jhl.verona Posted April 1, 2011 Report Share Posted April 1, 2011 A friend in Germany just sent me this information by email. Seems that the hand plane is battery powered, uses a high power 510nm laser with patented rotating mirror system to produce a 55mm (2 1/8") wide beam capable of vaporising the wood surface from a mere hundredth of a millimetre (less than 1/4 thou) up to 1.5mm (1/16") in depth. Although the tool is unusually quiet for a Festool, you will need a pair of their specially polarized safety glasses (similar to these) to protect your eyes from the laser light. Since the plane has no traditional mouth, and the beam width can be reduced to less than 5mm, it would appear that it can replace practically every traditional plane available, from bench planes, to the specialised planes such as the shoulder, router and possibly the combination. Unfortunately, as is usual with Festool quality tools, it seems that the price will be very high, possibly over €5,000. But it does have some very cool features, such as the "Kamber Kontrol"TM which apparently can emulate a cambered blade. There are no photos yet, but it seems that a couple of the German woodworking magazines already have the pre-production models which they're testing. So what will the neanderthalers think of that, eh? Fantastic! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmac Posted April 1, 2011 Report Share Posted April 1, 2011 Apparently this has been in the works for quite some time. There was discussion at least six months ago about a couple of the development problems they were having. The biggest was battery life. As you might suspect, it's no easy trick to run a high power laser from batteries. The other was selection of just the right wavelength for the laser. If I'm not mistaken, high powered lasers usually operate in the ultraviolet region. However, Festool was forced to move into the visible spectrum in order to meet certain European safety regulations and also to assure compatibility with the widest variety of wood species. As your friend noted, 510 nm (5100 angstroms) turned out to be the best compromise. -- Russ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhl.verona Posted April 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2011 Apparently this has been in the works for quite some time. There was discussion at least six months ago about a couple of the development problems they were having. The biggest was battery life. As you might suspect, it's no easy trick to run a high power laser from batteries. The other was selection of just the right wavelength for the laser. If I'm not mistaken, high powered lasers usually operate in the ultraviolet region. However, Festool was forced to move into the visible spectrum in order to meet certain European safety regulations and also to assure compatibility with the widest variety of wood species. As your friend noted, 510 nm (5100 angstroms) turned out to be the best compromise. -- Russ Russ, thanks for pointing that out. If I'm not mistaken there was something about those ideas thrown up on a very reliable science and technology column in the states - but I can't find the reference now. Anyway my friend Hobelkopf Holzarbeiten (Hobel to his friends) swears there was some news release today on their home site. Wish my german were better or I'd be able to track it down. Their factory site on Google maps is also pretty cool. Seems the likes of Lee Valley will be blown out of the water by this thing - all they seem to have come up with is some sort of penknife (swiss perhaps?) That just leaves Lie Nielsen, but they don't do this type of thing at all, do they? John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capnjack2 Posted April 1, 2011 Report Share Posted April 1, 2011 It seems, also, that 510 nm puts the tool right in the appropriate Festool color range! Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted April 2, 2011 Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 It seems, also, that 510 nm puts the tool right in the appropriate Festool color range! Jack Yes Jack. I've heard through the grapevine( no pun intended) that Lee Valley has a similar plane in the works, using a CO2 based laser. Of course, it will be working closer to the ultraviolet spectrum to match into their colors............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhl.verona Posted April 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 Thank you all for playing along with my feeble April Fool. A particular thank you to Russ and his excellent chart. I'll try better next year. Obviously a laser powerful enough to vaporize wood would probably count as the most dangerous tool in the shop - if you exclude the operator. You'd probably blind yourself and anything with eyes in the neighbourhood. So don't expect one for Christmas. Anyway a little light-heartedness every now and again can't hurt, can it? John P.S. my ficticious german friend Hobelkopf Holzarbeiten should be "Plane-blade Woodworking" in English - unless I screwed up the translation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Bennett Posted April 2, 2011 Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 Thank you all for playing along with my feeble April Fool. A particular thank you to Russ and his excellent chart. I'll try better next year. Obviously a laser powerful enough to vaporize wood would probably count as the most dangerous tool in the shop - if you exclude the operator. You'd probably blind yourself and anything with eyes in the neighbourhood. So don't expect one for Christmas. Anyway a little light-heartedness every now and again can't hurt, can it? John P.S. my ficticious german friend Hobelkopf Holzarbeiten should be "Plane-blade Woodworking" in English - unless I screwed up the translation. You're a bad bugger John, but, we loves ya Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhl.verona Posted April 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 You're a bad bugger John, but, we loves ya Pete Thank you for that, Pete! On those rare occassions that I manage to produce a reasonably good April Fool, I add a 'spoiler' because, well, I don't always check the date of the forum thread myself. It can get you into trouble sometimes. Especially when you're adding Coca-Cola to wood glue. Anyway, as one ex-pat to another, I thought I add a couple from the BBC, first the one that got them into real trouble: Spaghetti harvest (sorry it's not embeddable). The narrator speaks just like wot I do. At the time (1957) continental travel wasn't that common. and for a respectable programme (Panorama, I believe) a lot of people were, uhm, 'upset' that they'd been fooled. They apologised a week later - the following transmission. The postal service worked better then. I now live practically in the Po valley, and damned if I can find those spaghetti crops. And something a little more recent, and 'technological': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kvWS1XwCMM There's also a 'making of' somewhere in the tube. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted April 2, 2011 Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 The penguin one is amazing!!! LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardnesd Posted April 3, 2011 Report Share Posted April 3, 2011 "I want hand planes with freakin' lasers attatched to their totes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Bennett Posted April 3, 2011 Report Share Posted April 3, 2011 Thank you for that, Pete! On those rare occassions that I manage to produce a reasonably good April Fool, I add a 'spoiler' because, well, I don't always check the date of the forum thread myself. It can get you into trouble sometimes. Especially when you're adding Coca-Cola to wood glue. Anyway, as one ex-pat to another, I thought I add a couple from the BBC, first the one that got them into real trouble: Spaghetti harvest (sorry it's not embeddable). The narrator speaks just like wot I do. At the time (1957) continental travel wasn't that common. and for a respectable programme (Panorama, I believe) a lot of people were, uhm, 'upset' that they'd been fooled. They apologised a week later - the following transmission. The postal service worked better then. I now live practically in the Po valley, and damned if I can find those spaghetti crops. And something a little more recent, and 'technological': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kvWS1XwCMM There's also a 'making of' somewhere in the tube. John Brilliant John. Do you remember the one they did with Dinosaurs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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