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Marc: I'm just enjoying a cup of coffee
with a few of my new best friends.
So what do you guys want to do for lunch today?
Rubios!
You always want Rubios, MFK 700!
(fast music)
Marc: Okay, so many of you probably have heard
that Festool is releasing three new products.
They have two new routers, these two guys,
and the MFT 3, which is their new multifunction table.
So I just wanted to give you a brief overview
of what features might be new and different about
these products and the bottom line is I keep getting
a lot of questions about it.
A lot of folks know that I've had these for a while,
and I've had some time to play with them,
so I think it's good timing now that they're
actually available to show you what makes these
a little bit different.
It's not going to be completely comprehensive.
It's just going to give you an idea
what makes these tools so great.
So let's jump right into it.
So first up is the OF 2200.
It's 2200 watts that puts it in about
the three horsepower class of routers.
This thing is powerful.
It's kind of like a shaper upside down.
So it's key with a motor that has that much kick,
that you have a soft start mechanism,
and fortunately this one does.
So it slowly ramps up to speed instead
of immediately vroom jerking into it's highest speed,
and you'll lose control if that happens.
This allows you to completely
maintain control throughout the cut.
A couple of other notable features,
built into the handle is
the locking mechanism for the plunge action.
A lot of routers have a locking mechanism
that only locks on one column
and eventually what winds up happening is
the motor gets sort of locked in place
and then goes slightly out of position.
It sort of gets a little bit skewed.
So by locking on both columns,
you prevent that from happening.
It just locks true every single time.
Okay, a few other things to note.
The turret stops, that's pretty standard.
These are pretty much on every plunge router,
but what makes this different,
there's two things.
First of all the adjustment,
every click here is a tenth of a millimeter.
That's 1/256th of an inch.
That's tiny, okay.
They also have this great feature which is
the first time I've seen this on a router,
Let me explain, when you're routing a profile for instance,
you know how you sometimes don't get
an absolute perfect cut,
you just wish you could go just
a hair more to get that cleanup cut?
Well they have a one millimeter stopped turret here,
so you can actually set it up,
do your second-to-last pass,
and then make that final adjustment,
drop it down that one step,
which I think is about a millimeter,
and that gives you that final last pass
go give you a perfect clean cut.
It's a really nice feature
just to have it built in like that.
A few other things, the ratcheting collet.
That's pretty standard on all Festool routers.
Okay so, single wrench operation.
It's actually a lot easier on your wrists.
That's really convenient too.
Dust collection.
Let's hit that real quick.
What makes this unit different,
well first of all you've got
the dust collection port in the back here,
and then you can see this ring sort of isolates
the routing chamber essentially and helps
the dust collection be that much more effective,
but you see you plunge down a little bit.
This might be the average working height,
you still have about a half inch of clearance here
where air can get in and actually reduce
the effectiveness of the dust collection.
Well they came up with a really cool feature,
again another first,
this little spring loaded chamber
drops down and closes that space up.
So now, you've essentially completely isolated
the routing chamber, which means all that dust and debris,
whit, right up through the top,
which is pretty darned cool.
A couple of other things real quick.
The ergonomics, it's offset.
The motor is offset from the base by 30 degrees.
Okay, you can see if I put my edge guide in here,
the orientation of this, you can see
the way the motor is tilted.
The reason for that,
is that if you think about it,
when you use this you'll know,
that's the way our body wants
to be positioned when we run this stuff.
We don't ever want to be perfectly parallel
or perfectly perpendicular to the work piece.
We always want to be slightly skewed,
and that's where that 30 degrees comes in.
It's something you may not even realize
when you're using it,
but all of a sudden you go,
"Wow, this is really comfortable to run this thing."
Okay, the last thing I want to show you is
the quick change toolless change bases here.
There's a little lever.
Just pull that.
The bases pop right off.
It has a whole bunch of accessory bases
that you can use.
For instance this one if you need extra wide support.
You just pop it in, and your new base is in place,
and this works for every type of base attachment
that they have,
whether you're using template guides,
the little swiveling dust collection cup
that goes on the bottom,
everything connects this way.
Incredibly fast, incredibly convenient.
So really, really nice features.
All right, now this is actually,
I have to admit this is probably my new favorite toy
at this point and maybe toy is the wrong word.
This is a very powerful
and extremely versatile little router.
In this position, it just looks like a laminate trimmer,
but that's just really scratching the surface
of what this thing really can do,
and to be honest,
I haven't had it long enough
and haven't done enough woodworking lately
to really exhaust the possibilities
of what this thing can do.
First of all, you've got your variable speed,
and I think probably one of the most notable things
about it is how quick you can change bases with no tools.
It just pops in place, turn the knob,
and you're locked down and ready to go.
A few other things to point out
before I go into more detail on the bases.
You see the fine adjustment up here?
That's again the 1/256th of an inch adjustment,
1/10 of a millimeter.
Now what really makes this unit differnet
and where it shines, at least in my opinion,
is with this base.
Okay, the standard base just reminds me
of most laminate trimmers in terms of just the base operation
of what you would do with it.
You've got your dust collection port built in,
which is actually pretty effective.
The adjustment right here.
The handle actually locks in place,
and then you can turn the knob
and get your fine adjustment from there,
lock it down and you're ready to go.
This base, the other guy is actually my favorite.
Now in my edge banding episode a while back,
I explained that I never use a power tool,
just because it's too much work or not dependable enough.
I never use power tools
to trim solid wood edging on plywood.
It just never works out for me,
so I always use a block plane.
Well now that's actually changed,
and I'll tell you why.
This base allows the router to be run horizontally.
Not only that, but what happens here, you'll notice,
well maybe you won't because it's a very slight amount,
but this base is mounted to the unit
and puts the actual motor on a one degree slope.
I think it's about one degree.
If not it's very close.
It's a very small amount.
So what happens is,
this router bit when it engages that trim
is actually sloping a little bit away.
So the chances of gouging your veneer are
slim to none and that's the reason I never
used a power tool to trim edge banding
because I was always afraid I was going
to ruin my veneer, and I have in the past.
And it can also be risky just to use a block plane too.
This is almost dummy proof.
The entire applicaion or the entire operation.
So if you do a lot of edge banding on ply,
this is definitely going
to be a great investment for you.
So let me show you how that's done real quick.
First of all you want to install the horizontal slope base.
The second thing you want to install,
which makes the operation really, really,
again, dummy proof for lack of a better word,
is the installation of this bearing guide.
Okay, this stops us from going in any deeper
than we absolutely need to.
So it's a very controlled operation.
It doesn't require you to get down and look from underneath.
Once you have it all set in place,
you just whip it right around the work piece
and it's done.
So let me attach that with these two little screws.
In fact this is just about
the only thing that requires a tool.
So with the bearing system attached,
this little knob loosens it,
and you can actually move it
in whatever position you want it to be.
The only other thing that I'm going to add to this,
this is one of the dust collection shrouds
that you can add to it,
but it's not for this operation.
The one I'm going to add is this guy.
See the chamber is wide open up here,
and that's where all the chips are going to want to go.
So this guy, again, toolless.
Pops right in place.
Snaps into position, and then you just lock it down.
Dust collection right through here.
So, the first thing I do is I use the micro adjuster
and I make sure that the tip of my bit
is at what visually looks
to be the same height as my base,
because really that's what I want.
I want it to be nice and smooth.
Okay, so that's my starting point.
I usually do a little test area first,
just to make sure I've got it where I want it,
and I lock everything down and make any, you know,
adjustments I need before that point.
I lock everything down and boom
you just go through your entire project.
So let me just double check my adjustment,
and then I'll clear off the entire piece.
(tool whirring)
Okay, that actually looks perfect,
so I'm going to go ahead and finish the entire strip.
(tool whirring)
So that my friends is pretty cool,
and for someone who does a lot of work,
case work with solid wood edging,
huge time saver for me, big time.
Now the final thing we'll take
a look at here is the MFT 3.
It's the new and improved multifunction table.
Now there's a lot of similarities to the old table
and a few things that make this one new and better
and just learning with time little improvements
that they make here and there are just dramatic.
The fence system is probably
one of the most notable changes.
Very easy, you know, just a couple of things
get loosened and you can move this fence
just about anywhere you need it to go.
The fence is also adjustable so that you can
flip it up to support thicker work pieces.
The adjustment back here, I mean this is amazing.
The other system locked into the holes
on the top of the MFT,
so your unit here was pretty much locked in place.
This guy allows you to pretty much move it
anywhere you need it to go,
any angle you need it to go,
any location on the table that you need it to go,
and your fence pretty much,
well you can move it if you want to
but for the most part it stays in the same place,
at least the way I use it.
You've got these nice stops here,
so no matter what your work height is
you could use the adjustable stop there,
and the clamping mechanism on the side is actually new.
It's sort of a V clamping system instead of the,
well on the other one it was
more of a T track kind of thing,
but this V clamping system is amazing.
I mean it really allows you to crank down,
I should say, without much pressure.
You're able to get a really good grip
and a nice tight secure fit for accessories
and all those wonderful things.
Probably one of the most notable changes
that you'll notice first off if you ever used the other table
is the fact that this one is now taller.
I'm not sure whether there's just been
a lot of requests for that,
but I know personally I've seen a lot
of pictures on the web of people who use blocks
on the bottom of the feet
of the old 1080 and the smaller unit.
So to make sense, if everybody wants it,
make it taller.
For me, I think it is actually
a more comfortable working height.
The other one, like I said, is about,
I don't know, looks like it's about an inch or two,
maybe two to three inches lower.
So, pretty significant.
But all in all, pretty standard multifunction table,
which is, when you get into it, it's amazing stuff.
I mean, there's a lot of things
that you can do with what looks like
a simple fold-away table with an MDF top,
but it's a lot more than that,
so it's definitely.
I don't want to go into all the details here today,
but it's something for you to look into.
Now Festool has microsites set up
for each one of these products that you
can check out on their website,
and I'll make sure I have the links available for you.
They go into painful detail about everything
you might want to know about these products,
much more than I'm able to do for you today.
So hopefully at the very least if you're interested in this,
this inspires you to go take a look and find out what you could,
see what you can see on the Festool website.
Now I mentioned earlier that the MFK 700
is quickly becoming my absolute favorite tool
in the Festool line,
at least one of my favorites.
It's basically because it solves a major problem
for me and that's, you know,
trimming that edge banding quickly, accurately, safely,
with minimal, you know,
hardly any dust at all getting into the air.
It's a pretty big deal,
and I think if you do work similar to what I do,
you do a lot of case work and things like that
where you have to trim laminate or solid material.
You're going to love this tool.
The reason I'm bragging about it so much
is because fortunately the MFK 700
is the item that we're giving away
for the Festool Giveaway in May.
So, head over to the giveaway page
and fill out that little form.
Answer the challenge question
and enter to win an MFK 700.
Not this one, because this one's mine
and you cant' have it,
but fortunately it'll be
a brand new one that you get from Festool.
I'd like to quickly than Festool for sponsoring
all these contests that we do on a monthly basis.
It's incredible to have that opportunity to give away
really high quality tools for free.
You just can't beat that.
Thanks for watching.
Please go over to festoolusa.com.
Check out these products.
Check out the microsites,
and if you do decide to invest in one,
any one of these three,
I don't think you're going to be disappointed at all,
and you can brag to your friends too.