RO 125 disc pad spinning slow on 6

DiDi

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Joined
Feb 21, 2015
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HI! My RO 125 disk pad is spinning slow while on 6. Could a bad pad cause this? I have tried dialing it down and up several times. I do notice wear on my pad sides.
Many thanks for replies!
D
 
I assume you are referring to the rotational speed of the disk when operating in random orbit mode. (not to be confused with the motor speed, which would be a completely different situation.)

Yes, the disk should be rotating at a reasonably high speed to give you the best random-orbit effect. Of course the most frequent cause of a slow rotational speed is pressing down too hard. That should be avoided. However, it may also be that your pad brake is being too effective. Normally there is a small amount of dust between the pad brake and the pad backing, and this acts like a lubricant to keep the pad brake from being too aggressive. On a brand new sander, there should actually be a small amount of grease-like lubricant on the back of the pad for this same purpose. So if your sander is very clean and dust-free, you may want to add a small amount of any lubricant to the back of the pad between the pad and the brake.

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DiDi said:
I do notice wear on my pad sides.

Oh, one more thing. If you are noticing slow speed, coupled with the wear on the edges of the pad, it is a sign that you are tilting your sander from flat. Doing this periodically and with purpose is one thing, but you normally want to keep your sander flat on the workpiece.
 
Thank you. Sometimes I do tilt the pad on purpose but I keep it flat most of the time. I'm not holding down to hard the problem occurs when I don't have it touching anything. I'm going to try the lubricant on the back of the pad between the break. My heart about dropped when I saw how slow it was going. If I have tilted the pad once too often do you think a new pad would solve this problem if the lubricant doesn't. Interestingly the speed, at the same 6 setting, is faster on the aggressive setting.
 
To do the lubricating between the back of the pad and the brake… I need to take the pad off of the machine right? I need to find out how to do that -- checking manual now.
 
It may be possible that you have warped the pad concave toward the brake from sanding on the edge. This would result in the pad being closer to the brake than intended, and therefore, more aggressive than intended.

If that's the case, it isn't really a big deal. The pad is considered a wear item and should be replaced periodically.
 
I bet that might be it. I will order a new pad. I am working on 135 year old wood floors and some of the boards are cupped so i would have used it at a very slight angle. Lesson learned.
 
DiDi said:
To do the lubricating between the back of the pad and the brake… I need to take the pad off of the machine right? I need to find out how to do that -- checking manual now.

You could just roll back the brake and slip some lubricant in there with your finger. However, here is how you change pads if you need that information (my supplemental manual is complete on these sanders, but it hasn't been released by Festool yet)

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Well, getting the pad off I got but now could you tell me where the "brake" is? ::)
 
Thanks (again). I see.
I was using the edge protector one day and it was seated properly and popped off. I noticed some plastic stripping on the floor. Maybe that was the start of my mishaps.
 
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