OK, I own a lot of Festools, I admit it. However, I never owned a Festool drill. I have been a big fan of the latest technologies of the big name makers for the past 10 years.... good life, well built, reasonably priced.... but then Festool is always touting their 30 day money back pledge.... I had the CXS on my radar.... mainly for driving smaller screws.... so, I thought for sure this would be my first, buy-n-return Festool product.... its price tag at $275 is quite reasonable considering all the nicely combined components
I have been a huge fan of impact drivers....I use them for driving just about everything...however, they have one flaw... none I am aware of have a clutch to control its power, (self defeating principle) therefore it's easy to over drive, and strip a screw. It is difficult to predict or feel when to stop driving. For small screws, in fine woodworking projects, this can be cumbersome and problematic, even with my mini impact drivers that have less torque. I see fellow workers drive screws with impact drivers, which later I test them with a manual screw driver (remember those?) and notice they have stripped the wood threads formed by the screw, which negates a screws holding force. OTOH, when you use a standard drill/driver, you get too much head-strip-out, vs. an impact driver, as the impact drive uses ultra fast mini-hits, giving the driver head multiple opportunities to re-seat in the screw head to prevent head stripping. It's truly a remarkable technology for many screw driving applications, but not perfect, specially for small screws as they can not implement a clutch that sets max. torque to prevent wood thread stripping.
So after receiving the CXS, I ran it through it's paces....small, well balanced, fast and tool-less head change-outs, and some neat uses with the angle head and quick change out centrolec, but that was not that useful for my needs, more of luxury. I know the CXS would function well as drill, heck, a Borg product can drill a hole fine. How does it function as a screw driver for relatively small screws, say #6,8 with no pilot holes?
It was this test that made the CXS drill / driver my MOST USED Festool!
I took some hard Maple.... #6 and 8 Phillips head screws (would work better with square head).... no pilot hole... I could feel the excellent torque at the very low speed setting on the drill...this excited me...it has always been a pet peeve of mine about drivers...all their torque is at higher rpm. I drove 3/4" screws of both sizes directly into the maple with no pilot hole, with EASE! Not ONE head stripped...this blew me away. Next, I tried the same size screws at 1" length.... the 6's went in, but some of the 8's would decapitate themselves about 1/8" before they were fully seated....yet the entire drive downward, the head did NOT strip....and when you can have a screw decapitate without the head stripping, or even "slipping" even once, that IMO is the ultimate test for a driver. The CXS passed with AAA rating!
Now an impact driver will not strip the head either, but when the screw is nearly fully seated, the CXS has the advantage of the clutch setting to prevent stripping...and what is remarkable, you only need the clutch as a safety, as the drill has such tremendous "feel" due to the excellent low speed control. It seems you have "manual screwdriving" feel, but the faster speed of a power driver. You have to experience this to understand just how impressive this is.
Bottom line, Festool designed a very low speed driver, while maintaining torque at the slowest speeds, making the tool feel like an extension of your hand, just like driving the screw manually. The handle placement / design also adds to this success, as when you place your pointer finger straight forward on the side of the CXS, (like a handgun with finger off the trigger) the heel of your hand is on-axis with the screw, allowing ALL your hand pressure to be positioned over the screws head. Zero waste of hand pressure, no cocking (and stress) on your wrist like the common handgun type designs. This reduces stress on your hand / wrist. But clearly, this ergonomic design is a BIG contributing factor to the no-stripping of screw heads during driving. So it took a mix of low speed, high torque and proper hand ergonomics to finally make the ultimate "small screw" drill/driver.
So, once again, I am overly impressed with a Festool - which I originally thought I would try-n-return, as I thought it was a duplicate tool. Instead, the CXS will prob. have more hours in my hand vs. all the other Festools I own, as I drill-n-drive a lot of smaller screws.
To be clear though, this is a small tool, with extraordinary capacity, but designed for smaller projects...I would never use it for driving 6" lag bolts, or for drilling many holes in hardwoods....I have plenty of tools that perform those tasks more efficiently. Larger batteries, more torque, corded tools, etc. The CXS greatest attribute IMO is it's incredible capacity to drive small screws without stripping the heads, while at the same time, not stripping the threads in the wood. So if you drive lots of small screws, such as small pocket holes, shelf braces, hinges, etc, I highly recommend you try the CXS.
It's already safely placed away in my tool chest... Thanx Festool for making tools that are so intelligently thought-out.
I have been a huge fan of impact drivers....I use them for driving just about everything...however, they have one flaw... none I am aware of have a clutch to control its power, (self defeating principle) therefore it's easy to over drive, and strip a screw. It is difficult to predict or feel when to stop driving. For small screws, in fine woodworking projects, this can be cumbersome and problematic, even with my mini impact drivers that have less torque. I see fellow workers drive screws with impact drivers, which later I test them with a manual screw driver (remember those?) and notice they have stripped the wood threads formed by the screw, which negates a screws holding force. OTOH, when you use a standard drill/driver, you get too much head-strip-out, vs. an impact driver, as the impact drive uses ultra fast mini-hits, giving the driver head multiple opportunities to re-seat in the screw head to prevent head stripping. It's truly a remarkable technology for many screw driving applications, but not perfect, specially for small screws as they can not implement a clutch that sets max. torque to prevent wood thread stripping.
So after receiving the CXS, I ran it through it's paces....small, well balanced, fast and tool-less head change-outs, and some neat uses with the angle head and quick change out centrolec, but that was not that useful for my needs, more of luxury. I know the CXS would function well as drill, heck, a Borg product can drill a hole fine. How does it function as a screw driver for relatively small screws, say #6,8 with no pilot holes?
It was this test that made the CXS drill / driver my MOST USED Festool!
I took some hard Maple.... #6 and 8 Phillips head screws (would work better with square head).... no pilot hole... I could feel the excellent torque at the very low speed setting on the drill...this excited me...it has always been a pet peeve of mine about drivers...all their torque is at higher rpm. I drove 3/4" screws of both sizes directly into the maple with no pilot hole, with EASE! Not ONE head stripped...this blew me away. Next, I tried the same size screws at 1" length.... the 6's went in, but some of the 8's would decapitate themselves about 1/8" before they were fully seated....yet the entire drive downward, the head did NOT strip....and when you can have a screw decapitate without the head stripping, or even "slipping" even once, that IMO is the ultimate test for a driver. The CXS passed with AAA rating!
Now an impact driver will not strip the head either, but when the screw is nearly fully seated, the CXS has the advantage of the clutch setting to prevent stripping...and what is remarkable, you only need the clutch as a safety, as the drill has such tremendous "feel" due to the excellent low speed control. It seems you have "manual screwdriving" feel, but the faster speed of a power driver. You have to experience this to understand just how impressive this is.
Bottom line, Festool designed a very low speed driver, while maintaining torque at the slowest speeds, making the tool feel like an extension of your hand, just like driving the screw manually. The handle placement / design also adds to this success, as when you place your pointer finger straight forward on the side of the CXS, (like a handgun with finger off the trigger) the heel of your hand is on-axis with the screw, allowing ALL your hand pressure to be positioned over the screws head. Zero waste of hand pressure, no cocking (and stress) on your wrist like the common handgun type designs. This reduces stress on your hand / wrist. But clearly, this ergonomic design is a BIG contributing factor to the no-stripping of screw heads during driving. So it took a mix of low speed, high torque and proper hand ergonomics to finally make the ultimate "small screw" drill/driver.
So, once again, I am overly impressed with a Festool - which I originally thought I would try-n-return, as I thought it was a duplicate tool. Instead, the CXS will prob. have more hours in my hand vs. all the other Festools I own, as I drill-n-drive a lot of smaller screws.
To be clear though, this is a small tool, with extraordinary capacity, but designed for smaller projects...I would never use it for driving 6" lag bolts, or for drilling many holes in hardwoods....I have plenty of tools that perform those tasks more efficiently. Larger batteries, more torque, corded tools, etc. The CXS greatest attribute IMO is it's incredible capacity to drive small screws without stripping the heads, while at the same time, not stripping the threads in the wood. So if you drive lots of small screws, such as small pocket holes, shelf braces, hinges, etc, I highly recommend you try the CXS.
It's already safely placed away in my tool chest... Thanx Festool for making tools that are so intelligently thought-out.
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