ETS 125 EQ hard to control

DzordanoBruno said:
2 weeks  ago I bought new RO 150 and had the same feel  like You.
But today I am happy with this sander. Everything needs a time. Use it and sander calms down. I use RO 150 with Nilfisk aero 26 21, maximum suction  and sander works wery well.
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The RO are squirrley and hard control, especially for a newb, but not the 125. The ETS sanders  don't act anything like an RO and if they do I would say something is wrong with them. Most likely a bad pad.
 
Alex said:
Festool ETS 125 EQ needs a break in period of 8 hours of use. Before that it will only operate at half power. After those 8 hours it will get full power and be very smooth.
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No it doesn't run at partial power when it's new. That's not how a PWM controlled motor works. If there was any truth to that, you would notice the sander running at slow speed. That's how Universal motors react to a power reduction.

All you are doing with this ridiculous break-in period is loosening up the pad brake, wasting electricity, and putting needless wear on an expensive tool. There are more effective ways to deal with your pad brake than to wear it out.

Your sander is supposed to come with a light film of oil/grease between the sanding pad and the pad brake. If that has been cleaned off, the brake acts more aggressively than it should and handle more like it is a rotex sander than a random orbit sander. The solution is to simply apply a light film of grease between the brake and pad. This is discussed in the manual on page 13.
http://www.waterfront-woods.com/festool/ETS_Sanders.pdf
http://www.waterfront-woods.com/festool/Rotex.pdf

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Alex said:
Uhm, you actually notice that. The slow speed. ...........Second, the pad break slows the pad down considerably. So any fluctuations in motor speed are less noticeable.
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By your own admission, you are noticing the speed of the pad, which has very little to do with the speed of the motor. Did you put a tachometer on your motor before making your statement? No! You made it up because you don't understand the mechanics of the tool.

You're free to believe and do whatever you want in the privacy of your own shop. But stop telling other people they should do the same as though it was proven fact. You're speculating based on a very limited level of experience dealing with a very infrequent exposure to a new sander.

 
You're quoting a 10 year old internet posting with reference to an FAQ database that no longer exists that was supposedly written by an unnamed employee. Yeah, I'll still call that speculation. Has it ever occurred to you that there may be a darned good reason why that Q&A no longer exists today?

Your scenario has no basis in fact, and it fails miserably with logic. But if you want to walk through that failure point-by-point, I'd be happy to.

Oops. I just fell out of my chair when I got the email notification of your next posting (above). I'm gonna stop here and go have some fun with that one.  [thumbs up]

 
Alex said:
Rick Christopherson said:
By your own admission, you are noticing the speed of the pad, which has very little to do with the speed of the motor. Did you put a tachometer on your motor before making your statement? No! You made it up because you don't understand the mechanics of the tool.
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Wait a sec.... you're not seriously saying the motor and the pad run at a different speed?

The pad is connected straight on the shaft of the motor. So they always run at the same speed. Please explain to me again how it is me who doesn't understand the mechanics of the tool.
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OK, OK, I've composed myself enough to stop laughing. So let me take a little more serious approach to explaining how dual action sanders (including the subset of Random Orbit) work.

Wait a minute, I don't need to rewrite that. It's in the manual on page 7. Go read the manual(s) linked above--NOW!

The motor is connected to an eccentric bearing. It's rotational speed is independent of the motor speed. You can see that for yourself by simply holding onto the pad when you first turn it on. The exception is the Rotex sanders which are gear-driven, and the rotational speed of the pad is approximately 1:9 with the speed of the motor.

What's troubling, is that you don't understand these very basic principles of ROS operation, yet you feel compelled to argue with me about how they work.  [scared]
 
When the pad switches direction the velocity must go to zero. (or through zero).
However the motor is going a constant speed, just an eccentric has the pad going in a sine wave motion.

When the speed it turned down it is possible to feel it catch, and get traction, at the inflection points.
That has little to do with power and more to do with the PRM.
 
So now you're saying that a variable speed orbital sander needs some sort of break-in too? It's variable speed! How does this alleged "brush break-in" come into play on a motor that by its very nature is variable speed? What are you supposedly accomplishing with your break-in?

So if it isn't the brushes that are supposedly being broken-in, then what is it? You're so hung up on this break-in answer that you refuse to actually stand back and think logically about what is going on. You drew conclusions based on limited observations, and then carried that observation into a false cause-and-effect.

If your conclusions were correct, then every sander operated at less than 100% variable speed would exhibit the same problem as described with a new sander. Why are there no forum questions about people suddenly having this same problem after they replace their motor bushes?
 
By the way, I know that you still haven't read the manual!!! There wasn't enough time between your postings to accomplish that, and page 7 is not what I would call a "light read". So stop and read the manual before you continue with your argument.
 
I sure hope the new ec tec powered 125 lays this whole break in discussion to rest in the future. I have a feeling it will.

In my experience, I have never seen a new festool sander out of the box only run at half power.
 
I would not wAnt to have to sand for 8 hours to get a good sander.
Especially when people say that sanders go through wood like bulimic beaver.
One should be able to reduce a 2x4 to Powder?

How are these that much better than an el cheapo sander that requires no special skills to use it?
 
I've been making sanding dust for better than 50 years.  Presently own 13 sanders, 9 of them Festools.  I have the ETS125 and it is one of the smoothest sanders ever made.  I run all my new power tools, including the cordless, or two minutes. Anything longer than this is just pissn in the wind.  Most sander or for that matter any tool malfunction is usually...I'm sorry...operator error or inexperience.
 
Holmz said:
I would not wAnt to have to sand for 8 hours to get a good sander.
Especially when people say that sanders go through wood like bulimic beaver.
One should be able to reduce a 2x4 to Powder?

How are these that much better than an el cheapo sander that requires no special skills to use it?
Click to expand...

For me, the sensory experience is a big part of it. I do use them often for hours a day. Other sanders have loud bearing noise and much higher vibration.

For the most part, the quality of the dust extraction and abrasives improve the quality of finished product and efficiency in getting there.

It is possible to do it other ways, though.

 
This is pointless, posts deleted, I'm not going to start WW3 about a dumb sander.

Break in advice stays. Take it or leave it. [tongue]
 
Good call, Alex. When the college memories surface, it's time to go do something else!
 
Scott Burt said:
I sure hope the new ec tec powered 125 lays this whole break in discussion to rest in the future. I have a feeling it will.

In my experience, I have never seen a new festool sander out of the box only run at half power.
Click to expand...

No ec 125 yet, just a 150/3 & 5, so the pointless arguing polite discussion will probably continue for a while yet.
 
Well I am sure glad to read that for whatever reason the sander is working better for the OP.

I certainly hope that the conversation style exhibited here does not become the norm for the forum because it sucked - in any language - anywhere - even if it was meant to be informational.

Peter Halle - Moderator
 
Yes Peter, I know it sucked and was not suitable for this forum, that's why I deleted my input. Sorry for that.
 
rst said:
I've been making sanding dust for better than 50 years.  Presently own 13 sanders, 9 of them Festools.  I have the ETS125 and it is one of the smoothest sanders ever made.  I run all my new power tools, including the cordless, or two minutes. Anything longer than this is just pissn in the wind.  Most sander or for that matter any tool malfunction is usually...I'm sorry...operator error or inexperience.
Click to expand...

I am finding the whole thread interesting and I admit to not usually getting overly excited by sanding.
While I have some experience, most of it has not been 'mindful'.

So I looked at the 13 minute video in the other thread.

I am not sure what there was to glean from it. What I noticed was:
1) Start the machine with the sander on the work.
2) Remove the sander before switching it off.
3) Keep the sander flat.

What did I miss?

Either I have just been lucky, or I am missing the nuance of the technique.
 
Jeez Burt, you can remember college?  I have trouble remembering yesterday.  [tongue]
 
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