Best sander for home DIY / woodwork shop?

[jetset95]

Whereabouts are you then? There's probably a Brit on here who is close enough that you could visit and compare toys. I'm near Bath, if that'd help.

I love the way our cousins suggest taking old pallet wood to the tool dealer to test out sanders. My experience of retailers in Britain is they sort of look over the counter at you, saying "Touch the festools? This is a festool shop for festool people, we don't want your sort here...." They barely want to open the box, never mind start using tools that you might not buy...

I'm on the other side of the country, near Stansted Airport - very new to this home woodworking and my Black and Decker cheapo sander isn't up to the job any more. I'd love to take a pallet to the store and see the look on their face, even if I didn't get to smooth out a sanding sheet in anger!

 

[jetset95]

But the real moral to the story is one sander can do it, but it is more fun to do it with a few

Thanks Poindexter, but I think I need to delete my browser history now - I could sell my wife on the new TS 55 so I don't have to make home-made table saw (upside down circular saw pushed through a sheet of MDF - my thumb just survived  [blink]), and the new sander really is a necessity if I'm going to make anything without splinters - but three!?! [eek]

 

[Tinker]

In that case I definitely have to side with the others because the Rotex does seem to be the best choice for that particular job. The Rotex 150 was the first Festool sander I had, I used it for many tasks from rough sanding to finish sanding, it can do it all. It just can't do corners.

Thanks Alex, I'm thinking about the Ro 125 - I prefer a 5" to the larger one for some reason...[wink] Perhaps if SS Teach is correct I'll soon be back for a DTS to pick up the corners!

ah ha!  You are hopelessly trapped on the slippery slope.
My fisrt Festoy sander was the RO 150.  I found i needed something to do corner so that led to the DX 93.  Then I needed somehing to take hose  little swirls out on straight grained wood.  Ahha. They have a neato in the DL 130  (ffrom memory I have so many toys to remember all of the ID #'s right off hand.)  That is a rectangular pad with pads to do grooves and round edges as well.  That's it.  my next purchase was a pair of hob nailed boots so I would not slide any further. Unfortunately, hose have not worked to well.

Next yo will have to expand your space.  :
Tinker

 

[Peter_C]

My first Festool sander was an RO150. Now I have a few different Festool sanders, along with lots of other brands I bought long ago. Today I won't often use a sander that doesn't have dust collection. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't hesitate to buy the RO150 again, first. It is such a versatile sander. For home remodeling it is indispensable.

 

[jetset95]

I'm going against the grain here and suggesting not buying any Festool sanders, but instead other brands which will accomplish the same and cost half as much or less, especially for home/DIY work.

If you want a larger Rotex then look at the similar 6" Makita, you may need to find a UK retailer but here is the one in the U.S.:http://www.acmetools.com/shop/tools/makita-bo6050j

Also, most brands have quality 1/4 sheet, 1/3 sheet and 1/2 sheet finish sanders. Take your pick. I have Makita 1/4 and 1/3 sheet sanders, and a Bosch 1/2 sheet sander, all of which do an excellent job depending on size of the material or job. I have zero interest in the Festool equivalent products because believe it or not, other brands make excellent tools as well.

Now with all that said, I do have the Rotex 90 because the pad size is somewhat unique with only Metabo (that I have seen) also having a similar product. I also use a 6" Mirka Ceros for large projects, it's smooth and small and keeps going now for 5 years.

Thank you BNABoatbuilder - from that nick I can only assume you have as much experience in this as I do in my other life  so I appreciate the advice. I had seen the Makita online at Axminster Tools (a real shop here in the UK but a big online store also) and it has some negative comments compared to previous models of the same ilk.

One of the reasons I'm looking more at Festool these days is due to the dust collection kudos the brand gets. I have a very small garage shop (compared to my two story, double garage when I lived in America  [sad]) and I'm already fed up of pulling out the shop vac to clean up the sawdust and larger chips which come from my older / cheaper tools. Do any of the other manufacturers cope with dust as well as Festool products seem to?

Thanks, James

 

[DrD]

It's me again, DrD, before you decide, look at what sand paper cost and selection you have with the round sanders.  As I said earlier, I have 3 round sanders, and the half sheet RS2E.  I do a fair amount of sanding (all connected to CT26 dust extractor) and nothing I've encountered yet couldn't be taken from rough finish, for example reclaimed barn wood, to 1000+ grit polish using only 1 sander, the RS2E, or its Bosch and maybe Makita (not sure if Makita makes one) counterpart.  And, the paper cost is way cheaper/less expensive!

If I were to have only one sander, it would be the RS2E - although the RAS115 is handy for scooping out chair seats.

 

[rvieceli]

[member=19075]DrD[/member] the half sheet for Makita is the BO4900V. It even takes Festool paper as well as the normal half sheet stuff. Under 200USD most places
http://www.toolnut.com/makita-bo4900v-finishing-sander.html

Ron

 

[Ross 71]

There's a dealer in Saffron Walden, called Pigeon or similar. Can't quite remember, or find it on google. That's pretty close though, innit?

 

[w802h]

The 150 ETS EC is my favorite sander for most wood applications.  I like the comments Alex made about the DTS.  Perhaps the 5" EC sander would be more versatile of these two. 

For flattening and smoothing rough boards a hand plane, preferably a jointer plane will remove wood faster than any sander.  If your boards have embedded nails and debris, I think the paper on a belt sander will last longer than a Rotex.

 

[Scott B.]

ETS-EC 150/5.

ditto

 

[jetset95]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and insight into this. I've managed to try a few of the related dual action sanders to the Rotex family, but both the Bosch and Makita versions only come in a 6" pad and they are really too big for my needs, hence my earlier comment about looking more at the Rotex 125. I assume that sanding discs from other manufacturers can be made to work even if the holes don't match up if I want to avoid the higher cost of the Festool pads.

For a purely flat sander, then the RTS 400 looks like a good bet but would struggle to clean up more challenging boards so I think the 125 is where I'm headed. If Bosch or Makita did a smaller version the cost saving would be very tempting, but I don't fancy that big head burning through thin British boards so for a dual action it looks like Festool is it...

I'm really enjoying the posts on here, lots of interesting thoughts and ideas to try out when I get the shop kitted out properly.

Thanks all - have fun and be safe.

 

[Holmz]

It's me again, DrD, before you decide, look at what sand paper cost and selection you have with the round sanders.  As I said earlier, I have 3 round sanders, and the half sheet RS2E.  I do a fair amount of sanding (all connected to CT26 dust extractor) and nothing I've encountered yet couldn't be taken from rough finish, for example reclaimed barn wood, to 1000+ grit polish using only 1 sander, the RS2E, or its Bosch and maybe Makita (not sure if Makita makes one) counterpart.  And, the paper cost is way cheaper/less expensive!

If I were to have only one sander, it would be the RS2E - although the RAS115 is handy for scooping out chair seats.

Brother, I like a 1/2-sheet too.

I am going to also go against the grain here and suggest that a belt sander would beat an RO-150 if one wants FLAT as well as smooth.

Whether it is the Festool BS105 or the deWalt (and maybe the Makita??)...  with the frame that one can get with them it allows the sander to somewhat hover over the surface.

If I was primarily doing reclaimed wood, like pallets, then I would suggest looking at what is available in belt sanders... (Which I think is less options than in the past)

 

[DrD]

[member=40772]Holmz[/member]
Thanks for reminding me of the belt sander.  I've got a 20+ year old Craftsman that can hog stuff off while being able to keep a pretty flat surface.  Grit selection is pretty good too.

 

[leakyroof]

I'm going against the grain here and suggesting not buying any Festool sanders, but instead other brands which will accomplish the same and cost half as much or less, especially for home/DIY work.

If you want a larger Rotex then look at the similar 6" Makita, you may need to find a UK retailer but here is the one in the U.S.:http://www.acmetools.com/shop/tools/makita-bo6050j

Also, most brands have quality 1/4 sheet, 1/3 sheet and 1/2 sheet finish sanders. Take your pick. I have Makita 1/4 and 1/3 sheet sanders, and a Bosch 1/2 sheet sander, all of which do an excellent job depending on size of the material or job. I have zero interest in the Festool equivalent products because believe it or not, other brands make excellent tools as well.

Now with all that said, I do have the Rotex 90 because the pad size is somewhat unique with only Metabo (that I have seen) also having a similar product. I also use a 6" Mirka Ceros for large projects, it's smooth and small and keeps going now for 5 years.

  I have the Metabo sander you mentioned, not in the same league as a RO 90 due to its even smaller pad size and really gentle orbit and material removal rate. It's a nice sander though.

 

[Holmz]

[member=40772]Holmz[/member]
Thanks for reminding me of the belt sander.  I've got a 20+ year old Craftsman that can hog stuff off while being able to keep a pretty flat surface.  Grit selection is pretty good too.

They do belts from something like 40 to 800 grit. I always would stop at ~80 or ~120 years ago, and suspect it is different when one is used 240 or 320.

There are not many with frames though.
I have been having a hard time finding a deWalt in 4x24 with a frame. But the BS105 looks nice on paper.

 

[rst]

We use Makita 9924DB and 9904DB in our glass fabricating business and they are practically indestructible.  I connect them to vac hoses using the old style Fein step adapters.  These adapters were GREAT, they were flexible and could be adapted to almost any application...so of course they are discontinued.  The newer ones look like they are a rigid plastic.  Same thing happened to the Fein vacs...the new ones do not have variable suction control at the vac.  I have three of the older ones and would never trade them for the new ones. 

 

[Bob D.]

I didn't know DeWalt offered a 4x24 belt sander.

PC used to have one about 12 years ago
before they went totally overseas.

I just looked on their website and they don't
even offer the DW433 3x21 sander any more.