A Sander Comparison - ETS150/3 Versus RO150

[peter halle]

I posted yesterday about playing in the shop and trying out an idea I had for drilling holes at a user determined interval with the OF1400 and common accessories.  Here is what I was playing with - the the reason for the thread title.

First,  I have had on my bucket list a set of paduak cabinets / entertainment center and a paduak aquarium setup for my living room for years.  The economy and other stuff has gotten in the way and the projects were put on hold.  My taste in furniture tends more to the simplistic / modern.  I love lights.  While setting up the Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and moving my paduak and purpleheart lumber to the rented shop (adding to the chaos there) I came up with an idea that I wanted to play with.

Years ago I built a corner cabinet for my TV and being the frugal guy I sometimes can be, used materials that I had on hand.  Below is an image of one of the doors of the cabinet.  The interior of the cabinet can be lit with leds with the color of my choice.  The panel material is a type of lexan that I got for free.  It was sanded front and back to create the frosted look using the RO150.  Notice the cloudy effect.

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Well the Christmas tree experience and changing the lighting over to leds (5 mm) diameter as a coincidence as well as the fact that I had extra sets left over gave me an idea.  So yesterday I played like this:

Took a scrap piece of lexan (1/2" thick and 36" x 23") and sanded both sides with the ETS150/3 using 60 grit Cristal (what I had on hand).  The sanding experience and the evenness of the pattern was so much better with the ETS150/3 than when I used the RO150 for the cabinet doors.  In fact, within the first three seconds I knew I was going to be happy.  I admit that I started sanding with 180 grit brilliant, but the scratches were too fine  [blink] to create the opaqueness I was looking for, so I switched to a coarser grit.

I then took this piece and clamped it narrow edge up to the front of the MFT/3 so that I could bore the 5 mm holes in the 1/2" edge of the lexan.  Because the edge was so narrow and that the router was going to be sitting partially I on rail, I could not use the support foot.  I countered this by raising the workpiece up to the appropriate height.  Then I set my rail and router to drill on the center line of the edge and experimented with speeds.  I am sure that the Festool 5mm bit that is used in the LR32 system might not be the right bit, but this this experiment is did well.  I did notice some melting of the lexan at the top of the holes.  This prevented me from inserting the leds.  I chucked a cheap Bosch countersink in my C-12 and de-burred the top of the holes.

After several lighting tests I decided on the size for the strip, and sut it down to size using the rail and the TS-55 with the 48 tooth blade.  After cutting I clamped it back onto the front of the MFT/3 and proceeded to sand the front edge starting with 100 grit Cristal and finishing with 400 Briliant.  I admit that as an experiment I only used about 3 steps of grit in the sanding, but a final quick wipe of acetone gave me almost a flame finish.

I post all this here not as if this is some great thing - just wanting others to think differently and not be afraid to experiment and show the sanding differences in my experience - between the two sanders.

In the images below the blue is just masking tape to hold the IKEA led strips in place.  I could have used the Christmas leds (much cheaper but not as bright) in this mockup but the cords were long and ugly.

Just some material for thought.  When I integrate what I learned from this experiment into something more meaningful I will post here.

Peter

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Sideview - Notice the even pattern.  Although this is a narrow strip, the entire large piece was this even.

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Edgeview - Before going to the finer grits this edge was the same as the sides an you could not discern the individual light sources.

 

[Scott B.]

Hi Peter

I went through a similar experience this week. We redesigned our shop drying rack system (first redesign since '07, or was it '05) which called for a pretty significant cut list and then a whole bunch of boring and then a whole bunch of sanding.

I sanded for 3.5 hours with the RO90 (all orbital 80g), only because it was the first sander within reach (as usual). But it dawned on me after hour 2 what a workout it is to use a Rotex for extended finish sanding.

My first choice in most cases for garden variety finish or clean up sanding is the ets125 for ergonomic and quality reasons, but between the two you listed, the 150/3 will get grabbed more by me than its Rotex counterpart for that type of task.

 

[Bob Marino]

Hey Pete,

Thanks for sharing. While the RO 150 is an extremely versatile sander - soup to nuts, when I hit 120 and above, I prefer the 150/3. Smoother, quieter and easier to handle. IMHO, it's Festool's best sander for fine sanding and simply a pleasure to use.

Bob

 

[tiralie]

when I hit 120 and above, I prefer the 150/3. Smoother, quieter and easier to handle.

Agreed. I am just finishing up sanding a bunch of maple for staining and the 150/3 is a joy to use...I hate sanding.
Tim

 

[Scott B.]

...I hate sanding.
Tim

[big grin] Now that is funny.

 

[ccarrolladams]

Something to consider: Not all 150mm dia RO sanders with a 5mm stroke are equal.

The RO150 has more power than the ETS150/5, yet their strokes are equal. However, the ETS150/5 has significantly higher RPM. With finer grits, within reason the higher the RPM the better.

The way I personally work I hardly ever need to remove stock with a sander. For such tasks I have a selection of large saws, jointers and thickness planers. Therefore my sanding is toward a finish. I own 80 grit and coarser, but rarely use those. Generally I start at 100 grit and move to 120. Since my shop does no finishing, I ask how fine to sand from the finishing contractors. Usually they prefer to take over at 120, but one asks me to go to 150 grit.

The only major Festool sander I do not own is the ETS150/5. Last weekend at the In-Touch Tools Palm Desert Festool Extravaganza I had the chance to use an ETS150/5 with 100 to 150 grit on a couple of off-cut re-growth maple at my shop I had re-sawn,' jointed and planed to 33mm. I had sanded one side in my shop with an ETS150/3 using the same Granat discs.

After I felt good about the results, many participants tried to guess which side was done on the ETS150/3. Honestly the only way I could tell was that on the end grain I had made a pencil note with an arrow, which I covered with masking tape before asking for guesses.

I cannot say if one of those sanders did its magic in less time. Bottom line is I ordered a new ETS150/5 from my usual Los Angeles dealer. I expect it to be on our Monday 10 December delivery.