Festool*R Essentials: The Routers: OF 1010 EQ, OF 1400 EQ, OF 2200 EB, & MFK 700 EQ Paperback – Illustrated, June 17, 2010

a must for people who have any one of these routers. The routers are on the high end of woodworking tools, so why not have a book to get the most out of them. There are ideasthat you might not have thought of, on how to use them.

I love all of my Festools and will probably rate every one of them a 5. I thought it might be useful to pick up a book which would give some tips for my OF 1400 router and my new MFK 700 router. I could not have been more wrong! As it has already been mentioned here, this is a terrible book. It gets a one rather than a zero because of the good pictures that are in it. Very little effort was put into writing truly helpful articles in this book. I was really hoping for something that would give ideas and tips on how to get the most from my routers. In reality, this book is a glorified catalog for Festool. In fact the same day I received this book, I received the Festool full line catalog. The main difference between the two is that the catalog was free. Also, the catalog is probably about as useful and in some cases has more information. I paid $29 for a book that was supposed to cover the Festool family of routers. The first 91 pages are dedicated to the routers. In these pages I can get most of the information from the catalog. The last 86 pages are a shameless catalog for Festool’s other products including guide rails, accessories and dust collectors. In other words, half of this book is a catalog for other Festool products. Whoever created this "book" ought to be ashamed. Don't charge me good money to buy something that sells me on things that I already have.

I ordered this without actually seeing one in person. I have a Festool OF1400 router, the middle of their three larger routers. They also have a small trim router. All four are covered in this book.I was looking for more techniques and instructions that there are in the book. The book is mostly information that is available on Festool USA's website as far as describing what comes with the routers and what accessories are available for each. There is some instruction in it but it is pretty basic.I think this book would be most useful for someone trying to decide which Festool router(s) would best fit your individual needs. Most, if not all of the information in the book is available on Festool USA's website and on other Festool-dedicated sites like the Festool Owner's Group site, which has terrific supplementary manuals and discussions available that are submitted by Festool users. Many of them are woodworking professionals that use the tools every day.The quality of the book is fine. It is printed on heavy paper. Its main advantage is that the info is all in one place.

Since Festool does not ship a decent manual with their product, I thought I'd buy the Festool Essentials: "The Routers" book to learn more about the machine. After the first few pages, I realized that this was not what I had expected or hoped for. This is NOT a book about Routers, it is a Festool "Catalogue" that includes some "features" of the routers. The fact is that, more than half of the book does not even discuss routers at all... it talks about VACUUMS. Now what the heck do vacuums have to do with routers???To me, this book was a total waste of dollars, and I caution prospective buyers to think it over before buying this waste of paper.Rudy W. Timmerman

This series is excellent for the novice woodworker. Answered many of my questions about the tool which I could not understand by reading the manufacturers literature. I also recommend the You Tube films on the subject of using Festools.

The book comes with great tips and high quality of the festool product. However, there is not much of the key values of the festool system.

Was not what stated. It was nothing more than an Advertisement for Festool. Not any Information about the tool specified.