How do I confirm the brake still works on my ETS EC 125 with 150mm pad?

[CoastRedwood]

You folks convinced me on the merits of getting the ETS EC 125 as my first Festool sander along with the 202458 150mm pad (which seemed like a good general purpose choice for wood). My understanding is that Festool's current reason not to recommend this setup is that the brake may not work, but all of the people here who have tried it haven't had a problem with the brake not working.

Now that I have the sander I'd like to confirm that the brake works on my specific sander. Could somebody please help me understand how to do that?

 

[Frank-Jan]

I only have 2 festool sanders, a ro150 feq, and a ro90. On the ro150 the pad brake is a consumable by itself, a rubber shroud that attaches to the body of the sander and drags on the sanding pad, slowing it down from spinning in random orbit mode. And on the ro90 I think it is integrated into the round sanding pads.
I use my ro150 mostly in gear driven rotex mode, the padbrake is of no use in that mode, but it does wear the padbrake, I replaced it once, but next time I order one, I will only put the new one on if I want to use it in random orbitmode for some reason.

So, to check if the padbrake works, just turn on and off the sander without touching material, and see if the pads stops, or keeps spinning.

Also, check out this thread, not everyone experiences the same problem: Link to thread

 

[Cheese]

The pad should stop rotating in less than a second after you shut it off, mine stops within 1/2 a second.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I only have 2 festool sanders, a ro150 feq, and a ro90. On the ro150 the pad brake is a consumable by itself, a rubber shroud that attaches to the body of the sander and drags on the sanding pad, slowing it down from spinning in random orbit mode. And on the ro90 I think it is integrated into the round sanding pads.
I use my ro150 mostly in gear driven rotex mode, the padbrake is of no use in that mode, but it does wear the padbrake, I replaced it once, but next time I order one, I will only put the new one on if I want to use it in random orbitmode for some reason.

So, to check if the padbrake works, just turn on and off the sander without touching material, and see if the pads stops, or keeps spinning.

Also, check out this thread, not everyone experiences the same problem: Link to thread

That rubber gasket may help stop the pad as an accidental side benefit, but I would bet that it is actually there to aid in dust extraction. That would force all of the air to come through the holes in the paper as intended.
The brake is electronic. I think it sends a reversing pulse to the motor to stop the pad.

 

[Frank-Jan]

That actually might be the case on those new ec sanders, but on the rotex, that rubber ring was referred to as "the pad brake". (and yes, it's also essential for the dustextraction)

Check out this vid : link

 

[Cheese]

The rubber ring is actually referred to as the pad brake on the ETS EC sanders. It has 8 small round pieces imbeded in the rubber ring, they appear to be carbide both from their surface finish appearance and that they are just slightly magnetic.

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[AlexThePalex]

If the pad brake, the rubber ring that touches the pad, doesn't work, you'll notice the pad will speed up uncontrollably fast. It is a huge difference. I have replaced a few pad brakes on a few sanders by now, and what gives it away is that the pad spins like it wants to take off into orbit.

 

[Cheese]

If the pad brake, the rubber ring that touches the pad, doesn't work, you'll notice the pad will speed up uncontrollably fast. It is a huge difference. I have replaced a few pad brakes on a few sanders by now, and what gives it away is that the pad spins like it wants to take off into orbit.

Amen to that...I was surprised that the pad just didn't want to stop.

 

[CoastRedwood]

Thanks everybody. So the good news is that I tested the 150mm pad and it definitely stops very quickly when turned off (indistinguishable from the 125 pad). So I think everything is good there.

The one interesting thing I noticed is that during my tests (turning the sander on with the pad flat facing directly upward so I could see it) the 150mm pad spun at around 70 RPM (I counted 12-13 rotations in 10 seconds) but the 125mm pad turns much less quickly, varying between half that and no spinning at all (seen by the dust collection holes remaining in place making little 3mm circles without rotating the pad). Is that normal? The back of the 120mm pad did come with a good amount of grease on it in the area where it contacts the brake pad, not sure if that's relevant.

I did take a look and it certainly looks like the brake pad is contacting the 150mm pad. Comparing it to the 125mm pad I can't see any difference in how it contacts and on the 150mm pad I do see a narrow band of grease transferred from the brake pad.

Thanks for all the helpful input, everything is probably fine but I want to discover any issues within the 30 day return period so I can return it for the ETS EC 150 if needed.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I have never experienced that free spinning thing, but I don't use the EC nearly as much as the RO.
I also switch back and forth between the hard pad and standard pad quite a bit, so maybe that is spreading the wear out some?

 

[CoastRedwood]

My 6” sandpaper came so I was able to test out both pads side by side and they both work great (though the larger pad works noticeably faster as expected )! After using both pads a bit they spin very similarly so I think the difference I was seeing was just a bit of extra initial friction or the thick layer of grease on the smaller pad.

Thanks for all the assistance folks.

 

[Brewstermmc]

Lots-O-duck tape. Yes , Ionia it’s duct tape…
The adapters don’t align with this shit - of course.

 

[Mr Speaker]

The one interesting thing I noticed is that during my tests (turning the sander on with the pad flat facing directly upward so I could see it) the 150mm pad spun at around 70 RPM (I counted 12-13 rotations in 10 seconds) but the 125mm pad turns much less quickly, varying between half that and no spinning at all.

I have the 125/3 with the 6" pad and I am ordering the ETS EC150/5. I think putting the 6" pad on the 5" Machine is a bad idea because the machine is not balanced right when you do that. You can feel it, and the fact the 150 mm disc spins a lot faster with the wrong disc is an indication of that.