The RO-90 Rocks!

[BobKovacs]

So, I'm building a set of built-in for around my daughter's bed, and using some pre-primed MDF 1x material for the face frames.  I wasn't paying attention when I picked it up, and didn't realize that one side of the boards had square corners and the other had radiused corners.  "No big deal", I thought, "I'll just turn the radiused side inward and it won't be a problem".  That is, until I realised that the edges that were exposed where the center cab stepped in would leave the radiused edges exposed, and would be a problem.  To fix this, I left the exposed stiles proud of the sides of the cabinet by about 1/8", which would allow me to come in with the Rotex and sand them flush, thereby eliminating the radius.

I've got to say, I've never seen a sander tear through material like that little RO-90 did- well, let me rephrase that- I've seen belt sanders do it, but it took 15 minutes for the dust cloud to settle with those things....lol.  I ran a piece of 40-grit Granat up and down the side of those cabs, and within just a few minutes, had the edges almost perfectly flush with the sides, and with virtually no dust.  I switched to the delta pad and some 80-grit to do the final flush-up, and then used a 120-grit delta sheet to get everything smooth enough for primer.

I also used the 120-grit delta to smooth some imperfections in the face frame joints, and it worked like a charm, getting rght into the corners like it was supposed to.  A 60-grit delta sheet took 1/2 a dozen pocket hole plugs flush in less than a minute, too.

I'm begining to wonder of I'll ever need my ETS-125 again.......

Pictures will follow once I get everything primed and painted next weekend.

 

[honeydoman]

I thought I would post something here since nobody else has and its been almost 12 hours and did not want you to feel that nobody likes you any more...... lol [poke]

but yep it works great... I guess if you had spent a few more dollors on real wood you would not of had this happen... but at least the ro 90 came to your mdf rescue!!!

 

[Brice Burrell]

Yeah Bob, we still like you. [big grin]  Looking forward to the pictures.

 

[BobKovacs]

but yep it works great... I guess if you had spent a few more dollors on real wood you would not of had this happen... but at least the ro 90 came to your mdf rescue!!!

I've been trying different things with the built-ins I've been doing, and thought the mdf might solve the issues i hadwith grain showing through on the pine I was previously using.  Poplar is the obvious solution, but I wasn't in the mood to drive +/- 20 miles to get some (the big box stores rape you on poplar).  The mdf actually worked fairly well, so it might remain a viable option.