Heads up - RAS 115 and Sysports Discontinued (US)

[PeterJJames13]

Festool USA discontinued these a few 6ears back. They may still be available elsewhere in the world though. I've found them to work well. It attaches to the outlet on the DC.

 

[Cheese]

Why isn't the spark trap mentioned (484733), to be found on the festool usa site?

As already mentioned, this accessory was discontinued 4 years ago so finding a Festool unit will be difficult.

However, an easier search would be looking for a Nilfisk spark arrestor as they manufactured the Festool unit.

 

[Svar]

If you are concerned about sparks when grinding metal there are several things you could do. Start with empty bag or no bag at all (just filter). Do not leave vac unattended and remove bag after completing the task. Connect vac through a container, for example a bucket. After all the FT spark trap is just intermediate container to slow down air flow and drop particles.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Even simpler is to add another length of hose. The life of a spark can be measured in milliseconds. Most sparks would never make it through the first hose.

According to this, cyclones are effective too.

 

[ScotF]

I literally just bought one from a dealer last week that was 50% off - I think that they might still have a few left. Just google it and you can find it.

 

[ScotF]

And I just checked and they are out of stock...

 

[Shane Holland]

Friendly bump in case anyone else is interested in the RAS 115, we have them in stock and ready to ship.

Order RAS 115 Now

 

[Mike Goetzke]

This is a great sander. I’m making a couple of Adirondack chairs and a loveseat. I was using 1x stock to match the porch I just made for my wife. The wood is cedartone treated. I needed to roundover many edges and this removed the surface scale and lightened the wood a bit so I needed to sand the other surfaces.

I was using my ETS EC 150/5&3 EQ but was taking too long. I had read this 115 was a very aggressive sander but thought I’d give it a try anyway. WOW - found giving it a light touch and letting the sanders weight do the work it was perfect. I used 80 grit because that’s the highest I bought. Then I used 120 & 150 with my ETS’s. Now I’ll need to get some height grit for my 115!

 

[m8]

The RAS was always towards the middle of my long list of tools to buy.  Well fortunately I was looking at the Milwaukee trim router on Toolnut.com and noticed on the side of the page that the RAS was on sale for $215.  A quick search on here and I was able to find out why it was at such a great price.  Anyway I made the decision to move the RAS all the way to the top of my list of tools to buy and placed my order today.  Thanks Shane for starting this thread and for the great price.

 

[Shane Holland]

Thanks Shane for starting this thread and for the great price.

[thumbs up] Thanks for the order. That new Milwaukee M18 router is pretty sweet too, glad you got our email about it.

 

[ProCarpenterRVA]

I use my RAS 115 more than any other tool except drills. As a cabinet installer, it works wonders for all the scribing I have to do. I might have to grab another just to have a back up.

I had to jump on the deal, after I realized that I had installed a few thousand feet of crown molding without knowing anything about the RAS115.

Mines supposed to be here tomorrow and I've been educating myself with the YouTube videos available. Thank you Peter Halle and others for the excellent help.

And thanks to Shane for the awesome service.

 

[Shane Holland]

And thanks to Shane for the awesome service.

Our absolute pleasure to serve you, sir.  [big grin]

 

[m8]

Received the RAS 115 last week and for the couple of quick jobs I've used it for I can say to those sitting on the fence please purchase one before they're gone.

 

[Shane Holland]

Received the RAS 115 last week and for the couple of quick jobs I've used it for I can say to those sitting on the fence please purchase one before they're gone.

[thumbs up]

 

[Roachmill]

Having only recently developed a use for something like the RAS 115 I was more than a little frustrated by Festool killing it off. I'm in the UK and it's not to be found anywhere. I grabbed the 180 which has only just been discontinued here so there's unit to be had for now. But the 180 is a big boy and I continued to hunt around for something like the 115...

I came across the Arbortech Power Carving Unit (https://www.arbortechtools.com/au/power-carving-unit/) which I think is relatively new to the market. It comes with a couple of dust shrouds for assorted accessories including a 100mm sanding pad and their Turbo Planer blade. The sanding pad looks to have a wee bit of softness to it so good for curves and the leveling dust collecting attachment looks handy too for flattening things and not digging in when you're not looking.

Axminster and Yandles carry them in the UK where you can get the set (£195) and with the Turbo Planer blade for £330ish. It'll also take all their other accessories so it has potential to shift a lot of wood in a hurry!

I'm not sure the shrouds look all that sturdy but we'll see once it arrives.

Oh, and another interesting bit is a small fan blade that mounts between the grinder and whatever disk you put on it. The idea is it generates extra air flow to direct dust / chips into the extraction port. Sounds like a good idea in theory. They claim you can just attach the included section of hose and point it at a bucket rather than fill up an extractor. Not sure how well that will work in practice as I imagine the hose will end up pointing elsewhere... at your shoes most likely. I did see a German guy on YouTube with a Festool hose connected so I'd imagine that'll be the way to go.

 

[richkline]

Hi,

Can you mount a Kutzall Original Shaping Dish - Fine, 4-1/2" on the RAS 115 for wood carving?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Celticfc]

Ras on sale on amazon for $200 right now

 

[Mastercraft]

USA Recon site has the RAS for $162 with a bunch of other good deals for Black Friday hard to pass on that price IMO 

 

[ADKMedic]

[member=48572]Shane Holland[/member] - will ToolNut be getting any more RAS sanders?

I hope you had a great holiday weekend!

Thanks!

Andy

 

[Shane Holland]

[member=48572]Shane Holland[/member] - will ToolNut be getting any more RAS sanders?

I hope you had a great holiday weekend!

Hey, Andy, yes I've been told that we have more on the way. In fact, I would imagine they should arrive any day now. [member=9489]ADKMedic[/member]

Late Happy Thanksgiving to you, as well, sir.  [smile]

Shane