Advice on Sanders

[sheperd80]

Im looking to round out my Festool system with a sander or 2 but having trouble deciding which would suit me best. I ordered a pro 5 and will have it next month hopefully. It doesnt exactly fit my needs as well as others but for the price...

Anyway, im a hobbyist woodworker / furniture maker, and proffesional carpenter. Im using a bosch 5" ros and a ridgid belt sander at work and those cover all my needs but id like to replace them both with festool simply for the system integration. I actually like both tools but theyre just not as easy to use with the midi.

Common tasks for me:
-Sanding down hardwoods from 80 through 150 grit, including on edge of 3/4 material (which requires a free hand) often with rough tablesaw marks that require some elbow grease. 
-Occaisionally finish sanding larger surfaces with the orbital.
-Scribing in panel edges or shaping large templates with a belt sander.

I guess my questions are... will the pro 5 be aggressive enough to sand out saw marks quickly the way my bosch does? And would a rotex be a suitable replacement for a belt sander for scribing and shaping edges? Basically i need a decent 1 handed sander, and a hogger. Am i gonna end up leaving the pro 5 at home for fine finish sanding and end up wanting and ets ec for orbital work?

Thanks for any input.

 

[semenza]

  I don't think the Pro 5 will take care of the saw marks very easily. Sounds like an RO150 would do pretty well for you. It will remove saw marks easily. And I have done lots of scribing with it too. It can also delve into the finish sanding realm quite well. But if you want a dedicated finish sander pair it with an ETS150/3 or ETS150EC/3. Get the hard pad for both.

   

  The king of scribing in the Festool line is the RAS115, but it is not a very versatile sander.

Seth

 

[Chance Beasley]

I'm in construction as well and do woodworking on the side for fun. So, my advice would be to get a RO150 and an ETS150/3. I have been happy with both. By getting the same size, you only need one size of abrasives. And, if you need to hog out a lot of material, having the larger surface is really helpful when doing beams, siding, etc. The ETS is really smooth operating one handed and a lot more low profile than the taller Pro5 you are waiting on. Hope this helps.

 

[rljatl]

I've been thinking about using my Pro5 as a dedicated sander for round overs or for anywhere I do not want a flat service.

Put one or two soft interface pads on it and it seems like it would work well for this.  That way you could leave hard pads on the RO150 and ETS150/3

 

[antss]

There is no way you're gonna use a rotex 150 one handed for scribing work, or anything else really. 

I'd stick with 5" / 125mm dia. sanders to standardize your disc collection. Why have 125 and 150 ???  And unless you're sanding down huge surfaces like tabletops or doors on a regular basis, the added size weight and cost of 150mm dia. vs. time saved isn't going to justify itself over 125mm.

"-Occaisionally finish sanding larger surfaces with the orbital."  (sic)

I don't think you'll find the pro5 enough to quickly remove saw marks either.

I have recently retired a belt sander in favor of a RO90 for scribe work.  Fitted with a hard pad and 40 grit it does pretty good job, but there was a bit of a learning curve with it.  It's a lot easier to hold one handed than a belt sander.  Primarily I went this direction because of the size/weight savings and I have zero need of a finish sander on site. Entertained the ro125 for a bit because of the paper already in my arsenal, but it just wasn't as comfortable to hold one handed. 

 

[semenza]

I read it as a one hander and a sander for hogging. Not as both in one tool. Not sure though.

I think it depends somewhat on hand size, strength, set up, and technique. I have used RO150 in Rotex mode with one had for scribing. I wouldn't call it easy but it doesn't take long either. Plus it is certainly possible to set up to scribe with both hands on the sander. I have used it many, many, times in one hand for random orbit work. Depends on the work. I have recently been using the RO90 for scribing since taking that to job sites allows me to just take one all purpose sander unless sanding is a primary part of the work. But I find it waaaay slower for scribing than the RO150.

Lots of variables.

Seth

 

[Oldwood]

The Ro 150 and ETS150 are a great combination for taking milled lumber to finish ready and the ETS is good between finish coats. I just received my Pro5 the other day and I think it compares to the 5" Bosch but maybe more of a finish sander with the 2mm orbit. I like it for sanding between coats with Mirka abranet. I also like it for sanding edges and radius-ed corners.

The RO150 is a workhorse and I would not be without mine in the shop. With the hard pad you can grind down a solid edge flush with the panel and with the soft pad and fine grit it will produce a finish ready surface for most work.

The RO90 is also a very handy sander and on site it may be the best choice if you are working on narrow widths.

The paper size can be a issue and if you if you work larger pieces you might consider selling the Pro5 getting a ETS150 Ro150 and Ro90.

HTH
Gerry

 

[sheperd80]

Lots of interesting points here. Sounds like the pro5 is gonna stay at home. Since the belt sander is not a real frequent use tool, i could just keep it for awhile and deal with using a dust adapter and having a plug-it flopping around. Its not horrible. :-/ Then i could grab an ets/ec 125 or 150 as my multi purpose work sander.

The ro90 is an interesting option in the future for edge sanding, light scribes on non-plwood edges and other odd jobs i hadnt mentioned. Sometimes we build large scrub plane distressed beams and spend hours hand sanding them. Maybe it would do that job and double as a delta sander which is another occaisional need currently filled by a cordless oscillator.

Anyone using an ets/ec 125 as an all purpose? Is it safe to assume its as aggressive as a typical 5" ros and would work well for removing saw marks etc? Or should i be looking at the ets/ec 150/5 for that type of work?

The ro150 is also really appealing but at the price i think itll have to wait. Ive used one before and while i was able to use it one handed for flat sanding, i wouldnt want to do it all day.

Thanks for all the insight, you guys are great!

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[DrD]

For your scribing and heavy work for removing saw marks, etc, you can't beat the RAS115, it is a beast, yet very easy to control.  It takes a little practice to get the dust shroud where you want it, but, again, it is a beast for generating wood dust.  It is a 4 1/2" base, so don't know how you feel about trimming 5" paper to 4 1/2", but you might be able to get away with stocking 1 size of paper.

DrD

 

[sheperd80]

The ras115 is definitely on my long list, but not exactly what im looking for here. I want to cover my most common sanding operations with plug-it compatible tools. I have sleeved my ct hose and plug-it cord together so the plug-it end is always right there and its great with compatible tools, but a bit cumbersome when i need to use anything else with the ct.

That ras will be a great addition some day though, especially for distressing. We use anything from grinders, scrub planes, and an HL850 to distress beams, columns etc. A dust collection compatible grinder would be amazing for this. Im sure you can imagine the mess after distressing and sanding 100 feet of 12x8 beams.

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