Festool OF 1010 Router Review

Routers divide into two jobs, and most buying mistakes come from confusing them. A table router is a spindle moulder with the motor underneath: big, heavy, and judged on power and bit capacity. A handheld router is judged on balance, visibility, plunge quality and dust.

The OF 1010 is the second kind, done about as well as it is done. The current version in the US is the OF 1010 REBQ-Plus, which supersedes the earlier OF 1010 EBQ.

Why the size is the feature

At this size the router sits in one hand with the plunge column under control, which changes how you work. Cutting a hinge mortise, you can hold the router with one hand and steady the template or the door with the other. On an edge profile, you can keep the base tipped into the work and see what is happening.

Larger routers are two-handed tools — safer for heavy cuts, and clumsy for exactly this kind of work.

Dust, which is not a footnote

Routing produces more airborne dust than almost anything else in a shop. Most routers have a plastic port that collects a fraction of it. Festool designed the shroud around the airflow, and with a CT extractor attached, the great majority of the chips leave at the cutter.

If you work indoors, or in a shop attached to a house, this is a health feature rather than a convenience one.

The hard limitation

Collet capacity. This router takes 8 mm and 1/4 in shanks. It will not take a 1/2 in shank cutter, and the large panel-raising, big rebate and heavy straight bits are all 1/2 in.

That is not a flaw — it is a small router — but it does mean the OF 1010 cannot be your only router. It pairs with a bigger machine, usually in a table, rather than replacing one.

The system cost

The router is the first purchase. The guide rail adapter, the edge guide, template guides and a CT extractor are the rest, and each is priced the Festool way. Outside the system, much of the router’s advantage disappears, and a good compact router from another brand costs a third as much.