RO150FEQ Risks of sanding debrit when switching between sanding and polishing

[Alastaircj]

Hello,

I use my RO150FEQ purely for polishing cars and gelcoat on boats. Before using the same machine for sanding wood, I wanted to know if there is a known practical issue with using the same machine for polishing paint or gelcoat and then also using it for sanding wood or any other material.

The risk is that I will not be able to clear all the wood dust debrit from the machine before using it for final polishing finishes on car paint or Gelcoat. Any debrit can ruin the paint with swirl marks. Is this a real known issue and practical limitation of the machine or is the machine able to be cleaned internally 100% to prevent debrit being ejected out of the vacuum channels that cannot be reached to be easily cleaned.

I don't want to contaminate a polishing machine for a few woodwork jobs if there is a risk that this is a known issue.

Any advice would be appreciated, because it would be a shame to not use the capabilities of the machine for different purposes.

Kind regards, Alastair...

 

[rst]

I use mine for both purposes and have no issues...that being said I'm neurotic about cleaning my tools after every use including taking the pad off and cleaning out the drive.

 

[Peter_C]

Use different base pads. Festool does make a polishing pad with no holes in it (They may be discontinuing them though). The rear dust port is removable. A quick hit with high pressure air should remove any dust. I would worry more about the cord picking up dirt.

So far I have never had a problem with stuff falling off my RO150 while polishing.

 

[peter halle]

I sincerely doubt you will have a concern.  The only thing that will affect the autos is the polishing pad.  Likewise for wood would be the sanding disk.

Blow off the backing pad and you should be ok as long as your polishing pads are clean.

Peter

 

[AlexThePalex]

I don't think there is a concern either. My sander's used 99,99% for sanding and very rarely for polishing. Maybe once a year somebody asks me to polish their car. I've got a few pads and compounds for it.

When they do, I just take off the sanding pad, vacuum the sander thoroughly, and wipe it with a wet clotch with ammonia solution to clean it, and put on the special polishing backing pad. It is never a problem.