New to me LS130 ...

[Mike S]

And to the op, the grease that Festool uses can certainly seperate if the tool sits without getting hot for awhile.  In that case, some oil will leak out wherever it finds it's way.  No big deal.

That is good to know.  I am expecting a call from Big Green tomorrow to see how they want to handle it.

Due to other reasons, I didn't get to try it out this weekend.  I have pretty decent degree of confidence it is just fine.  I was just surprised to see the schmoo in the box. 

 

[Michael Kellough]

“Metabo Paint Stripper” is an interesting tool. Don’t know of anything similar.

I used it on a century old painted yellow pine (or similar) floor. Many cupped boards and though extremely dry still enough resin to make sanding a pain. Worked great.

 

[yetihunter]

There's actually quite a few cutter head based paint stripping power tools on the market.  I don't know much about them, however, because it's just not something I do for a living. 


The Metabo I remember, but simply because I thumb through their catalog once a year.  [big grin]. It is, allegedly, one of, if not, the best in that category, or so the marketing told me.

 

[semenza]

That Metabo stripper is cool! Looks like ti uses spiral planer head inserts.

Seth

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

There's actually quite a few cutter head based paint stripping power tools on the market.  I don't know much about them, however, because it's just not something I do for a living. 


The Metabo I remember, but simply because I thumb through their catalog once a year.  [big grin]. It is, allegedly, one of, if not, the best in that category, or so the marketing told me.

The PaintShaver is the other major cutter based paint remover I know of. There was a review several years or more back in a woodworking or building magazine that compared the Metabo and the Paintshaver, although I don’t recall which magazine.
https://paintshaver.com/paintshaver-pro/

 

[Michael Kellough]

That Metabo stripper is cool! Looks like ti uses spiral planer head inserts.

Seth

Not spiral, just simple square carbide inserts that can be rotated four times.
Two cutters on the face and two on the rim perpendicular to the face.

 

[aloysius]

I've had Metabo's LF724 myself for a few years now.  Like any other tool it has both good & not-so-good characteristics.

The "doors" are a pretty weak link.  Literally.  Particular care needs to be taken with them in either open or closed positions.  They are weak spring loaded plastic, & are (apparently) easily snapped off.  I must admit that it's never happened to me in over 15 years ??  of ownership, but Amazon is full of other plaintive owners/users/abusers so I suppose it must be an issue.  I try to look after all my tools, particularly in use.

The cutters don't like metal at all.  Thin carbide never does.  One needs to carefully countersink or set ALL nailheads prior to use.  The tool acts as a paint planer or shaver, its cutterhead is recessed in an accurate, finely ground alloy guard block, & is micrometrically adjustable for depth.  You can literally shave off as little as one paint layer at a time of multiple coatings if the substrate is square & flat!  Too much depth & you tend to gouge off chunks of timber as well!

It's fast, too, if a little messy.  I sealed up one of the cutterhead guard's vent slots at the rear with tape in an attempt to capture more swarf, but don't really know how wise & effective this is.  Surely the vent slot is there for a purpose:  I just don't know why.  Venturi??  I also ground off the bayonet fittings on the dust spout to more easily accommodate a Festo/ol 36mm hose on the outside of the spout for greater airflow.  As with any copious dust & swarf producer, more vac airflow helps.  It's also noisier than most sanders except maybe belters. 

The "edge" cutters protrude a bit further out & aren't adjustable for depth, which actually makes them suitable for the interface in shiplap or bullnosed weatherboards.  Any roundels on weatherboards (the rest of a bullnosing) must obviously be treated with an alternative tool.  But it's not really the correct type of tool for fine work.

My favourite for this particular task is Metabo's fab. SXE400 ROS.  Tiny @ a mere 80mm dia., but no toy.  Gentle at only 3mm eccentricity, but remarkably effective. In fact, an ergonomic delight, being light, compact & non-damaging to delicate mouldings if used with care & finesse.  Everything, actually, that the RO90DX isn't.  I'm a fan, in case you didn't realise.  In fact, it's so useful that I have a couple of these, plus have given one each to my kids too:  5 in all.  It also takes Mirka's amazing 75mm abranet abrasives, pad protectors & interface pads, making for a superb fine sanding system most ideally suited to small & delicate  complex mouldings, convex & concave substrates than any other ROS I've ever encountered or used.  This &  small deltas (orbitals, not the Fein-type oscillators) are my most used sanders these days.

Where mess isn't an issue, a variable speed grinder, wound down to about 1/2 speed is still my favourite fast paint stripper of choice.  If a super-coarse disk is used & allowed to load up with paint residues, the resultant friction strips off just about all multiple coats in one go through friction & heat, without harming the wood beneath.  It's quite remarkable really.  The protective paint layer on the disc actually melts the existing paint away yet only burnishes the wood surface beneath relatively harmlessly.  Almost like magic.

Flamin' messy, but. Hot, melted paint residues are flung EVERYWHERE which may or may not be an issue for you.  On a path or drive they can be quickly & easily swept or vacuumed away.  On a lawn or garden bed that's impossible.  This is probably complete blasphemy to the average anally-retentive neat-freak, not to mention the legions of Festo Cleantec fanboys, but it's easily the fastest means I've encountered of paint stripping.  Goggles & mask are of course positively de rigeur.

Rotexes don't do a bad job, but I prefer the flatter, right angle sided hard pads to prevent the papers slipping between weatherboards.  A Rotex is also a bit of a handful up a ladder too.  In these circumstances, a loaded-paper mini-grinder or SXE 400 is much less of a single-handed workout than a big Rotex with hose attached, which tends to kick & buck in protest.

 

[Cheese]

For paint striping there's always the Porter Cable 7403. I've never used one, but thought they were an interesting tool because nails were less of an issue. The worst thing to happen would be to tear a sanding disc. They're in the $450-$550 range.

 

[yetihunter]

[member=9481]aloysius[/member] , when we took opposing sides on RO90 VS SXE400 a bit back; I didn't know you were talking about hanging
off the top of a ladder!  [scared] Yeah, I'd prefer the Metabo in that situation too!  :0

 

[aloysius]

[member=9481]aloysius[/member] , when we took opposing sides on RO90 VS SXE400 a bit back; I didn't know you were talking about hanging
off the top of a ladder!  [scared] Yeah, I'd prefer the Metabo in that situation too!  :0

The fact that we CAN disagree reflects a healthy level of debate on this, or any forum.  Without dissent, there's literally no debate:  instead we become a bunch of self-affirming, sycophantic yes-men.  The suppression, or worse, ridiculing of dissent reflects the opposite: that the original thesis is sufficiently weak that when arguments fail the default position becomes to attack the dissenter.  Unfortunately there's certain hostile elements within this & other fora that seemingly cannot appreciate the distinction.  Vigourously attack the argument if you disagree, but allow dissenting voices the right to their opinion irrespective of the veracity or legitimacy of the "erroneous" opinion.

The fact that at times we agree means that perhaps similar conclusions can occasionally be drawn despite originating from different paths.

The fact that we do at times dissent means that we take different paths, have divergent expectations, methodologies & requirements.

Vive la difference!

With regard to specifics, as the original salesman told me when I made my first LS130 purchase..."it's a special sander suitable only for specific tasks".  I agree.  As a finisher for fine moulding work it's not just pretty good, but possibly indispensible.  I have a coffin-making friend who uses his daily, who absolutely loves its capabilities as a paint/varnish final prep & intermediate (between coats) sander.  I believe he has several now, all pre-loaded with specific profiled bases & using Abranet abrasives which seem to  best suit its multi-hole bases.

As a paint stripper, however, I still regard it as a miserable failure.  It has no further use for me in my own tool arsenal, for the reasons previously described.

 

[Mike S]

And to the op, the grease that Festool uses can certainly seperate if the tool sits without getting hot for awhile.  In that case, some oil will leak out wherever it finds it's way.  No big deal.

That is good to know.  I am expecting a call from Big Green tomorrow to see how they want to handle it.

Due to other reasons, I didn't get to try it out this weekend.  I have pretty decent degree of confidence it is just fine.  I was just surprised to see the schmoo in the box.

Issue resolution update:  I cleaned the schmoo off of the sander and let it sit for another couple days.  Big Green service called me yesterday and echoed the same diagnosis that [member=19475]yetihunter[/member] suggested.

Plugged it in, it runs fine.  Will try to put it to use soon. 

Interesting tool, but I certainly would not believe that this is a good tool for paint stripping that I feel that some folks said they were trying to use it for.  Based on physical size, stroke, etc, I would suspect this is good for medium to fine sanding of preferably fairly bare-ish wood.    I personally believe in the scraping method or heat and scrape for paint stripping, not trying to gouge it off with a sander. 

I do know exactly what projects I will be putting this to use for, however.

BTW, thanks all, and special hat tip to [member=19475]yetihunter[/member]. 

 

[semenza]

And to the op, the grease that Festool uses can certainly seperate if the tool sits without getting hot for awhile.  In that case, some oil will leak out wherever it finds it's way.  No big deal.

That is good to know.  I am expecting a call from Big Green tomorrow to see how they want to handle it.

Due to other reasons, I didn't get to try it out this weekend.  I have pretty decent degree of confidence it is just fine.  I was just surprised to see the schmoo in the box.

Issue resolution update:  I cleaned the schmoo off of the sander and let it sit for another couple days.  Big Green service called me yesterday and echoed the same diagnosis that [member=19475]yetihunter[/member] suggested.

Plugged it in, it runs fine.  Will try to put it to use soon. 

Interesting tool, but I certainly would not believe that this is a good tool for paint stripping that I feel that some folks said they were trying to use it for.  Based on physical size, stroke, etc, I would suspect this is good for medium to fine sanding of preferably fairly bare-ish wood.    I personally believe in the scraping method or heat and scrape for paint stripping, not trying to gouge it off with a sander. 

I do know exactly what projects I will be putting this to use for, however.

BTW, thanks all, and special hat tip to [member=19475]yetihunter[/member].

Maybe post about the projects when you do them. That sander does not get a lot of attention.

Seth

 

[yetihunter]

I pretty much used it exclusively on a router sled.  [big grin]