Continuous
Improvement
Two of the things I like most
about the products coming
from companies with a strong
engineering tradition is that
their products reflect a systems
approach where multiple
components all work
seamlessly together to achieve
the desired outcome and they
seem to have a fetish for
continuous improvement.
Both are evident in the Festool
VS-600 and in their routers.
The VS-600 joinery system
replaced the original VS-500.
The OF-1010 router replaced
the OF-1000. The photographs
show the differences, some
subtle some major. The photos
also show the careful attention
to systems design rather than
individual tool or jig design.
Take the two jointing systems,
for example. The VS-500 was
about as simple and reliable as
a template based dovetail jig
can get. There were only three
templates available: one for
cutting half blind dovetail
joints, one for cutting simple
box joints and one for
doweling. Each template
would only service work
pieces of a limited range of
thicknesses. Every time you
needed to set work pieces into
the VS-500 you had to remove
the template by unscrewing
two wing nuts which hold the
template in place. The side
stops were fixed in place and
were simply barrel-headed
machine screws threaded into
holes tapped into the top and
front edges of the VS-500. The
adjustment for moving the
template in or out to achieve
the correct joint fit was just a
threaded collar on the same
stud used to hold the template
to the fixture. Not very
elegant, not very flexible, but
certainly precise and very
repeatable to use once
properly set up.
When Festool designed the
VS-600 (on my dovetail work
station above) to replace the
VS-500 (on the bench to the
right) they did not simply
make a few cosmetic or
incremental changes to the old
unit, they started with a clean
sheet of paper, learning well
from the limitations and use
frustrations inherent in the VS-
500.
They designed the VS-600 to
cut two sizes of half blind
dovetails, two sizes of through
dovetails, two sizes of box
joints and three sizes of dowel
joints. These multiple sizes
and types cover joinery in
work pieces from 6mm to
28mm thick, a range that
covers the vast majority of
furniture making operations.
They replaced the quirky wing
nut template holder of the VS-
500 with an elegant pivoting
template carrier to which you
can quickly and accurately
affix whichever template you
need.
Since it pivots to clear the
work pieces without removing
the template, it is easy to load
and square up the work pieces
repeatedly, time after time
with little room for error. The
adjustment for joint depth is a
well engineered eccentric
wheel on each end of the
templates requiring such
adjustment capability. The
two wheels have index
markings to make it easy to set
them to exactly the same joint
depth on both ends of the
template. No more rotating
threaded collars by guess. You
set up each template only once
and it will produce joints of
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