Festool Cordless Carvex PSC-420 Review and Demo

I've been playing with a Festool cordless Carvex PSC-420 jigsaw for over a month now; a very nice saw made nicer with the accessory kit.

The corded model will be released September 1^st, 2013.  The cordless model I use here does not yet have a release date in North America.

In this review, we'll start with a high-speed demo of a number of cuts in wood and other materials.  We'll then go over the saw in more detail pointing out any special features of the saw as well as each of the accessories in the accessory kit.

If you are familiar with the Festool PS-300 Trion, some of this saw's anatomy will be familiar, but there are a number of improvements and differences.  We'll also discuss any appreciable difference between the Carvex and the Trion so you can decide between the two if you are looking at Festool jigsaws.  Note that this means the Trion is not being discontinued.  The Carvex is an addition to the jigsaw line.

There's also a video discussion of the pendulum action of the Carvex and Trion.  I captured some good slo-mo video to better demonstrate the differences in pendulum settings and discuss why certain settings are better than others for different materials.

So the question is: why get a cordless jigsaw?  In my case, I have a corded Trion and was curious about a cordless version.  If I need to use a corded jigsaw, the Trion will work well.  If I want to breakdown stock in the driveway, I'd prefer the cordless Carvex.  Of course a cordless saw can be more convenient in the shop, although it is diminished by the lack of a "hose-less" dust extractor.  In fact, I found that I'm so trained to see the extractor hose on the tool and think the extractor will start when I start the tool that I often started a demo with the extractor off.  Fortunately, you can't read my lips in high-speed video :)  So, please, someone invent a hoseless dust-extractor!

28 minutes for a jigsaw review?!? By now you know I'm detailed; if you just want to see the saw in action, that's the first 5 minutes.

Popcorn-ex ready?  Okay!





I left a joke unfinished in the video... feel free to finish it in the comments :)


Festool-USA provided the Cordless Carvex PSC-420 and accessory kit for pre-release feedback and review.  And that said, I wrote the product manager with a number of questions and got excellent detailed replies, some directly from the engineers in Germany!