Got my RO150 today and I put it through its paces so I thought I would give a quick review. Some of the things I ran into might be explained in the manual, but I'm a guy and the Rotex only has 2 buttons and a dial, who needs instructions.
1) I took a piece of lumber that I have been prepping using my ROS in to be demo'd to see if the aggressive mode on the RO150 was hype or not. After 10 seconds I could tell it was definitely not hype. A couple minutes later I was at the register getting checked out, hehe.
2) At the store, they had it on a setting of 3 so thats where I started out when I got home. I was kind of suprised at how much it had a mind of its own. On aggressive mode it wasn't too bad but on finish mode, it was really wanted to jerk around all over the place. It was still getting the job done so I just lived with it and felt kind of disapointed. A few boards later I thought,lets crank this up to speed 6 and see if its even faster. Amazingly enough, the fight pretty much disappeared. On aggressive mode it smoothed out and pretty much went were I wanted it. On finish mode it was even lighter, it was like I was on an air hockey table. Up until I went to speed 6 I was using two hands to guide it and very hesitant to scracth my nose or remove one hand to test the board for smoothness. After going to speed 6, one handed operation was no problem but on aggressive mode, it was still best to use two hands to keep it steady. If you let it tilt a little, that side kinda grabs in and the Rotex will scoot in that direction.
3) The vibrations definitely are there but compared to my ROS it was very bearable. To give you an idea of how bad it used to be, With my ROS dialed up high and with a 60 grit pad, my hands would get very sore from the vibrations and after about 30 mins, my hands would be so tingly I couldnt really tell how smooth the board was anymore. After an hour I would stop and thats after making myself finish 2 boards, front and back. The Rotex on high had vibrations, but I was able to use it for a good 4-5 hrs today and my hands were fine the entire time. I can't believe I finished prepping the whole stack of wood.
4) Dust collection wasnt a big problem for me before but It had definitely improved. I had my CT22 hooked up to my ROS and at the end of an hour, I would have a light build up of sawdust on the table outlining where the boards use to be. With the Rotex after 5-6 hrs of sanding, I didn't see any dust at all on my table so WOW!. When I was done with a board I would swipe my hand across it and seeing no dust on my hand. Another WOW!. Wiping with a rag proved to me there was some dust there but it was down in the grain and pores of the wood.
5) In the first 15 minutes of use the handle close to the motor got very hot but I think read somewhere the Rotex needs burn in time and after about an hour or so it went away.
6) A noob mistake but I didn't realize the Rotex head rotates in both aggressive and finish mode. It just rotates very fast in aggressive mode. Because of this, I ended up starting off in finish mode and it still so outperformed my ROS I didnt realize it. After a few boards I was thinking this isn't as fast as it was at the store so marked the disc with a piece of chalk and witnessed the rotation in both modes. Looking at the pad when its turned on, it rotates so fast in aggressive mode I couldn't see it so assumed finish mode was the correct mode to start off in. And it had me thinking, lucky me, the button that flips it between the two is reversed.
7) Material removal in aggressive mode is amazing. I used it on QS White Oak to remove planar marks. What used to take me about 20 minutes with my ROS and a 60 grit pad took me under 5 minutes with a 80 grit paper on the Rotex.
8) The 6" pad also made a huge difference. I used to use a 5" 8 hole ROS. I didn't think 6" would be that big of a deal but it really is. Using my same pattern it meant fewer passes because it just covered so much more area than I was used to. Some of my boards were 12" wide and having the 6" pad made a huge difference. Enough so that I realize when it comes to panels, the 6" pad will really speed things up for me in the future.
In conclusion, two thumbs way up. Even though I am a hobbyist, it saved me tons of time. Using my ROS, I calculated it would have taken me a few more weeks to prep my stack of wood, instead I got it all done this afternoon and have an awesome tool to use later on in my project.
1) I took a piece of lumber that I have been prepping using my ROS in to be demo'd to see if the aggressive mode on the RO150 was hype or not. After 10 seconds I could tell it was definitely not hype. A couple minutes later I was at the register getting checked out, hehe.
2) At the store, they had it on a setting of 3 so thats where I started out when I got home. I was kind of suprised at how much it had a mind of its own. On aggressive mode it wasn't too bad but on finish mode, it was really wanted to jerk around all over the place. It was still getting the job done so I just lived with it and felt kind of disapointed. A few boards later I thought,lets crank this up to speed 6 and see if its even faster. Amazingly enough, the fight pretty much disappeared. On aggressive mode it smoothed out and pretty much went were I wanted it. On finish mode it was even lighter, it was like I was on an air hockey table. Up until I went to speed 6 I was using two hands to guide it and very hesitant to scracth my nose or remove one hand to test the board for smoothness. After going to speed 6, one handed operation was no problem but on aggressive mode, it was still best to use two hands to keep it steady. If you let it tilt a little, that side kinda grabs in and the Rotex will scoot in that direction.
3) The vibrations definitely are there but compared to my ROS it was very bearable. To give you an idea of how bad it used to be, With my ROS dialed up high and with a 60 grit pad, my hands would get very sore from the vibrations and after about 30 mins, my hands would be so tingly I couldnt really tell how smooth the board was anymore. After an hour I would stop and thats after making myself finish 2 boards, front and back. The Rotex on high had vibrations, but I was able to use it for a good 4-5 hrs today and my hands were fine the entire time. I can't believe I finished prepping the whole stack of wood.
4) Dust collection wasnt a big problem for me before but It had definitely improved. I had my CT22 hooked up to my ROS and at the end of an hour, I would have a light build up of sawdust on the table outlining where the boards use to be. With the Rotex after 5-6 hrs of sanding, I didn't see any dust at all on my table so WOW!. When I was done with a board I would swipe my hand across it and seeing no dust on my hand. Another WOW!. Wiping with a rag proved to me there was some dust there but it was down in the grain and pores of the wood.
5) In the first 15 minutes of use the handle close to the motor got very hot but I think read somewhere the Rotex needs burn in time and after about an hour or so it went away.
6) A noob mistake but I didn't realize the Rotex head rotates in both aggressive and finish mode. It just rotates very fast in aggressive mode. Because of this, I ended up starting off in finish mode and it still so outperformed my ROS I didnt realize it. After a few boards I was thinking this isn't as fast as it was at the store so marked the disc with a piece of chalk and witnessed the rotation in both modes. Looking at the pad when its turned on, it rotates so fast in aggressive mode I couldn't see it so assumed finish mode was the correct mode to start off in. And it had me thinking, lucky me, the button that flips it between the two is reversed.
7) Material removal in aggressive mode is amazing. I used it on QS White Oak to remove planar marks. What used to take me about 20 minutes with my ROS and a 60 grit pad took me under 5 minutes with a 80 grit paper on the Rotex.
8) The 6" pad also made a huge difference. I used to use a 5" 8 hole ROS. I didn't think 6" would be that big of a deal but it really is. Using my same pattern it meant fewer passes because it just covered so much more area than I was used to. Some of my boards were 12" wide and having the 6" pad made a huge difference. Enough so that I realize when it comes to panels, the 6" pad will really speed things up for me in the future.
In conclusion, two thumbs way up. Even though I am a hobbyist, it saved me tons of time. Using my ROS, I calculated it would have taken me a few more weeks to prep my stack of wood, instead I got it all done this afternoon and have an awesome tool to use later on in my project.
