Festool for sanding steel?

[straightpipez]

Can anyone recommend a Festool (Rotex?) for sanding steel sheet and tube? We fab custom steel furniture, mostly hot rolled steel and some stainless and sand in order to paint, patina or simply leave the material bare and wax or apply clear coat. I'm not looking for something to grind welds, we have that covered. We currently use typical orbital sanders (DeWalt, Milwaukee, Porter Cable) but I'd like to step up the quality of finish and longevity of the tool. We use Mirka sanding discs as well (Abranet and Abralon) but are open to others. I'm also looking at the Fein random orbital but it looks like Festool may have more options. Thanks!

 

[AlexThePalex]

About every Festool sander will do. Worked a lot with metal myself too. I always prefer random orbit sanders like the ETS150 and the Rotex above orbital sanders. We always spray painted it though, since we primarily worked on cars and industrial applications like scissor lifts, machines or air ducts.

As regarding to the quality of finish, you won't win anything with Festool over other brands. Might win some on the longevity. The superior dust collection of Festool won't be much of a pro either when working with bare metal because there's hardly any dust developing when sanding metal.

Very often brush sanders are used on metal to give it the aptly named 'brushed metal' look. Very decorative when used on stainless steel and aluminum. Festool has a brush sander, the Rustofix RAS 180 , but it might be not available in North America, the Makita 9741 is one, and there are also stationary brush sanders .

 

[straightpipez]

Thanks. I'm heading to Beaver Tool today and have a look.