Festool - thinking of taking the leap...

[packerguy®]

Richard D. said:

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Without the dust extractor the Festool sanders are ordinary.

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Bump to emphasis this.

[Steve N]

packerguy® said:

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[blockquote]Richard D. said:

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Without the dust extractor the Festool sanders are ordinary.

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Bump to emphasis this.

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[/blockquote]

Bumpity bump

Rotex is a sore arm in the making, and numb hands. I've owned a Bosch dual mode, and a Rigid/Metabo and both of them were much smoother than the Festoll.

For smaller sanders what Richard said about the paper is true, and good paper can make any sander seem awesome. I have and love 2 of the now gone Porter Cable 390k I'll miss them when mine die.

[Wipedout]

packerguy® said:

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[blockquote]Richard D. said:

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Without the dust extractor the Festool sanders are ordinary.

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Bump to emphasis this.

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[/blockquote]

However it doesn't have to be the festool dust extractor. I used my Fien for a couple years with my Rotex and 150/3 with great results before getting a festool dust extractor

[Tony Z]

LIL. I have a number of Festool powertools, as well as Bosch & Dewalt. I have a Fein Turbo II vac, and making the vac connections was a bit problematic, sometimes having to resort to duct tape to get a seal.

Anyhow, several weeks ago, I picked up a Rockler product-hose and soft rubber adapters that fit the Fein inlet perfectly, has about a 10' (or so) hose, and several soft rubber ends that fit every tool I have. Price was less than $40.00. I am not associated with Rockler in any way, but this unit is worth a serious look if anyone has had trouble adapting tools to a non-Festool vac.

[Bill_de]

Steve N said:

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Bumpity bump

For smaller sanders what Richard said about the paper is true, and good paper can make any sander seem awesome. I have and love 2 of the now gone Porter Cable 390k I'll miss them when mine die.

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I have a 390 and a yellow one from DeWalt. With them I have never looked for anything better. They hook up nicely to my Festool c22. With the vac power turned down a little more than half their is virtually no dust (in most situations).

[bubba]

Wipedout said:

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[blockquote]packerguy® said:

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[blockquote]Richard D. said:

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Without the dust extractor the Festool sanders are ordinary.

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Bump to emphasis this.

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[/blockquote]

However it doesn't have to be the festool dust extractor. I used my Fien for a couple years with my Rotex and 150/3 with great results before getting a festool dust extractor

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[/blockquote]

I don't have it in my budget to get a Festool dust extractor at this time. I have a Shop Vac that I use with my router, sanders, etc. It isn't variable speed. Would I be disappointed in the sander without a variable speed dust collector?

[cputnam]

A couple years ago, I was faced with African Mahogany panels that I was unable to hand plane. After a disastrous experience with the 6" Ridgid my wife said to bite the bullet and off we went to the local Festool dealer and get the medium sized vac and the 6" Rotex. It made short work of those panels - hogs off wood right NOW. I've since acquired the ETS 125 for the final sanding passes - 180, 220 & 320 grits. Need to get some 150 for the woods for which that will be the final grit.

You can use your existing vac as long as you can get it hooked up to the sander. You may have to punch holes in the hose to reduce suction. The reason I took so long to get the Festools was a reluctance to spend money for the vac. Now that I have it, I kick myself for being so stupid.

[gcrimmins]

I've used a variety of sanders that belong to a friend. I find the Rotex sanders to be a bit hard to control, especially in rotary mode. I'm not sure if that's just how they are, or if I wasn't using it correctly. The ETS 125 is fine, but my favorite sander is the Mirka Ceros. Is so small, light, and easy to control. And it does a great job sanding. Festool is just releasing a new line of brushless-motor sanders to compete with the Ceros/Deros sanders. They sound like they are worthy of consideration.

[Richard D.]

jussi said:

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Are you not using autonet anymore? What are you using on your ceros?

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Honestly, I haven't picked up any of my sanders in several months. My day job has been so busy that I haven't had much time in my own shop. The lousy tools at my day job really make me appreciate my own tools that much more and no I wouldn't dare to bring my personal power tools to work.

To answer your question though.... I still use the Autonet on my Mirka but ordered the Rhyno stuff for my ETS125 to compare with the Festool paper which is pricey (surprise!). I've always had great results with the Industrial Abrasives stuff so I figured that it was worth using instead of the Festool discs. I still haven't determined a winner and one day may be as industrious as Jteneyck and do a proper test. I'll keep you posted.

Everybody:

Sanding basically sucks no matter what combination of paper and tool you use. Here is my standard statement that I post in everyone of these threads.... ....

We spend more time sanding than any other process of a woodworking project. You probably think your tablesaw gets used more than any other tool but you'd be wrong. Sanding creates the finest, and therefore most harmful, dust than any other process. So based on those two factors why do the majority of folks spend less on a sander/vacuum than any other powertool?

[Steve N]

Richard D. said:

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So based on those two factors why do the majority of folks spend less on a sander/vacuum than any other powertool?

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Can't speak for anyone but myself, but for me it has never been about the amount of money spent that has driven my tool purchases, but on the amount of perceived value I get from the tool. IOW if a HF $2.99 whizpop got me all the results I could hope for in a tool doing that function, I call it crazy money to spend a cent more. It is likely why I own no Festool tools. I feel there are much lower priced tools that do the same or better work, and cost so much less. I do however find it very amusing when someone tries to say you NEED to have an XYZ to even think about doing..............

So many ways to skin these darn cats

We do sand way too much though. I think deep down we are all somewhat masochistic