Sander pad troubles

[Jim Hager]

I have two of the best sanders I've ever owned the 150/5 and the 125/3 and I enjoy working with them a great deal, but I am going through the pads much faster than I think I should be at least according to my previous experience with other sanders.  I'm actually having to order pads more frequently than the paper.  I'm using a ctmini for dust extraction and sanding with normally 120-180 paper on kiln dried lumber and plywoods.  I also sand lots of rp doors and faceframes and I hold back on the pressure a bit because of the previous experience with the other pads.  What the hey?????  If anyone else has had some similar experience and have solved your problem I sure would like to know how??

 

[Michael Kellough]

What is the damage to your pads?

 

[tallgrass]

i do not have the mini but the rather the 33 and you can have to much strain on the paper and pads, i do not know if this is possible with the mini but you should check, try turning down the suction.

 

[Jim Hager]

What is the damage to your pads?

The hook for the H&L is going bad way before the actual pad wears out.

 

[nickao]

The H & L going bad fast is one thing I have not experienced with these Festool sanders. It has happed to me plenty on the 5" Porter Cable.

 

[Per Swenson]

Jim,

I can only make the same suggestions you are gonna hear.

Number1.... turn down the suction.

Number 2.... absolute minimum downward pressure
                    Let the sander do the work.

Number 3.... and no reflection on your technique, (how would I know?)
                    Keep it Flat.

Hope this helps, and I betcha it does.

Per

 

[Michael Kellough]

Jim,

I can only make the same suggestions you are gonna hear.

Number1.... turn down the suction.

Number 2.... absolute minimum downward pressure
                     Let the sander do the work.

Number 3.... and no reflection on your technique, (how would I know?)
                     Keep it Flat.

Hope this helps, and I betcha it does.

Per

For example, I needed to round over the ends of some hardwood dowels and I wanted to take advantage of the dust collection provided by my ES 125. It went great for a while and then the abrasive disk flew off. And it wouldn't stay on.

It seems the heat and pressure from the concentrated friction melted the hooks. If you are not abusing the disk like I was you need to turn down the suction and don't push down on the sander. Change to a fresh or courser abrasive disk if progress is too slow.

I reread your post and since faceframes are small (don't cover the whole disk) even a little pressure could be too much, judging by your results.

 

[Jim Becker]

What Per said...friction is the evil monster that plagues H&L, no matter what the brand. Typical pad failure is because of the heat generated from using excess pressure when sanding.

 

[Jim Hager]

Thanks guys for trying to help however I've been looking out for all those things except the suction adjustment for a long time.  I keep my sander dead flat, change paper when needed and let the sander do the work.  I've been having this trouble for quite some time but just kept ordering more pads and suffering the concequences but that's getting out of line.

 

[tallgrass]

varying suction is oddly important.

 

[Michael Kellough]

varying suction is oddly important.

If you test it by turning on the vac with the sander sitting on the work, it won't seem odd at all. 
If you can't slide the sander laterally while the vac is running the pressure suction needs to be reduced.

 

[merklebob]

used the rotex 150 and 150-3 to refinish 1200 sqft of hardwood flooring. by removing all varnish.  the pads are still like new.  we used 1/2 vac on the ct33.  but did put some pressure on the paper.    you may need to go to courser paper that what your using.  the pressure and the finer paper may not be removing like you want and you really putting too much pressure on them.    i use a like PC randon orbit rifht angle sander for 10yrs before i finily used up the loops.