The Festool TSC 55 and CXS 12 Are Worth It — But Buy Them Before the Air Compressor

Buy the Festool TSC 55 cordless track saw and the Festool CXS 12 cordless drill before you even start browsing air compressors for sale. That's the order I wish I'd followed. Instead, I bought a compressor and three nail guns first, and I've got about $2,100 of documented waste to show for it. The right order matters more than the brand.

Quick background: I've run a trim-and-cabinet installation crew since 2014. I keep a document called “Mistakes I'm Not Repeating.” Every entry has the date, the dollar amount, and the lesson. As of March 2025, the “wrong tool order” section alone has $2,100 in it. That number is not an exaggeration—it's the sum of bad purchases, ruined material, and one very expensive Saturday.

Why I Keep a “Mistakes” List

Most tool advice online comes from people who get free tools from manufacturers. I'm not one of them. I buy my own gear, and when I get it wrong, I feel it in the bank account. That's why I document failures more carefully than successes. A success tells you what worked. A failure tells you what to avoid—and that's usually more useful.

Festool TSC 55 Cordless Track Saw: Buy This First

Let's start with the tool I now refuse to work without: the Festool TSC 55 cordless track saw. It's not cheap. I'm not going to quote a price here because Festool kits vary a lot and dealers set their own numbers. Just verify the current price before you convince yourself it's “an investment.” But here's the thing: if you cut sheet goods more than once a month, this saw is the closest thing to a time machine I own.

The track gives you straight cuts with almost no tear-out. Pair it with a Festool extractor and the dust situation goes from “mask required” to “why is my shop this clean?” That's not a marketing line—it's what happened when I finally stopped being cheap.

My mistake was buying a regular circular saw with a bolt-on straight-edge guide first. It was fine for rough work. It was not fine for cabinet-grade plywood. In March 2021, I ruined a $180 sheet of walnut plywood because the straight edge slipped by maybe 1/16 of an inch. The cut went crooked, the piece was trash, and the sheet cost more than the difference between a decent circular saw and the track saw I should have bought in the first place.

People think buying a track saw is about status. The reality is the opposite: I bought it after the cheap route cost me more. Status had nothing to do with it. Time and material did.

Festool CXS 12 Cordless Drill: The Quiet Workhorse

The second tool I underestimated is the Festool CXS 12 cordless drill. At first glance, it's “just” a small 12-volt drill. But for trim and cabinet work, that's exactly the point.

I'm not mixing mortar or boring through LVL beams. I'm driving cabinet screws, installing hinges, drilling pilot holes, and assembling hardware. The CXS 12 has enough torque for those tasks, it's light enough to use all day, and the angle head option gets into places a full-size drill can't reach.

I used a big 18-volt drill for this type of work for two years. It worked. But it was heavier, slower to maneuver, and I was constantly swapping bits because the chuck was overkill. In September 2023, I installed 14 hinges with the CXS 12 and didn't once have to contort my wrist. With the 18-volt, I would've been sore by hinge number six. The CXS 12 isn't a replacement for a heavy-duty drill—if you're drilling large holes in framing, keep the big gun. It's a replacement for the “why is my arm tired at 3 PM?” feeling.

The Air Compressor Detour

Now for the part that actually hurt. When I started doing more trim work, I searched for “air compressors for sale” and bought what I thought was the obvious setup: a 6-gallon pancake compressor and a 16-gauge finish nailer. A forum said that combo was the standard for trim. I didn't verify it against the actual material I was cutting. Result: split casing, a torn hole in a customer's prefinished maple, and one very late Saturday.

That was stupid. Simple. Avoidable.

Looking back, the compressor wasn't a bad purchase—it was a premature one. If I'd bought it after two or three pneumatic tools were already on my list, the cost per use would make sense. Instead, it sat in the corner for four months while I used a battery nailer borrowed from a guy on another crew. That's not planning. That's impulse with extra steps.

Here's the thing: for most trim molding, an 18-gauge brad nailer beats a 16-gauge finish nailer. It leaves smaller holes, and it's less likely to split narrow stock. Use 16-gauge only for heavy solid-wood pieces, exterior trim, or anything that needs extra holding power. I learned this by destroying a piece of poplar casing and having to cut a new joint on site.

Also think hard about whether you need a compressor at all. If you're already invested in a battery platform, a cordless nailer might be simpler and faster for trim work. I'm not naming brands here because the problem was never the brand—it was me buying the wrong class of tool for the job. If you do go pneumatic, buy the compressor and the nailer as one planned system, not as two separate impulses.

What Kind of Nail Gun for Trim Molding?

So, what kind of nail gun for trim molding should you buy? My short answer: start with an 18-gauge brad nailer. Most baseboard, casing, and crown molding installs go faster and look cleaner with it. Keep a 16-gauge finish nailer around for the heavy stuff, but don't make it your primary.

And whatever you choose, test it on scrap before you point it at a finished piece. That rule cost me $35 in scrap wood the first month. It's saved me thousands since. I dodged a bullet once because I tested a new gun on a piece of MDF before touching the customer's crown—the depth setting was way off. Ten second test, saved a whole redo.

Don't Forget the Metric Tool Set

Another thing nobody warns you about: Festool's German roots mean metric fasteners show up more often than you'd expect. If you install European cabinets or work with imported hardware, buy a decent metric tool set before you need it.

In 2022, I used an imperial Allen wrench on a German-made fitting and stripped the head. On site. On a customer's expensive cabinet door. I had to drill out the screw and replace the hinge. A $45 metric set would have prevented the whole thing. And no, a metric tool set isn't optional just because you're in the US. If the hardware is metric, your tools need to be metric. It's that simple.

If I had to do it over again, the order is simple: track saw first, then the CXS 12, then a brad nailer, then a metric set. The compressor comes last—or not at all, depending on what other tools you already own.

The Bottom Line (and When It Doesn't Apply)

Let me connect this to a bigger principle. The real cost of my screwups wasn't just the tools. It was the time. The trim job that ran late because of the wrong nailer. The hour I spent fixing a stripped metric screw. That's hard to quantify but easy to feel.

I now treat time certainty as a budget item. If a tool will save me time and I can verify it does the job, I'll pay the premium without guilt. I'm not saying expensive tools are always worth it. I'm saying that in my experience, “probably good enough” has cost me more than “guaranteed right” ever did.

Where does this not apply? If you're doing rough framing, demo, or structural work, skip the Festool track saw and the tiny drill. A good circular saw and a solid 18-volt drill will serve you better. If you're a homeowner doing one shelf per year, don't bankrupt yourself for a system built for daily professional use.

My experience is based on about 400 trim-and-cabinet jobs over the last decade, mostly residential interiors. If you're doing commercial steel stud, exterior trim, or production shop work, your tool decisions are going to look different. So take this for what it is: one contractor's scar tissue, organized into a checklist so you don't make the same stupid purchases I did.