idratherplaytennis
Member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2015
- Messages
- 66
Hey, not yet a Festool owner, first time poster, and soon to be an owner of something green... I wanted some opinions. After careful deliberation, and viewing several of the "New to Festool" forum posts and "First Sander" posts, I've decided you all sound like a pretty friendly and very helpful crowd and decided that for my needs, it would be best to give a new post so I don't get lost in everyone's very specific advice for other people.
First a small bit of background for the work I do- My family owns multiple rental properties consisting of anywhere from 2-6 units a piece, most dating back as far as the 50's. Most of the units haven't undergone serious renovations, and of the ones we've tested for lead, minimal traces were found- of which I guess we are pretty lucky. That said- RRP is a very real part of what I need to consider. I do all kinds of work in the renovations and regular upkeep, from remodeling, cabinet installation and/or repair, trim, electrical, plumbing, tiling, flooring, drywall- basically... I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. I went to school for architecture, finishing my degree however I've found that I have a much greater love for construction and cabinet work with a potential for furniture work as well, and plan to be moving in that direction much sooner, as well as staying involved with the family business and increasing the family business through newer property acquisition be it to flip or buy-rehab-lease.
That said, I do anything on this older stuff from repairing oak thresholds or window sills with decades of layers of paint, restoring them to stain grade if the wood hasn't succumbed to rot or termites, or whatever. I have some old tables I've found that I plan to work on and sell to get a feel for the furniture work, but require stripping through varnish or paint or whatever the case is. I've amassed a decent collection of the upper end of Makita's line of tools, including their track saw (it was a hard fought fight over not getting the TS55 but my current budget won out- and for now, it works amazing, so I can only imagine how great the TS55 is), their 10" compound mitersaw, the LS1016L and their 1/2 sheet sander BO4900V. From reviews, the sander came in as a close second to tie of the Festool RS 2 which I will eventually purchase. Pretty happy with the current setup of tools I have but as I just turned 30, my parents wanted to get me something I've been wanting for awhile and thus, here I am- ready to make the leap into the addictive world of green.
From a personal assessment, I feel a RO 90 DX would be the ideal sander to start with, as I already have a pretty good sander with the Makita 1/2 sheet (most of the specs from my comparison match the RS2 nearly exactly, not sure of the stroke size) and I believe the RO 90 with the Delta pad would be the best bang for my buck, especially if I were to bundle it with one of the DC's which I can then use to make my 3 previously mentioned dust mongering Makita's a lot better in that department. I actually learned about sanding in general from growing up using my dad's Milwaukee 1/2 sheet sander (a size and model they no longer make, unfortunately) and as such have never really used any quarter sheet or round sheet sanders as the 1/2 sheet always felt the best. I do realize the RO 90 has a learning curve, however I also read it has a less steep learning curve than it's more aggressive bigger brothers. This selection is one of the things I am looking for some input on.
Another question relates to the size of a dust collector. I'm strongly considering the CT36 as I do plan to use it for track saw, miter saw and sanding purposes, and it will be used both on site in apartments, and in a garage shop, while also getting carted around a lot. It would probably be transported in the back of my crew cab Silverado where the seats fold up, as opposed to the bed to minimize rolling around and protect the investment a lot more. I'm not limited on size, however I want to try and also keep things manageable while minimizing constant bag replacement. It will only be used for dust collection as I have a couple different sized Ridgid vacs that work amazing for debris of all sizes and don't have a concern in that area. I do believe that I read someplace on this forum that I could purchase the lower storage compartments to increase or decrease the size, and actually put in a call to Festool yesterday where I found I could order them, however I need to order each part individually as the bottom halves are not sold as a unit, however when priced out, it came out to a couple hundred dollars which is far cheaper than buying the entire unit over again. All this in consideration, what DC size would you guys recommend if you were in a similar situation?
My last question comes from the standpoint of looking to future green investments. I know I will probably get another 2 sanders in the future, and I'm contemplating between the RO 125 and 150, both for the larger size of the aggressive mode, as well as their finish/buffing capabilities, while also purchasing a smaller than 1/2 sheet finish sander. I see a lot of high recommendations of the ETS 150 on here and I am wondering if it would behoove me to match that next sander (the RO 125 or the RO 150) with it's equivalent of a finish sander. I do know the ETS 150 comes with 2 stroke sizes, the 3 and 5mm while the RO 150 has a 5mm stroke. I figure the ETS 150/3 would compliment the finish sanding of the RO 150 nicely, however with already having a 1/2 sheet finish sander, I don't know if the 5" 125 pad sizes would make more sense as a go-between of the RO 90 and the 1/2 sheet.
If you could just get a happy medium of 3 sanders, which would you include? I don't currently do a lot of stain-grade work for cabinet's but it might be in my future. Most of our apartment work is paint-grade except for some of the units which managed to still be stained in good condition from some very long term tenants, the revival of one which is coming up very soon as a tenant of 25 years will be moving out and we will be sanding and putting new poly on the kitchen cabinets (again, being very lucky the tenants took excellent care of the apartment compared to others, we have had in the past).
Sorry this turned out so long [embarassed]- I do a ton of research and usually wind up triple and quadruple-checking myself as a result and just wanted to be as detailed as I could to help you guys with your opinions. Thanks for your time! (also- I know I mentioned I do drywall, however I don't use sanders for what little drywall work I do. I typically sand by hand or we have an employee who is very good at drywall work which we use, so that is also a moot point, however I would look into the planex or something else related at a much later date).
First a small bit of background for the work I do- My family owns multiple rental properties consisting of anywhere from 2-6 units a piece, most dating back as far as the 50's. Most of the units haven't undergone serious renovations, and of the ones we've tested for lead, minimal traces were found- of which I guess we are pretty lucky. That said- RRP is a very real part of what I need to consider. I do all kinds of work in the renovations and regular upkeep, from remodeling, cabinet installation and/or repair, trim, electrical, plumbing, tiling, flooring, drywall- basically... I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. I went to school for architecture, finishing my degree however I've found that I have a much greater love for construction and cabinet work with a potential for furniture work as well, and plan to be moving in that direction much sooner, as well as staying involved with the family business and increasing the family business through newer property acquisition be it to flip or buy-rehab-lease.
That said, I do anything on this older stuff from repairing oak thresholds or window sills with decades of layers of paint, restoring them to stain grade if the wood hasn't succumbed to rot or termites, or whatever. I have some old tables I've found that I plan to work on and sell to get a feel for the furniture work, but require stripping through varnish or paint or whatever the case is. I've amassed a decent collection of the upper end of Makita's line of tools, including their track saw (it was a hard fought fight over not getting the TS55 but my current budget won out- and for now, it works amazing, so I can only imagine how great the TS55 is), their 10" compound mitersaw, the LS1016L and their 1/2 sheet sander BO4900V. From reviews, the sander came in as a close second to tie of the Festool RS 2 which I will eventually purchase. Pretty happy with the current setup of tools I have but as I just turned 30, my parents wanted to get me something I've been wanting for awhile and thus, here I am- ready to make the leap into the addictive world of green.
From a personal assessment, I feel a RO 90 DX would be the ideal sander to start with, as I already have a pretty good sander with the Makita 1/2 sheet (most of the specs from my comparison match the RS2 nearly exactly, not sure of the stroke size) and I believe the RO 90 with the Delta pad would be the best bang for my buck, especially if I were to bundle it with one of the DC's which I can then use to make my 3 previously mentioned dust mongering Makita's a lot better in that department. I actually learned about sanding in general from growing up using my dad's Milwaukee 1/2 sheet sander (a size and model they no longer make, unfortunately) and as such have never really used any quarter sheet or round sheet sanders as the 1/2 sheet always felt the best. I do realize the RO 90 has a learning curve, however I also read it has a less steep learning curve than it's more aggressive bigger brothers. This selection is one of the things I am looking for some input on.
Another question relates to the size of a dust collector. I'm strongly considering the CT36 as I do plan to use it for track saw, miter saw and sanding purposes, and it will be used both on site in apartments, and in a garage shop, while also getting carted around a lot. It would probably be transported in the back of my crew cab Silverado where the seats fold up, as opposed to the bed to minimize rolling around and protect the investment a lot more. I'm not limited on size, however I want to try and also keep things manageable while minimizing constant bag replacement. It will only be used for dust collection as I have a couple different sized Ridgid vacs that work amazing for debris of all sizes and don't have a concern in that area. I do believe that I read someplace on this forum that I could purchase the lower storage compartments to increase or decrease the size, and actually put in a call to Festool yesterday where I found I could order them, however I need to order each part individually as the bottom halves are not sold as a unit, however when priced out, it came out to a couple hundred dollars which is far cheaper than buying the entire unit over again. All this in consideration, what DC size would you guys recommend if you were in a similar situation?
My last question comes from the standpoint of looking to future green investments. I know I will probably get another 2 sanders in the future, and I'm contemplating between the RO 125 and 150, both for the larger size of the aggressive mode, as well as their finish/buffing capabilities, while also purchasing a smaller than 1/2 sheet finish sander. I see a lot of high recommendations of the ETS 150 on here and I am wondering if it would behoove me to match that next sander (the RO 125 or the RO 150) with it's equivalent of a finish sander. I do know the ETS 150 comes with 2 stroke sizes, the 3 and 5mm while the RO 150 has a 5mm stroke. I figure the ETS 150/3 would compliment the finish sanding of the RO 150 nicely, however with already having a 1/2 sheet finish sander, I don't know if the 5" 125 pad sizes would make more sense as a go-between of the RO 90 and the 1/2 sheet.
If you could just get a happy medium of 3 sanders, which would you include? I don't currently do a lot of stain-grade work for cabinet's but it might be in my future. Most of our apartment work is paint-grade except for some of the units which managed to still be stained in good condition from some very long term tenants, the revival of one which is coming up very soon as a tenant of 25 years will be moving out and we will be sanding and putting new poly on the kitchen cabinets (again, being very lucky the tenants took excellent care of the apartment compared to others, we have had in the past).
Sorry this turned out so long [embarassed]- I do a ton of research and usually wind up triple and quadruple-checking myself as a result and just wanted to be as detailed as I could to help you guys with your opinions. Thanks for your time! (also- I know I mentioned I do drywall, however I don't use sanders for what little drywall work I do. I typically sand by hand or we have an employee who is very good at drywall work which we use, so that is also a moot point, however I would look into the planex or something else related at a much later date).
