Phils said:
I need a sander to remove stock quickly, i have an ro90 which does move stock but is small, a metabo 450 which is pretty good but not quick enough.
The surfaces are wood or grp and anti foul paint so extraction is important.
The ability to leave a flat surface is also important, i need to avoid deep scores so i have dismissed the ras 180.
A lot of work will be above head/vertical, not ideal as they are all heavy....
I am thinking ro150, or makita 6050j or the bosch gex 150 turbo.
Can i ask for feedback, i have heard there is not much to choose between them on performance, what is reliability like, i have heard the bosch falls down here?
Not sure about the makita...
Any comments gratefully received..
Given the model numbers you've quoted, & reading between the lines, I'm assuming that you're after 220/240v tools, & will be cleaning, repairing & repainting boat hulls. So, when you say that you require a "flat" surface I'm assuming that you're really after an absence of gouging.
If that is the case, it makes recommendations easier. Fastest removal will of course be with an angle grinder fitted with an extraction guard, flexible backing pad & appropriately gritted Norton discs. Messy 'though. Just as the small & large Festool RAS sander/grinders will be. Max power & speed would actually be from something like a speed restricted grinder such as the Metabo Inox with an extraction guard & sprung loaded brush surround, which will, like the less effective Festool twins, allow a substantial (& unacceptable?) amount of dust escape.
The 3 gear-driven rotary/eccentric sanders you've mentioned will all be similarly effective at sanding. The Rotex, however has a couple of distinct advantages: firstly, it has a large, proprietory range of papers available, at least one of which (Granat? Cristal?) will probably prove ideal for the required task. It also has, with additional holes, superior dust extraction to the rest.
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I'm not at all surprised that you've found the baby RO 90 inadequate to the task. It's combination of flawed ergonomics and small size makes for slow & frustrating progress on bigger jobs.
There's also belt sanders of course. Despite being some 40 odd years old now the Festool BSE twins are still class leaders in their respective sizes. Don't buy the big one. It's way too heavy, & the handles placed way too far apart to be safely used vertically or overhead. Even the BS75E will become rather heavy way too quickly too I suspect. If you do go this route, & if you're young & fit enough to use it vertically all day it may actually prove useful for even more rapid abrasion(than the Rotex-type sanders). It can, when fitted with the brilliant "Set" sanding frame, prove remarkably effective and as aggressive or gentle as required by dialling in an appropriate "depth of cut" on the sanding frame adjusting knob.
A couple of suggestions here. If held vertically, the drag of the belt on the substrate will help support its weight. Just about every other sort of sander will require an extremely tight grip & a constant fight against the sanders' inclination to twist/move/rotate with the coarsest grits & of course gravity. The belt sander's forward momentum & drag can be an effective counter to gravity. The second suggestion is to unscrew your Metabo 450 front knob & reattach it to the forward top M8 hole on the belt sander. It may sound weird, but it makes for a much more natural & ergonomic alternative to the blobby & potentially slippery fixed front grip on the sander itself. This is especially effective for vertical & overhead surfaces
Hope this helps.
