Is Rotex Break In Procedure For Real?

[AlexThePalex]

I know this is an old thread but I spoke to festool regarding the break in and they told me not to waste my time or electric and just turn my ct down to 50%. The pad is the only thing that needs to be broken in.

Correct, no break in needed on Rotex sanders.

 

[bobfog]

Any sander/machine that uses gears will gain a marginal theoretical improvement after initial use. The gears when brand new will have a greater element of friction and slightly less efficiency and smoothness in the way they mesh together. 

However in a blunt instrument like a sander the perceived or measurable different between virgin gears and ones that have been run in is less than negligible.

 

[rst]

I've been buying and repairing power tools since I first went to work in 1971.  That job was at a Wood Mode custom cabinet factory.  The maintenance guys their would run new equipment, unloaded, for ten minutes in forward and five in reverse before putting them out on the production floor.  I've done the same thing since then and have never(knock on wood...head) had a problem with any tool I own.  My Milwaukee hammer drill is 34 years old, drilled tens of thousands of holes and I had it rebuilt once fifteen years ago.  It's probably lonely now as I no longer drill five or six hundred 1/4" holes at a shot and mostly I use the 12 or 18V cordless unless the hole is bigger than 5/16".