Rotex 150 report from the jobsite

[Rob Z]

In another thread, I asked for advice about which sander I should buy.  I ended up buying the Rotex 150, and today we used it for the first time.  My HVAC sub is replacing the heating and cooling system for one of my customers.  All of the equipment has been removed, along with the water heater, and our job is to clean and prep this utility room with new drywall and paint.

THe concrete, especially under the equipment, was filthy with 55 years worth of grunge.  The utiltiy room is next to the kitchen, and we were concerned with cleaning everything without generating dust and getting the kitchen dirty.

We ground off all of the crap and filth off of the concrete and used the  22 vac along with the Rotex.  Dust was totally contained and my guys were able to immediately start painting the concrete rather than having to wait until the slab dried (if we used scrub brushes and detergents and lots of water to rinse).

As far as I am concerned, the Rotex has paid for itself on this job because of the savings in labor.  The vac paid for itself on its first job, which I detailed earlier in my first thread on the form (the one about cutting 200+lineal feet of concrete in a basement).

 

[dirtydeeds]

how come i know zz top but you are called rob zed :

if there was a "gallic shrug" smilely id have used it instead

good to hear you got the job done clean and quick and the tool paid for itself

by the way HVAC "heating ventilation and air conditioning" ?

 

[lordinteriors]

i used my ct 22 while drilling a 6 inch core worked an absolute treat

lee

 

[Rob Z]

Lee, were you  core drilling through concrete?

Tom, yes, HVAC is our acronym for climate control systems.  My mates on the UK tile forum tell me boilers and radiators are the norm in the UK, whereas where I live (and much of the US) forced-air systems are the norm.

 

[dirtydeeds]

forced air (hot air ducted systems) arrived in the uk big time in the 1960s

they were abandonned less than 10 years later. they were MASSIVLY expense to run

even when i was at college in the mid to late 1970's it was talked about as being in the past

i had better explain what college in uk means to north americans

it isnt a thing families save for....... (a place to send your kids for a good education)

they are "billed" as transition from school to university (good ones were and still are)

in reality you learned a trade or motor mechanics on a "day release" basis

all REAL apprentiships ended in 1978 / 1979

now GUESS why the average age of a tradesman in the uk is 50 years of age. im one of them

 

[Benjamin Miner]

Dang - that's impressive. What abrasive did you use (to take down the dirty concrete)?
I have the older 150 Rotex and it's a great machine, but heretofore it has only been used on wooden surfaces!

 

[dirtydeeds]

ben m, i too have the older version

i had it refurbed recently after some years of solid abuse

i cant find a reason to replace it

 

[Rob Z]

Ben, I'd have to ask the guys tomorrow which paper and grit they used.  I put the abrasives cheat-sheet from the catalog in the Systainer so they would have the chart to follow when making selections.

 

[Rob Z]

Tom, thread drift to the max here...but....

Forced-air systems are one of my biggest pet peeves in the business. I really wish I could have had the choice in my own house to have a boiler and hydronic heat, but it isn't done by and large because many would prefer to have the granite counters instead of a higher quality heating and cooling system.  It is just the way the market is, and it ain't changing just because I want something in my house.  ;D

Now, it would be massively expensive to retrofit my house to the type of system I would want, and the same goes for the windows, siding, doors, etc. :'(

 

[Dane]

A buddy of mine casts concrete counters, sinks, mantles etc for a living.  He does a sprayed system with integrated glass fibers for strength.  The upshot of that is that it comes out of the mold almost glass smooth.  He doesn't need to wet grind like regular concrete counters, but he does dry sand them.  I cast a bunch if tops for my last house with him and used the ets150-5 to do the final sand along with the ct-22.  I used the regular wood abrasives (the red ones) and it worked beautifully.  No dust and the abrasives lasted way longer than you would think.  So I imagine that they would work just as well on grime.

 

[Rob Z]

One thing that I will use the Rotex for is polishing stone that otherwise I would have to use my Alpha wet polisher. The wet polisher is like fighting with an out-of-control fire hose with a grinder attached.  It's only fun on 100 degree days, and only for about the first 30 minutes.  It is no fun in the winter.

Dry polishing with the Rotex might be the answer, I'll see...

 

[tbellemare]

As I've stated before on other threads, I've used the Rotex 150 to turn a rough, landscaping, limestone slab into a polished table top and it didn't take very long. Yes, I'm talking about the kind with rounded edges that had about 1/4" gullets in them. I squared them up and chamfered them with the Rotex in very little time. Sanding and polishing out the saw marks in the flat face is really quick.

That sander is a beast and a lamb... It just depends on how you use it and with what sort of "sheep's" clothing.

Tom

 

[Rob Z]

Another use of the tool  today...one of my men finished the drywall in the utility closet with Easy Sand #5, which dries about as hard as Durabond (which is to say it is very hard to sand).  He used the Rotex with fine grit paper and the vac, and sanded most of the drywall with essentially no dust getting into the kitchen.

He told me that he could get about 90% sanded with the Rotex, and needed to do the remaining 10% with a sanding sponge and by hand.  I consider this a success because most of the dust was captured by the vac.