Festool 495315 MFT/3 Multifunction Table, White

This thing costs a fortune, so it should be good. But once you set it up you start to realise you own a table saw, a router table, (as long as you own the relevant equally eye wateringly expensive Festool power tools), and the more you look at it (and the more bits you buy: clamps, dogs etc., will add another £100 to the bill) you realise you own a dovetail jig, and a host of other possibilities. Youtube has a raft of good videos on ideas for using the table. So, it's like everything Festool: a terrifying investment that you end up glad you made. Just don't think the cost of the table is the end of it.

Class bit of kit, I use both of mine for many different jobs but i mostly have one set up ready to crosscut panels and the other for clamping timber for routing or sanding. They are also get used as an in-feed and out-feed setup for the festool CMS.Due to the high price I wouldn't recommend purchasing this table for occasional DIY. It really comes into its own when implemented into a festool tool arrangement as most of their saws and routers interconnect with the guide rails system and make for a very modular, space saving setup.

Brilliant piece of kit

It’s multifunctional

Its a great piece of kit easy to set up and nice to use

First of all, the reservations - it's very expensive, even if bought in its homeland (Germany) and imported into Switzerland (thus getting a refund on the German 19% VAT). Here, you can also do far better for the money - IF you have the space. And there's the problem, I haven't. My garage is small, and I simply don't have the space for big stationary machines. All my toys have to be stored away at the end of the day, so that I can get the car in the garage.Given that restriction, and that I already had Festool's marvelous TS55 plunge saw, this table is quite possibly the best DIY purchase I have ever made. The thing is so versatile that I find myself using it as a work surface and using my normal workbench for storing the tools to be used. In addition, it is easily transportable, so that I can take it to the daughters' places for any work that they might need doing. So, if you do a lot of DIY, need a versatile work surface and you have either or both of my space problems or my need for transportation, this rather expensive, but very well-made, table will repay its cost many times over.

Very well built table, and everything on the top surface is well considered.What has not been resolved in any way is where to put any of the elements you don't happen to be using for a particular task. The main rule hinges up, (but even that can be in the way if you are dealing with larger workpieces) but other parts just have to be left cluttering the tabletop and endlessly moved to avoid the work being done or stored elsewhere. And also obviously the chances are you are using (multiple) power tools that need to be placed somewhere sensible between cuts etc.There are two horizontal cross bars which would be ideal to support a simple shelf or better a tray system beneath the table - so having used it for a week, the next quick project is to make a shelf that clips onto those with 22mm pipe clips, but a pity it is down to the user to make it for themselves!

Had the MFT/3 for a while now and where the accuracy is undisputed the quality of the MDF Top is questionable given the price. Like I'm sure a lot of woodworkers my large double garage is my workshop and as result the MDF top has, despite my efforts to protect it, suffered as result of the British climate. Its no longer flat, it's dipped in the middle and is not any longer an ideal assembly surface. Shame when you consider there are far more resilient replacement tops. It's really left me questioning whether I should replace the whole thing.