New to Festool.....floor sanding question here

[yorkamania]

I am new to the world of Festool. I primarily sand floors for a living. I am considering the Rotex 150 as a replacement for our current edger. It is a Silver Line that just spins at high RPMs. On natural or light stains, we can get away without hand scraping swirls left by the edger. On dark stains, we have scraping parties that can take over a half a day.. Will the 150 work well in lieu of a standard edger?? Will it not leave heavy marks?  How does it do with blending the different sanding with our belt samder??  I think the swirls is my biggest question now.  Somebody give me some testimony!!!!!

 

[awdriven]

There's a regular contributor to the forum who has a hardwood floor business. Unless he doesn't want to give away any trade secrets, I bet he posts a helpful reply here  [cool] In rotex mode, the RO sanders can really remove some material - it may be feasible. You have the 30 day trial period to try it out too, if that helps.

 

[vicc]

Yorkamania,  I have used a rotex (older style) to do all the floor sanding for about 60 sq.m of Australia Jarrah (Janka hardness rating 1910) and about 70 sq.m of Karri (Janka hardness rating 2030) {for comparison Rosewood is 1780 and American Beech is 1300) and it worked great. On Rotex mode it evened up the height gaps between the boards super fast and on random orbit it was absolutely fine for what is required to get to the final quality for flooring (from memory I went to 180 grit).

It will not leave any marks at all. you should be able to blend in with the floor sander quite well. I'm not sure how much faster than manual scraping it will be especially if you need to go through a number of grits but the results are very good.  

 

[erikfsn]

I'm not a flooring pro, but I did recently refinish my own floors, (about 2500 square feet of them!).
I also own the 5"rotex and as well as the ras 115 (a more aggressive sander). I really liked the ras
for edging, easy to keep flat and to avoid damage to the baseboard. I would recommend it over the
rotex because it removes material faster than the rotex.

 

[tbellemare]

I saw Tom Silva on Ask This Old House use a floor sander with multiple orbital heads for the main sander. For edging, he used a Rotex 150 and a Deltex, if I remember correctly.

Tom

 

[yorkamania]

Thanks for the input everybody. I hope to continue to get more of it. As best as I can gather, the 150 might be just fine for the job and should cut down on a lot of manual scraping. I hope i can fit it into my budget soon!!!!

 

[tbellemare]

Don't forget to use the Edge Protector when you're doing flooring edges. It really will help protect adjacent surfaces and protect your pad or abrasive.

Tom

 

[yorkamania]

How does the 150 sanding discs hold up to finishes that typically gum up with the orbiting Silver Line?? 

 

[dustfree]

Hi there, you really need a proper edging machine to finish the edges of a hard wood floor, the 150 is ideal for the finer sanding (removing any marks from your spinner). It will be a lot slower as well as not last as long as your edger. As mentioned it is a fantastic machine if used after a floor edger as well as for staircases etc

 

[tbellemare]

How does the 150 sanding discs hold up to finishes that typically gum up with the orbiting Silver Line?? 

Festool makes 3 grades of paper that don't tend to gum up - Cristal, Brilliant 2, and Granat. I think Granat is the best at most tasks and all that I've tried it for though Cristal might be better on a floor. They all have their place but if I could have only one, it would be Granat.

Tom

 

[meatman]

Hi Yorkamania
Rotex 150 is a fantastic tool for sanding your floors I have sanded well over 1000 m2 of Oak with mine
I start with 80 grit and work up to a 180 grit no smoother as the floor will become to slippery
It may not be as fast as your drum sander and edger but the finish the Rotex gives is unrivalled
Using the vacume cleaner means you will be able to refinish clients floor without having to sheet everything up
I hope this helps
Meatman

 

[nickao]

Anyone that says an RO is a replacement for a true flooring edger has never done a floor professionally. In no way is it a replacement at all and its not supposed to be. It is nice as an additional tool to have in a flooring pros arsenal. If it is between the two you have to go with an edger there is not even a question about t.

Some pro crews do  2500 sq feet  a day. To a homeowner that may seen huge, my flooring guys  in the past have done 20,000 feet in a week, you just can not say that AN RO is a replacement for a pro edger, again it just isn't.

He said he was a pro and asked if the RO 150 can replace an edger, only a very few people actually answered this question. Even a small one guy company can easily do a 1000 feet a week, that's 50,000 sq feet a year. The RO 150 is just not suitable for that. Its nothing more than a clean up snared for a pro floor guy.

As far as the paper for a floor with a finish on it once again IMO its Cristal, but in no way is that compare to the paper the OP referee to for a flooring application. All the Festool papers will gum up doing a floor. The great thing is the paper can be taken off, crinkle the paper a bit and the crap falls right off and the paper is read to go again, but it is not the flooring specialist go to paper buy any means.

 

[nehardwoodfloors]

As a pro floor sander, you will not get by with the 150 for the edges. The rotex is great and it can do the work but not like a dedicated edger.
Get a used Clarke 7r.  It will pay for itself int the time it will save you over the rotex.

Use the edger THEN use the rotex. Hand scraping edges is way out bro!

Dovetail said it right.

 

[yorkamania]

Thanks for the input everybody. I might be ready to get the 150 pretty soon. My assumption that it would replace scraping versus the edging completely seem to be confirmed. Think Ill line up 30 days of sanding and give it hell. Ill post my thoughts when i get into it.

 

[edson]

My response is pretty late but since I went through the same thought process as you at one point in regards to using the RO150 to take out swirls after edging.  After a few small jobs we found that the RO150 was fine, but on the larger jobs it was just slower then we would have liked.  We have gone back to edger screens and have moved the RO150 to stairs and smaller floors and condo work.  The RO will never be a replacement for a dedicated edger.