Festool and Drywall

[Scott Parks]

Has anyone used their Festool sanders and dust extractor for drywall sanding? If so, how well did it capture the dust? Is it too aggressive for sanding drywall? etc, etc? Does the drywall plug the vac bag? What is a good grit/paper to use?

On and on... Pros and cons, or save it for the pros?

[Chris Padilla]

Scott,

I really didn't sand freshly-installed/mudded walls with my Festool sander/vacuum. Instead, I do use my Rotex to sand walls painted long ago to prepare them for a fresh repainting (dull the old paint to give it tooth, knock down nubs and such).

However, I did spot-mud various sections of the walls and even replaced a 3' x 4' section and used my rotex to sand those down and it worked just fine kept in RO mode. But, the hose does "cake up" with that fine dust and you'll find it "shaking out" in chunks later on. I just bang the hose a bit to loosen it up so it falls out where I want it to and not where I don't want it!