RO150 FEQ or ETS 150/3?

[ROb McGilp]

Good point Lou. As we are in the fortunate position of having Festool belt sanders available and having used one at Tezzer's shop along with an ETS150/3, that may well be the way I would go if I had to do it all again. But A$900 odd compared to A$1600 odd would influence my decision a lot. I find that with careful selection of sanding grits, the RO150 with its 5mm stroke does a great job on nearly everything it touches. The time needed to finish a piece of timber using the ETS is at least twice that of the RO150 especially on large surfaces. That said, along with what Eli calls "the most expensive sanding block known to mankind" (LS130) an ETS150/3 would certainly be very nice to have.

Regards,

Rob

 

[bluehaze013]

Thanks everyone, it's a done deal. Stopped by my dealer today and played with the sanders. I was most impressed by the RO150 by far so I went ahead and bought it. It came with a very nice Festool watch in a little round tin as well! LOL wearing the watch right now very nice touch. It also came with a nice assortment of paper I guess around 25 sheets of various papers, Its 3 or 4 of each 400 and 220 and 180 brilliant, 90 and 120 Rubin, 60 cristal, and a dark brown 36 grit not sure which type as well as a 2000 grit foam platin 2.

I was very pleased to get the sandpaper assortment as all the different types were a bit confusing but now seeing and using them first hand I know which to order. My only complaint would have to be having to order 100 of each in some of the grits is a bit ridiculous, 100 is way too much and 5 of each is way to little. It would be nice to be able to buy 25 packs in order to get a nice assortment of grits or at the very least make 50 packs of everything available. As it is I can't see buying 100 packs of all the different grits so I might end up getting some Kilngspor or some Norton 3x instead.

All in all though i am very happy with the sander it removes an unbelievable amount of material in the rough mode and can be easily one handed in the finish mode while just purring along like a little kitten . Dealer was out of the polishing pads so I haven't had a chance to try that out yet. As far as the size goes it's not nearly as big as it seems in the pictures it seems like the perfect size I tried it out on some small projects and am very happy I went with the 150 instead of the 125, now having used it I think 6" is the perfect size for a sander.

Only problem is while I was there they showed me the Centrotec set and I drooled all over it so now I want to go back and get the c12 and the centrotec set and I am sure I won't be able to resist for very long 

 

[ROb McGilp]

Good call Hazy,
Toldja its a winner.

Regards,

Rob

 

[Corwin]

Have to agree with the issue of paper quantity offerings from Festool.  Would be really great to be able to buy a pack with maybe 20 or so of each grit for a given type of abrasive.  As it is, getting all the grits you would like will cost as much or more than the sander in question -- a little much all at once.

Corwin

 

[ROb McGilp]

Here in Oz, we can buy single sanding sheets for the sanders. maybe someone over there does it online?

Rob

 

[semenza]

Hi bluehaze,

        Get the Festool abrasives. They are designed to give the best performance just like the sanders. They really stand out compared to any others I have used.  I am pretty sure that one or more of the dealers on this forum are willing to selll smaller packs of paper. Give one of them a try.

Seth

 

[Eli]

100 sheets isn't too much anyway. Sandpaper is like clean underwear, you only care when you run out.

(not that I buy 100 pairs of underwear at once. Hmmmm.  :)

 

[bluehaze013]

How many pairs...I mean pieces will fit in a systainer though? 

In all seriousness I don't think it's too much to ask for Festool to offer something less than 100 packs of sandpaper. If they had 25 packs I would buy one pack of just about every type/grit so I always had what I needed. As it stand though because of the 100 packs if I do go with Festool paper I will end up with some rubin and some brilliant and use it for everything and even still it will probably end up lasting the rest of my life 

Personally I think it would make a whole lot more sense to build a nice collection of all the types/grits though, if only they were available in smaller assortments, even 50 packs would be great heck Festool already offers a few 50 packs so they have the boxes and tooling to produce this for all the grits all they have to do is slap it in the boxes and stick a price on it!

 

[ROb McGilp]

Sir Haze,
Maybe I could go to my friendly local Festool leech, (sorry, agent) buy you what you need, you send money and I forward sheets. Howzat sound?
Or... you could find a bunch o' festoolers and split the cost of a pack with them. That could work.

Regards,

Rob

 

[Corwin]

... In all seriousness I don't think it's too much to ask for Festool to offer something less than 100 packs of sandpaper. If they had 25 packs I would buy one pack of just about every type/grit so I always had what I needed...

Why expect dealers to divide boxes of abrasives?  Eighteen, nineteen -- ring, ring, "Hello..."  You know how that would go.   ???  One, two, three...    

Buying a new sander that requires a new size abrasive would be much easier if Festool would simply offer their full-range in smaller quantities -- even better if they would offer a pack of maybe 5, 10 or 20 sheets of everything they offer in that size.  As it stands now, I would have to think that many are just not purchasing all the different abrasives that they might otherwise...  and a change in this direction would be a win/win for both Festool and their customers.

Corwin

 

[bluehaze013]

Sir Haze,
Maybe I could go to my friendly local Festool leech, (sorry, agent) buy you what you need, you send money and I forward sheets. Howzat sound?
Or... you could find a bunch o' festoolers and split the cost of a pack with them. That could work.

Regards,

Rob

Sounds good i'll take 25 sheets of each grit in Rubin, Brilliant, Titan and Cristal and 5 of each grit Platin!  ;D

 

[Eli]

You could already almost buy hundred packs for the shipping costs and price differences. : ;D

 

[bluehaze013]

LOL didn't realize he was an Aussie! I think I am just going to order some Norton 3x for now 25 bucks for 50 sheets regardless of grit and everyone that talks about it seems to think it's the "best sandpaper ever". So I will just buy a couple packs and give it a try.

 

[Lou Miller]

I've used quite a bit of the Norton 3x paper. I don't think its any better than the Festool paper.

BTW, Bob Marino (I assume other dealers do too) has a good bit of the paper available in packs of 5.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Maybe Christian O. will jump in and explain Festool's marketing policy in USA, but my hunch is that in the past Festool perceived their market as being mainly comprised of professionals who are going to put their Festool to a lot of use, and hence, use a lot of the associated consumables such as abrasive materials.  But given there are many users, at least in USA who are not in production settings, maybe Festool will begin to offer more of their consumable products in smaller packages.  I note that Cristal at its introduction included smaller packages, and that 80 grit Rubin (Item # 493120) and other Rubin grit sizes are now available for RO 125 in packages of 5 disks.

Dave R.

 

[jonny round boy]

Well FWIW I tried the Rotex a few weeks ago, and today at my dealer I (foolishly) picked up the ETS150/3, and asked if I could try it.

I found a piece of rough-sawn 4"x1" timber under the MFT, and attacked it, starting with 36 grit rubin, and finishing with 400 grit something else (don't know what type it was, can't remember, but it was light grey in colour if that helps!).

In under 5 mins I'd got it from rough sawn to glass-smooth (I wasn't doing the whole piece, just about a foot at one end).

Despite the fact that at the weekend I'd gone through my list of all the new tools I wanted & decided not to buy anything new for at least a month, as I'm a bit brassic at the moment, I decided there and then that I'd have one. He didn't have a ETS150/3 in (apart from the demo one), but said he had the /5 in, or could order me a /3. In the end, we compromised - he's ordering an ETS150/3 in,and I'm going back next week to buy that, or a /5...

I discounted the Rotex on account of the size & weight, and the fact that I didn't think I'd need such an agressive mode. My test earlier today showed that if I ever did need it on the odd occasion,the ETS could easily do it with a coarse grit.