Hand Held Power tools in Europe

by Christian Aufreiter, Austria

The following comments on power tools in Europe are based on personal experience, conversations with other woodworkers and on the information I received by watching professionals and their tools. Due to the fact that I'm just 18 years old, I have, of course, not tried all different tools and brands so my point of view is certainly not absolutely objective.

(Brands are in alphabetical order)

AEG/Atlas Copco/Milwaukee:

https://www.aeg-pt.de
https://www.atlascopco.com
https://www.milwaukee.de (most annoying site, you can't view the different tools without password)
https://www.milwaukeetool.com

I have a 30+ year-old AEG hammer drill with circular saw, angle grinder and orbital sander attachment. There's even a table to use the saw as table saw. At the time these tools were made AEG was independent of Atlas Copco. The quality is quite good, the drill got some new brushes I think, and still works after it saw a lot of use when my dad built our house. As far as I know Milwaukee is the professional line of the company since 2003. Many tools offered in the US are not available in Europe. I can't comment on their current tools but in general they make a good impression. Atlas Copco is also known for compressors, pneumatic tools etc.

Black & Decker/Elu/Dewalt:

For those who are not familiar with the Black & Decker-Elu-Dewalt-relationships, a long time ago B & D started selling rather cheap tools in Europe. These tools were primarily designed for the hobbyist. But professionals also bought them and were rather disappointed of the quality. Then B & D introduced a "profi line" and hoped that professionals would buy these tools. But these tools were hardly successful because B & D was now associated with hobby woodworker quality.

B & D needed a solution in order to win professional woodworkers as their customers. So they bought Eugen Lutz (ELU), a highly regarded brand in Europe, especially because of their routers, hand held power planers, mitre saws, etc. B & D added more and more B & D tools to the Elu line. In other parts of the world Elu products were sold under the Dewalt label. The famous DW 621 router was in fact developed by Elu as OF 97. Personally, I question if Dewalt themselves would have been able to make such a good tool. Anyway, about three years ago (year 2000) B & D decided to re-brand Elu as Dewalt, and from this time on, Elu was no longer available.

Although Black and Decker is a brand name, I regard them more or less as no name tools. They introduced interesting, multi-functional tools in the last year, for example the Versa Pack cordless system and the "Multischleifer" (multi sander). I tried this sander and can say that it doesn't sand very aggressively, nor does it leave an outstandingly smooth surface, has inadequate power, poor dust collection, and extremely high vibration (our old AEG attachment worked much better). IMO you can't combine ROS and orbital sander if you expect high quality.

Elu would be one of my brands of choice were it still available as an independent company, but I don't really trust Dewalt and their strategies. They constantly change the locations of the factories and I'm not sure they continue the famous Elu quality. Elu introduced "power boxes" (Systainers as we know them from Festool) and then Dewalt dropped them out of program. [Ed note: Systainers are molded cases for various power tools. They are of standard measurements and interlock with each other to form convenient, efficient, integrated, stacked storage for them.] I'm not complaining about the Systainers but I don't understand why Dewalt doesn't offer them. More and more companies (Makita, Metabo, Mafell, Lamello, Protool) introduced Systainers and at the same time Dewalt stopped selling them. The Dewalt cordless stuff looks great, but I wonder who needs a 24V drill. It really annoys me that Dewalt is much more expensive here than in the US. For example: DW 980K2 costs EUR 357.6, which is $ 421.36 at today's rate.

Bosch/Skil:

Skil tools are regarded as low-end stuff. Personally, I never used their tools and don't see any reason why to try them.

Bosch has two lines here: Green for the hobbyist, blue for the professional. The differences between green and blue vary from tool to tool. While the blue jigsaw is a completely different tool than the green model, differences other than the color are hardly visible on some circular saws.

Again, not all American tools are available here, which is also true the other way round (check the blue jigsaws, for example). IMO Bosch makes good tools but lacks a "system" approach. Their tool boxes are sometimes too small to hold the tool properly, you even need adapters to make Bosch tools fit a Bosch vac etc. Bosch offers a wide range of rotary hammers, now a huge cordless program and very nice jigsaws. During the past few years, Bosch introduced new, innovative tools like the "Varioschleifer" [Ed. Note: this is a hand-held, 1" wide belt sander designed to get into tight corners], micro dust bags, "Feinschnittsäge" [Ed. Note: a backsaw], etc. Other tools look good but don't seem to be outstanding.

Duss:

https://www.duss.de

Famous for rotary hammer drills for heavy duty use. I never used Duss but professionals claim that the hammer drills are comparable to Hilti.

Fein:

Finest engineering and excellent quality. I'd go with Fein tools if I were working with metal. Fein doesn't offer many tools for woodworkers but I'd like to see one of their corded screw drivers and the Minimaster [Ed. Note: a metals milling system] in my shop.

Flex/Porter Cable:

I know that Flex invented the angle grinder many years ago and that's it. Many PC tools are not available here and I don't even know where to check out Flex locally.

Hilti:

Industrial standard in rotary hammer drills. Exceptional quality, I use an old TE 12S which I got from my granddad. Special tools for measuring, fastening etc. Apart from this stuff and the rotary hammers, most tools are made by Bosch.

Holz Her:

High-end carpentry and woodworking tools. Offered nice plunge saw and guide rails. As far as I know TTS bought them in 2000 and now offers some of their tools.

Kress:

https://www.kress-elektrik.de

Offers two lines: Blue for the hobbyist, red for the professional. I have a hammer drill which I like. It was made some years ago when Kress had only one single line. Some of their tools are average, I'd say, others (biscuit joiner, red ROS, red cordless drills, etc) offer good value for the money. The power cord of the blue line is way too short.

Lamello:

https://www.lamello.com

Lamello makes the biscuit joiners of my dreams. IMO professionals use almost exclusively their biscuit joiners.

Mafell:

Famous for the Erika Pull-push saws. Mafell concentrates on carpentry tools but offers also great stuff for fine woodworking. It's the only company apart from Festool (as far as I know) which offers plunge saws. I think it was last year they invented the "DuoDübler" an almost revolutionary product [Ed. Note, this is a dowelling machine that works and looks like a biscuit joiner.]. This year they came out with a new circular saw and a flexible guide rail. This rail is 1.4 m long [4'-6"]and can be transported with the saw in a single systainer.

Makita:

Many professionals use Makita cordless drills, which might be because Makita is said to be one of the first companies to offer them. Their cordless stuff is still impressive but kind of oversized in some cases IMO. I use an older 7.2 cordless drill and I'm satisfied although I had a problem some years ago. Professionals also seem to like their portable planes which I don't really understand. The dust port is fixed (other brands allow the customer to change it from the right to the left side) and power cords are too short (on other tools too).

Metabo:

One of my buddies from Germany works almost exclusively with Metabo and is very satisfied with it. Metabo offers stationary power tools (for the hobbyist) too and is also the owner of Elektra Beckum and Lurem. I think Metabo makes high quality tools but nothing really outstanding. Metabo doesn't offer different lines but looking trough the catalogue you can easily discover the premium stuff, check their ROS's for comparison, for example.

Panasonic:

Their tools are available but hardly known here.

Scheer:

https://www.cfscheer.de

Scheer concentrates on large stationary power tools, but also make routers. I was looking at their tools before I got mine and that's my impression. The design is often "agricultural", the quality seems very high, and the prices are very high. A midsize router (comparable to the DW 621 which seems to be standard in the US) would have cost EUR 673.96, which I wasn't willing to spend. Scheer offers a high-end routing system for stairs. Producing stairs, their unit might be worth the cost.

Tooltechnicsystems:

https://www.tooltechnicsystems.com

Is the name of an umbrella company under which three individual companies work together:

Festool (tools for woodworking, painting, automotive branch)
Protool (concentrates on construction and carpentry)
Tanos (invented the famous Systainer)

Festool:

Festool is my - and many professionals' - preference. A few days ago I looked into the truck of a company which does remodelling jobs. I found a shelf full of Festool Systainers inside. The reason why Festool has such an excellent reputation is that they offer almost unique tools in some fields. Let me give you a few examples:

The cordless drill with right angle and eccentric attachment
The jigsaw with the CP guide
The plunge saw which is the best example. Mafell is the only company (as far as I know) which offers a comparable saw. Years ago there was a third one - Holzher - but Festool finally bought it. This shows that there are hardly any competitors in the class and while Mafell has excellent saws they don't offer the wide range of accessories for saw and guide rails.

Last year Festool celebrated 40 years of Festool guide rails. So they were probably the first or one of the first brands which offered such a system. As a professional who has been satisfied for more than 25 years why should you buy another brand?

This might be the reason why Festool is almost alone in this field. A company could be successful at selling plunge saws if they were way cheaper or way better than Festool. Way cheaper is difficult if you want the same grade of quality and way better is apparently difficult too, otherwise Bosch, Metabo, etc would offer such a saw.

As for the ROS, it works almost without vibrations, has an excellent dust collection (another Festool feature - you don't need adapters in connection with a Festool hose), VS, .... Festool has a 30 days money back guarantee and a three year warranty, another unique feature.

Protool:

https://www.protool.de

This is a rather new company within the TTS organization. While Festool concentrates on "fine woodworking", Protool offers tools for rough carpentry and building jobs.

Tanos:

https://www.tanos.de