My next sander purchase??

[Aaron Underdahl]

I am thinking of adding dedicated sanding station to my festool arsenal.  I am a one man cabinet shop, specializing in cabinet repair and cabinet reproduction. This sanding station will be used in my paint shop for sanding after primer and paint. In the wood shop I have already a ro150, ro 90 and a rs 2 e with a ct 22.  My thought is a rts 400 and a ct 26. My questions are is the rts the best sander for this application? Also I have a older ct22 in my van for site work. I've been thinking of replacing it with a ct midi and relocating the ct 22 to the paint shop.  Is the midi big enough for site work? I mainly use ts55,kapex and ras on site. 

Aaron

 

[Scott B.]

Aaron

I would give the DTS400 a long look. It is nice to be able to go tight in corners and point into things with.

The midi is probably my favorite size for grab and go on site situations. For longer term setup and larger scale dust generation, you could go bigger, but for finish sanding the bag capacity on the midi goes a very long way.

 

[Timtool]

I would also suggest the DTS for sanding finished pieces in between coats, especially on assembled furniture.
Mine is coupled to a CT22 and even on the lowest level i find it still sucks a little too much for this sander.

On a job site your better off with a midi IMO, when the CT22 or a beast like the CT36 are almost full they become as handy to carry around as a bag of cement.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

I'm sure you'll get more responses from members, but I've always favored the DTS over the RTS personally. Really, it's personal preference and both are good sanders. I just like the wedge shape of the DTS for getting into tight spots. Also, the ETS 150/3 would be a good option and would be compatible with your RO 150 paper. You already have a good assortment of sanders though.

The MIDI is capable of working with those tools but since they can produce a lot of dust, you may be changing bags frequently. I would probably keep the CT 22 for the TS, Kapex and RAS and use the MIDI with the sanders since they produce a finer dust and wouldn't fill it as quickly.

 

[nehardwoodfloors]

I LOVE my Rotex, but I have to say, Mirka hit it out of the park with their CEROS. Life changing sander!

 

[Kev]

Tell us about the sort of things you are finishing ...

Kev.

 

[Aaron Underdahl]

Scott, Tim, Shane.  Thanks for the heads up on the DTS over the RTS.  My thinking with the RTS is more surface area=faster sanding, but I guess you are really losing enough area to make a noticeable difference?  I am off to my local retailer today to test try both sanders.

Kev,  Most of my work is small cabinet jobs.  I spray mostly vinyl lacquers (pigmented and clears) and Undercoats.  So I will need to do some heavy sanding for the undercoats and just a lite sanding for all the top coats.

Eco,  Agreed.  I have played around with the CEROS and have a couple of Mirka Pneumatic sanders.  But I am not ready to drop that amount of coin at this time.  Hopefully if business stays the way it is now, I will add a CEROS in the  near futrure!