Planex for decks

[Kee Squared]

Anyone try this before?

 

[live4ever]

This topic occasionally comes up accompanied by a stern warning from the Festool folks that use of the Planex in such a manner voids the warranty and admonishments from other experts that there are better/more appropriate tools to do the job. 

That being said, seems like you got pretty good results so let's hear some more!  [big grin]

 

[Kee Squared]

Well that's interesting. Thanks for the heads up.  I should read the warranty lol.  I just figured if they sell 80 grit for use, 120 wouldn't hurt the (apparently delacate) motor/moving parts.  Funny I thought festool was tough enough for this considering it plows through far tougher materials when sanding out plaster. This being said I'll have to find the articles that staight the negatives of sanding soft woods and potentially hard woods.

P.s it works amazing. No negative effects to product or tool as of yet.

 

[live4ever]

That's pretty impressive for 120 grit.  Any coatings on the deck previously?  They make 24 grit Saphir for the Planex too.

 

[tjbnwi]

Yep, one of those guys that gets admonished.

Tom

 

[Kee Squared]

24 grit! I never knew.  I'm lost as to why a little cedar would void the warranty on such an impressive machine. To answer your question it's fresh cedar.  Just built the deck. I like to seal the grain a little better by sanding the rough spots out. Not to mention is nice on the feet. Well here's to breaking out of the box.

 

[NL-mikkla]

Looks like a great application, almost a vacuum cleaner set-up

 

[Kev]

Just rotate the picture 1800 ... Festool won't be any the wiser [wink]

 

[weekendwarrior]

Was there any insight as to why a warranty would get voided by this usage?  And is it a Planex warranty issue or the CT 36 AC warranty?

 

[live4ever]

Was there any insight as to why a warranty would get voided by this usage?  And is it a Planex warranty issue or the CT 36 AC warranty?

You can do a search for some of the threads, but here's an example:http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/planex-on-hardwood/msg323544/

In this case we'd be talking about the Planex warranty, not the AC.  The warranty doesn't explicitly say, "Sand wood and it voids the warranty."  But the manual states intended uses (drywall, plaster, and related) and using it for anything outside of that would constitute "misuse," and hence be grounds for voiding the warranty at Festool's discretion, just like misuse of any tool will void the warranty.  That's really as far as the discussion tends to go without further insight.

Now we can speculate as to WHY this has been Festool's stance (as opposed to saying "sure, but it's not very good at it")...
1)  Technical reasons:  They've done testing and some of the Planex components can't stand up to sanding wood, leading to premature failure. 
...or more business-related reasons...
2)  They don't want to cannibalize sales of their other sanders.
3)  Some kind of patent issue at play.

My guess would be that it's #1.  Just pure speculation.  Does that mean it won't survive a one-off job here and there on a deck or floor?  It probably will, but I guess you're proceeding at your own risk.  If it does a great job at the things you need done then you might be able to swallow that risk.  I'm guessing there are Planex failures characteristic of misuse and the Festool repair folks would know it when they see it...how they proceed at that point would be up to them.

 

[suds]

I wish I'd used that on my cedar redwood deck I've had to sand 3x the past 4 years. I thought about it but it stated it was for drywall. My knees and back would have preferred that to the Raz

 

[adugas]

mmmmm.....wondering now if could redo harwood flooring.....

 

[mkasdin]

It's not the right tool for sanding down decking. Your deck is not that large? If you did this weekly you would probably burn out the motor and bearings. Plaster is very soft, wood is harder. I suspect people would bear down on the tool overheat things and then destroy the tool.  Just my thought?

 

[leakyroof]

mmmmm.....wondering now if could redo harwood flooring.....

Compared to a real floor sander, the Planex is far too light in weight and way too slow. However, for tight spots and narrow spaces where you would have to use an edger or Rotex due to the constricted space, it has been used by people here as a standing floor sander to help keep the user off their knees.
All the usual caveats posted so far about warranty would apply here.... [blink].

 

[Kee Squared]

No one should bear down on a sander. You let the sander do the work.  If you're not achieving the results you are looking for change the grit of sand paper you're using and work your way back through to the grit you wanted to achieve in the first place. I used the planex to sand my deck using 180 grit sand paper found it wasn't working so I chose to go to 120. I realise the limitations of tools and once again I chose to not use a coarse grit with the planex fearing that yes it might be to much for this impressive tool.

All in all.  I probably won't use my planex to sand wood again because of the replies I've gotten from fog about potentially burning it out.

My back felt great lol. 

 

[leakyroof]

No one should bear down on a sander. You let the sander do the work.  If you're not achieving the results you are looking for change the grit of sand paper you're using and work your way back through to the grit you wanted to achieve in the first place. I used the planex to sand my deck using 180 grit sand paper found it wasn't working so I chose to go to 120. I realise the limitations of tools and once again I chose to not use a coarse grit with the planex fearing that yes it might be to much for this impressive tool.

All in all.  I probably won't use my planex to sand wood again because of the replies I've gotten from fog about potentially burning it out.

My back felt great lol.

  Glad it worked out for you.

 

[Nigel]

  Hmmm I was perusing the instruction booklet today and it mentions carpet residue or something along those lines so obviously the  Planex is intended for other uses than just plaster based jobs.

 

[leakyroof]

  Hmmm I was perusing the instruction booklet today and it mentions carpet residue or something along those lines so obviously the  Planex is intended for other uses than just plaster based jobs.

  Festool sells the coarse grit Saphir for the Planex for cleaning up dropped Drywall compound or other type plaster droppings off a subfloor of a construction site, plus maybe that glue removal you mentioned.  Refinishing floors is another thing.... [wink]