question about the RAS speed control

[MrMac]

I am using my RAS on a job, scribing poplar baseboards to fit. I gotta say this thing is da-bomb! so darn easy to use, and I can sneak up to the line so easily. When I get to the pencil line, I slow the RAS down to about 4 or so. I find that when I want to speed it up a little bit, I have to move the dial quite a long ways to hear the speed increase. Is that normal? moving from 4 to 5 makes no difference.

If it is, no problem cause I ain't giving it back!

thx

Laurie.

 

[Dogwood]

Funny, I just spent 15hrs of the last two days on the ass end of a RAS and I have no idea!

Had earphones and a ct midi running, and also used it on 6 almost exclusively.

It IS an excellent tool I totally agree. What's funny is how much people rave about their rotexes and the red headed step-child Ras gets forgotten. But anytime I switched from my RAS to RO90 i quickly switched back, partially because it was more suited to my task but also because it's so much nicer to use.

I'll check Laurie and see if mine makes an audible diff between the 4 and 5.

 

[duburban]

i've been leveling uneven boards on subfloor for a hardwood install. been using a 7" hilt grinder with a sanding wheel and my rotex. its made me lust after the RAS. does the ras work well when the entire disc is flat on the surface or does it have to be tilted into the piece?

excuse me for being off topic but i go the impression you two wouldn't mind talking more about your rases

 

[MrMac]

thanks Dogwood. I used to use a small Makita grinder with a cutzall wood grinding wheel to do the scribing. As you can imagine that thing running at 10k would take off material really quick - too quick

I was in the Festool store last year just looking at stuff when I saw the RAS. I had to try it out! so it's now one of those "sleeper" tools, doesn't look so special but it sure performs. My wife appreciates the dust collection she doe's get a little tired of the sawdust in the Garage/car.
I say it's the price for marrying a carpenter LOL Just by a happy accident I'm going to be driving by the Festool store today.

Duburban: I "back cut" a little bit, so the front  of my material comes to a bit of a point. I generally push forward, not hard and I keep the machine as close to flat as possible. Not full on flat as then the machine will wobble as the back of the disc and front will bite and I only want one side to bite at at time.

I take the material down to the pencil line, then I slow the speed down and "roll" the RAS very lightly up and grind off the pencil line. Takes longer to explain that to do it!

My Festool dealer has a space where you can try out the tools, that's a huge selling feature for me. If you can go to your dealer and see if they can let you try one out.

 

[tiralie]

. does the ras work well when the entire disc is flat on the surface or does it have to be tilted into the piece?

No. But that's not a reason not to use it. It's difficult to control when the disc is flat on the surface.
It can remove material (wood, epoxy, body filler etc.) at an alarming rate without a lot of dust. It is my go to for scribing cabinets etc. but you have to be careful because it can cut right through before you know it.

For leveling uneven boards I would say if you start with the RAS and remove the high spots and finish with the Rotex you will be amazed at how little time it takes to get material level.

I prefer the Collins foot on my jigsaw over the RAS for coping but I will use the RAS if I need to scribe anything from a 1/4"/5-6mm to the pencil line and finish up with a block plane.
Tim

 

[ericbuggeln]

I was at the ToolNut/Festool Products demo day the other week and Dave Reinhold was explaining to me that he preferred that "grinding disc pad" with the screw on feature and then just bought 36 grit, I believe, discs from the big box store. Maybe Dave can chip in and say more bc I don't want to butcher it, but he was showing me how hard this pad was and when i went home I checked the stock pad and it is not nearly as stiff. Seems like a stiffer pad would make this glorious task, more glorious. I think Dave has a review on this product that until he told me, I had never even heard of, Eric