RO 125 backing pad

[Greg M]

I just recently bought an RO 125 through the recon sale.  I've used it less than 2 hours, probably not even an hour.  Tonight I was sanding some boards and I started getting a little wobble and then the pad just came apart.

Is this normal or is it something that rarely happens?  I'm wondering if I should keep several pads on the shelf just in case.  Fortunately I was on the last board so I finished the rough sanding with my ETS 125, just took a little longer.

I hope this isn't normal because then this sander is going to be expensive to use.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Greg, sorry about that happening. I'll get a replacement sent pronto. Not normal at all and likely due to the pad being aged or already damaged.

 

[Greg M]

Greg, sorry about that happening. I'll get a replacement sent pronto. Not normal at all and likely due to the pad being aged or already damaged.

Wonderful!  Thank you very much.  Wonderful for 2 reasons.  First is getting a replacement pad and the second reason, and more importantly, is that this is not a normal thing.

I bought my first Festool tool the beginning of July.  Since then I've bought many more and love every single one of them.  They're very expensive until after you start using them!  Then you wonder how you got along without them.

 

[festooltim]

I feel like I am out of the loop what is this signature line mean some of you guys have at the bottom of your post.
The (edited by so and so 12/3/69

 

[Jay Irvine]

I have had two pads fall apart on me in 3 or 4 years of ownership. I don't use the sander on a daily basis in fact i hardly use it at all. I'm still on my first vacuum bag! I'm on the verge of getting rid of the whole system. I had the pad fail on my old Porter Cable sander after owning it for about 20 years and thought I'd stepped up to the best. I like the dust management but not satisfied at all with the durability. I should probably add I own a different model (ETS150-5).

 

[Dwayne]

Quick question, are the pads interchangable between RO 125 and ETS 125?  Thinking about eventually a two sander combination of these two.
Thanks

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Quick question, are the pads interchangable between RO 125 and ETS 125?  Thinking about eventually a two sander combination of these two.
Thanks

No. The RO 125 pad does not require screws, the ETS 125 pad does.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Though it is not normal that Rotex pads just come apart, I must say I'm suprised that we do read these complaints here from time to time, it's not entirely a one-off freak incident.

That said, my Rotex 150 pad is 6 1/2 years old now and still fine. But I've never seen this happen with a pad from any brand I've used over the years so I'm a bit surprised Festool pads can do this on rare occasions.

 

[Cheese]

Alex,
I had a Dewalt & a Milwaukee sander and the pads actually split & disintegrated after about 6-7 years of use.

 

[Delanox]

Just had this happen to me - the foam becomes totally soft and the Velcro sheared off the Black plastic retaining circle on first go.  I haven’t had to sand anything for years so very disappointed when this happened. So I felt my green and blue pads - same thing. These do not have a long shelf life - festool should print sell by dates on these pads as the foam seems to age and rapidly deteriorate. Im one of those guys who loves to buy all the extra bits - in this case a bit of advice that these don’t store well would put the service on par with what I would expect from the tool. In this case, both outcomes have been sub par.

 

[waho6o9]

It's a consumable, plan accordingly. 

Rock on