories. Did you find the weight difficult to handle? I have the 1400 and wonder how the big one is to use handheld.
Hi Peter
I have seen a comment saying that engaging the spindle lock whilst the router is running can seriously damage the motor
Any thoughts on this?
I'm getting a used one and wondered about this issue.
Regards Liam
One must never even attempt to engage a spindle lock on a router that is running. Even thinking about it makes me feel uncomfortable. Peter
Peter:
When I first started getting serious about my woodworking, wanting to better my skills and be all I could be, I looked at the Festool 2200 and said out loud: "There is no way in the world I will EVER spend $845.00 for a router!" Well................I was right...................sort-of. I waited too long and just spent $885.00 on the newest version of this router. As I have become more and more familiar with Festool, and as I have acquired more and more of their equipment, I have grumbled every single time about the price, but have never, EVER been disappointed with their quality, or how well thought out their tools are.
As for this router..................I owe it's purchase to you! Your closing comment about how much we as woodworkers spend on bits, (Many thousands of dollars / pounds) it made me realize just how true that is. So, when it came time to augment my already considerable router collection, I didn't hesitate to order the 2200. What an amazing machine, and when coupled with Festool's attachments (such as the guide rail) it completely revolutionizes routing. I can't tell you how many times I have had a router "drift away" from the straight edge I was using, ruining the piece I was working on.
Thanks for the great review and thank you for the keen observation about the relative investment between router bits and the cost of a new router.
Hi Terry,
The OF2200 is simply amazing and well worth the price. I have recently had a good clear out of damaged, blunt and poor quality router bits from the various drawers and felt quite guilty about the many hundreds of pounds that I had once spent on them. It is significant that the clear out has not made much of a dent on the overall numbers.
Thank you for your super comments.
Peter
Does the of1400 fence and guide rail adaptor fit the of2200? If not I feel I am buying a lot of duplicate stuff
Hi Ralph, Unfortunately not as the router bodies are quite different in size. You only need the fence on one of the routers though - think about it and decide which one. Peter
Hmm, thats a shame but you make a good point. I do have the Makita RP2301 with a fence for 1/2" heavy work requiring a fence as well but then it leaves me wondering if I need this router at all - my problem is that I am a completist and since I already own 2 of the 3 standard routers that Festool offer the lack of this 3rd router constantly nags at me. Stupid I know.
Dr. Ralph Kennedy Hi Ralph, I think that I am exactly the same as you and I would want each router to be complete too. Good luck with the decision. Peter
Literally, just bought one from Axminster - the Festool vouchers also made me up my game so I plunged for the full kit at pennies shy of £900 - meant I would get £100 off instead of the £50 off the basic model - thought it made more sense than nickel and diming myself over the next few months. When I first started woodworking I laughed at the idea I would ever spend £500 on a router and I've just spent almost double that. I have probably spent £3k on routers in my relatively short woodworking "career" and almost all of them have ended up on ebay sold at a loss. Thats why I no longer consider Festool expensive because I have yet to want to part with anything I have ever bought and fully expect to still have them in service 15 years from now. The Trend and Dewalt and Makita routers I have owned are really good tools but ultimately something on each of them frustrated me or was poorly executed. If the OF2200 is as good as the OF1400 or even - my personal favourite the 1010 - then it will have been worth it to have that level of precision at 2.2kw
Thanks for taking the time to respond - you probably help sell more gear than you realise.
Hi Ralph, One of the things I remind people, certainly the professionals and it applies to me, is that you always have more money invested in router cutters than you do in routers if you consider the cutters that you buy across the lifetime of the routers. Please could you contact me by Private Message as I would like to ask you a question. To send me a Private Message follow this link: ruclips.net/user/StoneMessage then click "About" followed by "Send Message". Cheers. Peter
Peter I’m in the process of buying a cms set will the of 2200 work in the USA?????
You should receive all the parts with the CMS-OF unit for you to install the OF2200. However, you should be aware that for reasons that I do not understand the CMS-OF in North America is not supposed to be used with the OF2200. Festool are quite clear about this and will not support it in any way. Everyone that I have heard about in the US has had all the right kit with the CMS-OF to mount the OF2200. I am surprised that Festool still supply all the parts if it is not allowed to be used in NA. Peter
Hi Peter.
Being a new hobby woodworke I recently started equipping a small workshop. Your videos inspire, and I was wondering... I bought primarily Festool including the MFT/3 table. Now I've seen something called Qwas Dogs...would you know where I can buy these in Europe (I'm from Denmark). Any help/comment will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Br. Carsten D.
Hi Carsten, Have you heard of Parf Dogs, designed by me and made under the Veritas name by Lee Valley. They are available from Axminster and Baptist in NL. Many thousands are sold every year and I believe that they might be the most popular 20 mm bench dog. With these you can do all sorts and you then may go on to look at the Parf Guide System which allows you to create near perfect arrays of holes in your custom bench tops. Take a look through my videos or do a Google search. If you want to cut things square then do look at these Parf products. Good luck. Peter
Thanks much. I will 😉👍
for $ 995 I expected better extraction, everything else about it, I love it.
Thank you! And I mean THANK YOU! My bosch router when locked is rocking because it only locks on one column, and I can not use it as a router plane. I really dont want to spend $1000 on a router, but I may have to.
It is amazing how many people come to realise that good tools are worth the investment. My OF2200 is as good now as it was when it was new 11 years ago. Cheers. Peter
I looked at them today and the 2200 router wasn't that huge or anything. It was normal sized.
can I cut squares ?
A male square will have sharp corners but a female square will have rounded corners the same size as you router cutter. These rounded corners can be squared up by hand. Peter
One problem with this router. When you .ock the bars off the bars do not stay level. With the edge fence it really doesn't matter. But with the guide rail and guide rail fence when you place therouter on the guide rail and put the right base on. The bars tilt the router. So the cut is not 90°. If you shim the bars so the router base sits flat on your work piece. It is like engineering in wood! Try putting the bars in the router. Measure with calipers the gap under the bars. Lock them of. And watch the difference. Put it on the guide rail, and see how it sits on the work piece. So the cut will not be 90° If festool drilled the base for the bars it would be perfect. I used foil from a marvel milk tin to shim the bars and they stay in. The foil is thick and strong enough.
Hi John, That is most odd. Mine is fine and I have not heard of anyone else with this issue - is it still in the 3 year warranty period? Peter
What is it with Festool....... I have the Domino 500 and the air clamp system which are both excellent tools. But why would a tool company sell the router fence as an extra?............A router as an everyday power tool is pretty much useless without a guide fence so the fact that Festool class it as an "optional extra" shows Festool are just profiteering from customers.
Just my opinion but apart from the Domino there are plenty of other power tool companies that make similar tools that do the job just as well for far less money. The Festool Kapex is a typical example of an over priced powertool that has less capacity than most but costs far more money to buy.
When companies start selling guide fences as extras you know thye are taking the pi$$............
+adie chip Festool tools are not cheap and not everyone (believe it or not) wants a fence with a router. A lot of routers go into tables as well. I suspect the real reason is not to try and make extra money from the customers but to try and reduce the initial cost of the tool. I have probably owned twelve or more routers at various times, maybe more, and none of the cheap and cheerful "supplied" fences were particularly good. I modified most that I owned but have not needed to do that with the Festool ones. Peter
Hi Peter, Appreciate your comments.
Having been a Carpenter & Joiner for some 32 yrs I like you have used many different makes of router and as you say the fences can be of dubious quality but the vast majority of routers are not used in tables.Its a bit selling a car and the wheels costing extra.
If someone is going to stump up £625+ for the router then including a half decent fence for around £25-00 wouldn't put people off when you consider you can buy a decent TREND T11EK or similar Makita for less than half the price of the Festool
Having said all that I do follow your tests with interests.. Regards Adie
+adie chip Hi Adie, Yes, I understand your points and agree that it would be nice to het the full kit in the box at the start. Cheers. Peter
It did shitty at 8:40 vacuum sucks lol
Hi Carl, There is almost nowhere for the dust to go and the channel that has been cut is the easy route for the dust.
Just used my brand new OF 2200 for the first time, light test cut only... the base of the router has turned black, looks like graphite... otherwise sounds and runs ok... anyone had a similar experience?
mijyeltnerb I have never heard of that before. Peter
Try accidently depressing the super duper spindle lock whilst the machine is running. Then you will see how super duper it is!
waw