HarveyWildes
Member
- Joined
- May 3, 2016
- Messages
- 984
Trip Report...
Went to the Festool road show at Sears Trostel lumber in Fort Collins (yesterday, actually). It was rainy and in the 40's, but there was no flooding, lightning, hail, wild fire, or mountain lions. Or bears. There was the big Festool truck sitting in the parking lot. I got there around 11, and there were already a fair number of people wandering around.
If you registered, you got a goodie bag. It included two can wrappers, a catalog, and a 14.4V 4.2Ah battery. No T-shirt. But if you bought stuff, you got a T-shirt, so things worked out in the end.
I spent a fair amount of time at the sander table, and played some with every sander there. Here are some observations.
* The DTS 400 is hoppy at low speed. The higher the speed, the more stable it gets. The right amount of vacuum seemed to be about 1/3 of the way between the low and high settings.
* The 150/3 ETS EC was silky smooth. If I concentrated real hard, I could feel a little vibration, but when I quit concentrating, it just felt smooth. It just floated over the board one-handed.
* The 150/3 ETS was awkward by comparison. It wanted to be held with two hands, although you could use it with one hand if you were paying attention. The grips felt wrong to me. The vibration was better than my yellow and black sanders, but still more pronounced than the EC.
* The RO 90 is a little beast. I could see it ruining a woodworking project due to lack of control. All it would take is a little distraction. Maybe I would like it once I got good at it, but I don't think it's worth the risk.
After the sander table, I wandered around the other tables. A few things caught my attention, but nothing else really grabbed me. I liked the work table, and played a bit there, but I've got a nice bench in my shop that does the job for me. I did buy a couple of clamps to see if I could adapt them to my bench.
After that, I walked into Sears Trostel and browsed through the wood bins, lusting after some shedua and nice piece of bubinga. Then I wandered through the displays of Festool accessories and got a hands on feel for the different kinds of abrasives.
And then, after just a little over an hour, I was ready to buy my sander - the 150/3 ETS EC. But they had sold out of that model! Dang! They got rid of five of them in less than two hours. So I had to order it. As it turns out, the Festool guys thought that the attendance at this show was particularly good - on a par with the last two shows combined. I think Sears Trostel was pretty happy about that. Maybe they just say that to all of the stores.
Got it ordered, got the T-shirt, and then ate a light lunch of bar-b-que, snacks and Coke, and was on my way. Overall a delightful way to spend an hour and a half. Now that I have the T-shirt, my next goal is the jacket.
Any ideas about what to do with the 14.4V 4.2Ah battery?
I think I broke the previous topic on the roadshow by posting a panorama picture of the truck, so for this post you just get the picture of the sander table.
Went to the Festool road show at Sears Trostel lumber in Fort Collins (yesterday, actually). It was rainy and in the 40's, but there was no flooding, lightning, hail, wild fire, or mountain lions. Or bears. There was the big Festool truck sitting in the parking lot. I got there around 11, and there were already a fair number of people wandering around.
If you registered, you got a goodie bag. It included two can wrappers, a catalog, and a 14.4V 4.2Ah battery. No T-shirt. But if you bought stuff, you got a T-shirt, so things worked out in the end.
I spent a fair amount of time at the sander table, and played some with every sander there. Here are some observations.
* The DTS 400 is hoppy at low speed. The higher the speed, the more stable it gets. The right amount of vacuum seemed to be about 1/3 of the way between the low and high settings.
* The 150/3 ETS EC was silky smooth. If I concentrated real hard, I could feel a little vibration, but when I quit concentrating, it just felt smooth. It just floated over the board one-handed.
* The 150/3 ETS was awkward by comparison. It wanted to be held with two hands, although you could use it with one hand if you were paying attention. The grips felt wrong to me. The vibration was better than my yellow and black sanders, but still more pronounced than the EC.
* The RO 90 is a little beast. I could see it ruining a woodworking project due to lack of control. All it would take is a little distraction. Maybe I would like it once I got good at it, but I don't think it's worth the risk.
After the sander table, I wandered around the other tables. A few things caught my attention, but nothing else really grabbed me. I liked the work table, and played a bit there, but I've got a nice bench in my shop that does the job for me. I did buy a couple of clamps to see if I could adapt them to my bench.
After that, I walked into Sears Trostel and browsed through the wood bins, lusting after some shedua and nice piece of bubinga. Then I wandered through the displays of Festool accessories and got a hands on feel for the different kinds of abrasives.
And then, after just a little over an hour, I was ready to buy my sander - the 150/3 ETS EC. But they had sold out of that model! Dang! They got rid of five of them in less than two hours. So I had to order it. As it turns out, the Festool guys thought that the attendance at this show was particularly good - on a par with the last two shows combined. I think Sears Trostel was pretty happy about that. Maybe they just say that to all of the stores.
Got it ordered, got the T-shirt, and then ate a light lunch of bar-b-que, snacks and Coke, and was on my way. Overall a delightful way to spend an hour and a half. Now that I have the T-shirt, my next goal is the jacket.
Any ideas about what to do with the 14.4V 4.2Ah battery?
I think I broke the previous topic on the roadshow by posting a panorama picture of the truck, so for this post you just get the picture of the sander table.
