Combining Festool and a Makita 9903 Belt Sander

[Dan Clark]

Hi. I just posted a brief review of the Makita 9903 belt sander and how it can be integrated with your Festool system on Brice Burrells web site:http://www.burrellcustomcarpentry.com (main page).   

Unfortunately for us North American types, the excellent Festool belt sanders are not available here.  But that's just the tip of the iceberg.   Besides Festool tools that are not available here, in many cases we have other, non-Festool tools that we already own.   Or another company might have a tool that fits our needs better.   

So how can we integrate our Festool and non-Festool tools?   What features should we look for?  What adapters are available?  How well do they work together?   My purpose in creating this review was to answer these and other questions using the Makita 9903 belt sander as an example.   

Why the 9903?   In my review, I wrote...

Why the Makita 9903? It meets several criteria as a Festool integration candidate. It?s an excellent, high quality, belt sander with great tracking and has done well in reviews. It looks like it has a nice dust port and some reviewers say that it can be clamped to a work table as a fixed sander.

Here's a pic of the little beast:
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As a standalone tool, the 9903 is a very nice belt sander...

The 9903 is a 3 X 21 sander (it uses a 3? by 21? belt). At 9.5 lbs, it is fairly light. Combine the weight and belt size, and it?s a nice-sized, all around sander. The belt comes very close to the nose, allowing sanding close to corners. Other pluses include excellent tracking via the black tracking adjustment knob on the left front of the sander and an extra-long 16 foot long cord.

Did you know that you can get GREAT dust collection using your Festool DC?  Just cut down a $5 Fein hose adapter and attach like this:
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Want a fixed belt sander that you can take on site, set up quickly, AND have dust collection?  Your CT, MFT and a couple of clamps gives you this:
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For more details, check out my review:http://www.burrellcustomcarpentry.com/subpage36.html.

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Forrest Anderson]

Hi. I just posted a brief review of the Makita 9903 belt sander and how it can be integrated with your Festool system on Brice Burrells web site:http://www.burrellcustomcarpentry.com (main page).

Thanks for that - it was most interesting! I knew that the Makita, like a lot of belt sanders, could be used on its back, but it had never occurred to me to turn it on its side and clamp it down.

Outside the USA, Festool has the CMS with its belt sander module CMS-MOD BS 120:

Your idea is an excellent imitation of that concept! 

Forrest

 

[Mirko]

Today I stretched the stock Festool hose onto a Friends Makita 9920 and we scribed and installed counter tops on a millwork installation job, I was blown away, and plan to buy one as soon as I have a day off :-\. The dust collection is very good about 95%, this project is at a new hospital, so we must work as dust free as possible, the Festools have been getting excellent reception!
The Festool hose fits fine on the 9920 I switched from TS75 to beltsander all day and did not feel I was stretching the end of the hose.

Mirko

 

[Lancashire Fusilier]

Outside the USA, Festool has the CMS with its belt sander module CMS-MOD BS 120:

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Unfortunately the belt sanding module (linisher?) in the CMS is NOT removable and can not be used as a standalone sander.

Fortunately ALL the belt sanding products are available in Australia.

Why are they not in the US? is it a voltage thing? 110 vs 220v??

 

[Dan Clark]

LF,

I think there's general agreement that the big issue is UL (Underwriters Laboratories) approval.  Getting Festool tools past them is a challenge anyway.    Getting unique tools like this past them is a big issue. 

I'd jump all over a CMS if it was available.  I think it would meet a lot of my needs including portability and storability.

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

Hi Dan, great review!! I've been using my Makita 9903 in conjunction with a ho-hum Ridgid shop-vac, using some rubber and hose-clamps, and I've been trying to figure out how to integrate it with the Festool system once I pick up a CT22. This is exactly what I was looking for!! I also like your system of clamping the sander to an MFT, I'll have to try that sometime!

 

[Dan Clark]

Tom,

Thanks.  I've been pretty happy with my setup.  I think that Festool and Makita are a pretty good match quality-wise.  I've been thinking of creating some jigs to enhance it a bit, but haven't had the time.

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Papajoe]

hi dan, i'm interested what you use the makita 9903 belt sander for? i'm new to woodworking and appreciate any insights.
thanks
joseph

 

[festoolviking]

Hi Dan

The link to your review doesen't work and the main-page just contains a lot of sponsored links linking back to the main-page.  [sad]  ???
That's how it looks on IOS.
Maybe someone got it working on Windows?

Festoolviking

 

[peter halle]

Dan had posted his review on Brice's website.  Brice let that domain go when he started his blog.  So, that review is somewhere out there in interspace.

Peter

 

[festoolviking]

Ok, maybe somewhere on this?

http://greenanddarkblue.blogspot.se/

Festoolviking

 

[Laminator]

Been using a 9920 with festool vac for almost 10 yrs... A very good combination!  A tip on connecting a vac hose, get a plastic fitting designed for joining sections of black plastic "roll pipe" and sand the barbs off one side of it so it can be tapped snug into the outlet.  The festool hose fits perfectly onto this and is easy to get on and off.  The plastic part can be found at lowes and is gray in color. 

Just a note on the makita sander, it can take heavy continuous use and has been trouble free.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Ok, maybe somewhere on this?

http://greenanddarkblue.blogspot.se/

Festoolviking

I don't have Dan's review on my blog but I do have a pdf copy.  If anyone is interested I'll e mail a copy to you.

 

[kellybreit]

Here’s how I connect my [url=http://