- Joined
- Nov 24, 2011
- Messages
- 2,004
I am a paint contractor, and so we do alot of sanding in our work. Historically, our choices (pre-Festool) have been pretty much 3 categories:
-belt sander
-orbital sander
-palm sander (the buzzy ones)
Maybe throw in a crap hardware store quality detail sander. And, of course, hand sanding.
Not until we got into Festool sanders and dust extraction did I realize that the old sanders we had were:
-One dimensional
-Dirty
-thoroughly obnoxious
By dirty, I mean not conducive to operation in the same time and place as finishes were being applied. Lets face it, a Dewalt orbital hooked up to even a Fein vac is not the same user experience as a RO90 on an extractor. That is, unless you like having to use duct tape and focus on what the tool and connection are doing, when you should be free to focus on the work at hand. Not to mention, grinding super fine wood dust into the wood grain (due to bad extraction) does nothing for final finish quality.
The ability to sand (and extract) IN the finish area, as you are finishing is a huge gain...in time, and therefore efficiency, and therefore profit...which leads to the discussion of tool roi.
Here is an example from our shop of sanding as we finish. I would only do this with tools of Festool caliber.
[attachimg=#]
The ability to work this way has been a big improvement in our operation. It is this type of gain that I look at when weighing the cost of new tools. They have to be capable of improving efficiency. The quality gain is a bonus. As well as the ability to sand all day without going home covered in dust.
Some of these things are hard to put dollar values on.
-belt sander
-orbital sander
-palm sander (the buzzy ones)
Maybe throw in a crap hardware store quality detail sander. And, of course, hand sanding.
Not until we got into Festool sanders and dust extraction did I realize that the old sanders we had were:
-One dimensional
-Dirty
-thoroughly obnoxious
By dirty, I mean not conducive to operation in the same time and place as finishes were being applied. Lets face it, a Dewalt orbital hooked up to even a Fein vac is not the same user experience as a RO90 on an extractor. That is, unless you like having to use duct tape and focus on what the tool and connection are doing, when you should be free to focus on the work at hand. Not to mention, grinding super fine wood dust into the wood grain (due to bad extraction) does nothing for final finish quality.
The ability to sand (and extract) IN the finish area, as you are finishing is a huge gain...in time, and therefore efficiency, and therefore profit...which leads to the discussion of tool roi.
Here is an example from our shop of sanding as we finish. I would only do this with tools of Festool caliber.
[attachimg=#]
The ability to work this way has been a big improvement in our operation. It is this type of gain that I look at when weighing the cost of new tools. They have to be capable of improving efficiency. The quality gain is a bonus. As well as the ability to sand all day without going home covered in dust.
Some of these things are hard to put dollar values on.
