LS 130

[rst]

320 + is the recommended grit fro acrylic.  Polycarbonate should not be flamed as it bubbles easily, should be sanded to higher grits for a more finished effect.  Polycarbonate is softer hence the bendable without heat effect, acrylic is harder so anything that will be cleaned regularly should be acrylic or surfaced hardened poly which is much more expensive.

 

[aloysius]

I couldn't get along with my LS130s at all.  I once had 2, purchased for reno work, specifically removing old paint & residue from mouldings etc.

They're slow.  Painfully so.  Much, much slower than a simple cork, wooden or rubber block with standard painter's (green & yellow) alu oxide & silicon carbide papers.  They (obviously) will only work @ their best ALONG the wood grain.  If used perpendicularly (i.e. across the grain) the resultant scratching, gouging & tearing requires extensive remedial work with an orbital in mitigation.  Much better to use a standard orbital only in these circumstances.

Despite having dual counter-rotational counterweights onboard, the linear action induces extremely tiring and (for me anyway) damaging vibratory-induced nerve inflammation of my tendons & nerves passing through the Carpal Tunnel of my wrist.  More than an hour's use resulted in a week or so of nocturnal agony & sleeplessness.  It's genuinely worse even than using an electric jackhammer for breaking rocks or excavating compacted earth.

When using profiled pads, abrasives are terribly prone to rapid, premature clogging.  Due principally to their linear action I suppose.  There's only so many different re-positionings of the paper possible on the velcro profiled pad (maybe 4?) before the abrasive requires tossing.  Paper on a hand pad can be repositioned multiple times.

The profiled pads' foam backing breaks down prematurely.  It rapidly yellows with age before crumbling into uselessness.  Considering how expensive pads are, if you require a selection of profiles, but use each intermittently, then you'll need to replace each one about every other year ad infinitum long before any other "legitimate" wear actually occurs.

The last straw for me was when my local F/tool retailer took over 3 MONTHS to supply a basic selection of abrasives & replacement pad profiles.  Said pads arrived PRE-YELLOWED but @ full retail price from the importer, meaning that their effective life had effectively halved prior to purchase!  I gave both sanders away before I had to repeat the process a year or so later!  Luckily the abrasives actually fitted one of my DEOS sanders, so it was actually a good thing that I'd disposed of these white elephants.

Never again. What a rubbish sander.  Easily the worst I've ever owned.

 

[ear3]

Lol.  I've been entertaining recently putting my LS 130 up for sale, as it had been maybe 2 years since I took it out of the systainer.  Well, doing a favor for a neighbor and refinishing his front door, and of course the LS 130 is exactly what I needed to follow behind the RO 150 and get those channels between the boards.  Guess I'm hanging onto the sander for a bit more.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

 

[ScotF]

It is nice to have when you need it - not the most aggressive sander, but it does what it does pretty well, in my opinion.

 

[Scott in San Diego]

The bottom of that door is begging for some epoxy wood consolidator.  You are a very good neighbor, Edward.

 

[jcrowe1950]

I'm new to th FOG. Have several Festool tools and am very pleased. Thinking about buying an LS 130. Read thru most of the comments, most seemed to be 5-10 years old. I do a lot of raised panel work and cabinets. My wife buys old furniture, and flips it, i.e., repairs, refinishes, paints or stains it and then sells. Thought this would be perfect for a lot of what she does. I know it's not as aggressive as an ROS. When I asked about one at the store, the guy said he's only sold one in the last few years. None of the other stores around have one in stock. So what's that tell me? I cant find anything on the market even similar. If you have one, would you buy it again? Thanks for any info.

Sorry late to the conversation. I have sold several of the LS130s in the recent past after a long time where none were sold in our store. As others have detailed, this is an excellent sander for profiles, especially because you can customize the profile shape with the kits. Considering that a linear action would be appropriate for smoothing moulding profiles, this specialized sander is very good at what it does. That said, I don't personally own one given that I am a hobbyist woodworker and the small amount of that type of sanding is something I can handle by hand (but without the exquisite Festool dust extraction).

 

[ear3]

Finally getting around to some basement renovation after the flooding from two years ago from Hurricane Ida.  I didn't get it as bad as some others, as there's a french drain in the basement, and so between the natural drainage and me staying up all night with the shop vac to suck up the excess, there was never a standing water situation.  But the subfloor in some spots is definitely compromised, so I decided to get going on it.

To ease myself into the job I decided to remove the old, dirty linoleum tile on the side door entryway and stairs that my dad put in some 30 years ago.  The LS 130 was the first Festool sander I bought back in 2014, but since then my least used, other than for occasional profile work or for random applications like my neighbor's door detailed above.  But it was the perfect tool for this job with the scraper attachment.  The tile had lost adhesion in a couple of spots around the edges, but for the most part was still attached to the underlayment, so I had to work the scarper across almost the entire surface.  But it went pretty quickly and efficiently, besides needing to take a break every so often to razor off the build up on the scraper.

[attachimg=1]

 

[luvmytoolz]

I reckon it's sensational when that "rare use" tool performs an invaluable job! Any thought of whether you should have bought it just disappears!

 

[Cheese]

I also used my LS 130 with a scraper blade to remove tile from a bathroom wall. It really worked well.

[attachimg=1]

 

[dicktill]

I also used my LS 130 with a scraper blade to remove tile from a bathroom wall. It really worked well.

[attachimg=1]

Agreed, and I've used it similarly to remove stubborn vinyl flooring and ice&water shield on the roof.

 

[Coen]

I also used my LS 130 with a scraper blade to remove tile from a bathroom wall. It really worked well.

[attachimg=1]

Haha what? Was it already weakened by prolonged leakage? Or how else did the scraper blade win vs grout / tile glue?

I also used my LS 130 with a scraper blade to remove tile from a bathroom wall. It really worked well.

[attachimg=1]

Agreed, and I've used it similarly to remove stubborn vinyl flooring and ice&water shield on the roof.

Festool used to have a sander with carpet blade attached; the TPE-RS 100... but it's gone from the catalog, along with RS 100, RS 200, RS 300, etc.

 

[squall_line]

I also used my LS 130 with a scraper blade to remove tile from a bathroom wall. It really worked well.

[attachimg=1]

Haha what? Was it already weakened by prolonged leakage? Or how else did the scraper blade win vs grout / tile glue?

Lots of details in this thread.  I can't find the original right now, but most of the details from [member=44099]Cheese[/member] are in there:
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/scraping-blade-ls130-or-vecturo/

I fell down this rabbit hole last night, which is the only reason I had that link at the ready (since otherwise I'll be asked how I can remember these things when the person who posted them can't even find them )

 

[Cheese]

Lots of details in this thread.  I can't find the original right now, but most of the details from [member=44099]Cheese[/member] are in there:
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/scraping-blade-ls130-or-vecturo/

I fell down this rabbit hole last night, which is the only reason I had that link at the ready (since otherwise I'll be asked how I can remember these things when the person who posted them can't even find them )

Wow...forgot about that one... [member=75217]squall_line[/member] , you're the FOG's own in-house Dewey Decimal System.  [not worthy] [not worthy]

 

[rst]

I’ve used mine mostly in the past for smoothing 3/8” polycarbonate prior to flaming the edges. I made 50 - 100 24" square pieces with radiused corners at a time.  The biggest wood project was refinishing my double seat Adirondack seats with a table between.  The back and seat slats taper to the bottom and back, smaller than LS pad, so I bandsawed a pad to the small width.  My RO 125, LS and RO 90 made a very tedious job easier.  The extended pads for the LS and RO made sanding between the slats efficient.

 

[smorgasbord]

I'm starting to use my LS-130 as my finish sander. Using my ETS/EC 150/5 for the rough/medium sanding, then the with the grain LS-130 puts a finer finish than any RO sander could. Did one small project like this already, and working on another right now.

 

[ScotF]

It is a shame that this sander was discontinued. I always liked using mine, except it is a noisy beast.

 

[Cheese]

It is a shame that this sander was discontinued. I always liked using mine, except it is a noisy beast.

There are a lot of tools that i feel Festool is remiss at obsoleting. The DX 93 is one that comes to mind. The small form factor is great and it's light and manueravable. Its substitute, the RO 90, while generally great, is large, heavy and just not so much.

How about the RAS...

How about the MFS...

How about the Vac SYS...

 

[squall_line]

Wow...forgot about that one... [member=75217]squall_line[/member] , you're the FOG's own in-house Dewey Decimal System.  [not worthy] [not worthy]

I DO have a strange affinity for old card catalog drawer sets, so you may be on to something there...  [big grin]

 

[Cheese]

I DO have a strange affinity for old card catalog drawer sets, so you may be on to something there...  [big grin]

So who'd have thunk.  [big grin]

 

[ScotF]

It is a shame that this sander was discontinued. I always liked using mine, except it is a noisy beast.

There are a lot of tools that i feel Festool is remiss at obsoleting. The DX 93 is one that comes to mind. The small form factor is great and it's light and manueravable. Its substitute, the RO 90, while generally great, is large, heavy and just not so much.

How about the RAS...

How about the MFS...

How about the Vac SYS...

Agree 100%...and CMS too and RS2E...I have and enjoy using all of them.